15-05-2025
Dairy Queen introduces two new menu items that latch onto the latest fast food trend
Dairy Queen has upped its chicken game by placing two fan-favorite chicken baskets back onto its menus.
The chain's fan-favorite Buffalo Sauced & Tossed Chicken Strip Basket and Honey BBQ Sauced & Tossed Chicken Strip Basket returned to participating locations last week.
Each basket comes with four chicken strips, fries, toast, and a dipping sauce.
Both limited-time offerings are competing against an abundance of chicken offerings across many different fast food brands.
Social media users have already expressed their gratitude for Dairy Queen's meaty menu additions.
'Had my Dairy Queen fill this week, sauced and tossed honey BBQ tenders basket with a side of onion rings - my favorite basket,' a customer wrote on Instagram.
Dairy Queen's chicken baskets come after McDonald's rolled out chicken strips for all US restaurants.
But Dairy Queen and McDonald's are not the only restaurant chains that have entered the so-called chicken tender war.
KFC kicked it all off last year with a campaign calling out rivals while advertising its new chicken tenders.
Workers also visited Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane's restaurants in Louisiana and Georgia to pass out KFC samples.
'We have the world's best-tasting fried chicken tenders, so I felt that we should kick off a fight,' KFC US president Catherine Tan-Gillespie said last year.
Tan-Gillespie also subtly dissed burger chains this month when offering a limited-time $5 chicken tender deal for KFC Rewards.
Although Dairy Queen is late in the chicken tender war game, the chain's regular chicken strip basket has been a permanent menu item since 1995.
The chain is primarily known for its scrumptious desserts, but the regular chicken basket is considered a fan favorite.
The original chicken basket is available at every Dairy Queen location nationwide, and like the limited-time options, customers have the option to get a 4 or 6-piece basket.
Dairy Queen customers more interested in ice cream than chicken can purchase the popular S'mores Blizzard.
Dairy Queen has been offering chicken baskets nationwide since 1995
The limited-time treat returned to menus on March 31 after Rewards members requested it return to menus.
The chain is also preparing to celebrate National Hamburger Day by offering its guests $0.99 Signature Stackable burgers from May 26 to June 1.
The offer will be available for DQ Rewards members via mobile app at participating locations nationwide.
It comes after the chain closed 12 locations across the US earlier this year.
A local manager in Texas confirmed that six Dairy Queen locations – in Hemphill, Jasper, Kountze, Huntington, Lufkin, and Longview Eastman – locked their doors for the last time on March 24.
Dairy Queen said that six other Texas locations closed on the same day, but didn't specify where.
This marks the second wave of closures in Texas this year after the shutdown of a further 25 Dairy Queen stores in February.
