Review: Popeyes' New Menu Is Going Full Pickle And We're Here For It

Popeyes has gone green. With spring in the air the verdant shade feels appropriate, but Popeyes' muse isn't the weather, it's pickles. The New Orleans-founded chain is already known for its pickles, a crucial ingredient in the Popeyes obsession-inducing chicken sandwich. Starting April 1, 2025 you can try the Chicken Sandwich with Popeyes' all-new Pickle Glaze. The Pickle Glaze makes its way onto Popeyes' wings as well, and is accompanied by two more debut menu items: Fried Pickles and Pickle Lemonade. In honor of the brand new menu launch, Popeyes pickled out its Times Square flagship restaurant, and I was there to give it all a try.

Popeyes' orange signage is so recognizable that I initially walked right by all of its greenness (the green lights and TV screens of K-pop square across the street were also an admitted distraction). But once I was in, the green theme continued. The walls, the booths — saturated in green. A long table in the center of the event space was draped with a pickle-hued tablecloth and twinkled with taper candles. Gazing upon the table was also where it really sunk in: yes the theme is pickles, but what's really being celebrated here is chicken.

For those who love Popeyes, I'm willing to bet they love pickles too. If there's one thing this Popeyes theme represents, it is the unshakeable symbiosis between pickles and crispy chicken and its importance to the chain's success. This is what I saw (and tasted) when I did a taste test of the new Pickle Menu. Read on to learn more about how these new items on the Popeyes Pickle Menu measure up.

Not every foodie trend will work for a place like Popeyes, a chain with a more distinct cuisine style than your average fast food joint. Popeyes observed a rise in the popularity of pickles as a flavor for snack foods, seasoning blends, and even drinks; the decision to embrace the trend was only natural. Conjuring up pickle-forward items is a seamless segue from the tried and true classics on the permanent menu. The goal here was for Popeyes to make the pickle theme interesting.

Popeyes' VP of Culinary, chef Amy Alarcon, worked with a small team of other chefs and food scientists to develop the new menu items. When centering a limited menu around two of the chain's greatest hits — the chicken sandwich and the pickle — the team honed in on what they both have in common. Alarcon says, "It's all about the crunch."

To effectively innovate, one must elevate. Alarcon's team rose to the challenge and created a pickle glaze for its chicken sandwich and wings, packed with Cajun dill, plenty of spice, and of course, that briny pickle taste. Fried Pickles are the clear choice for a side and a Pickle Lemonade to wash it all down? It's all in the name of innovation.

Popeyes' pickle-tastic launch is nationwide, so the prices of each item will fluctuate depending on what geographical location you order them from, but they won't be more expensive than the similar products that are on the menu already. To kick things off, Popeyes is advertising a promotional offer of two Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwiches with a side of Fried Pickles for $12. This specific deal runs from March 31, 2025 to April 13, 2025 and is not available in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

An à la carte order of Fried Pickles is around $3.49, making it a little cheaper than an à la carte side of Cajun Fries, Homestyle Mac & Cheese, Mashed Potatoes with Cajun Gravy, or Red Beans & Rice, which all cost about $3.79 each. Also priced at $3.49 is the Pickle Lemonade, which is available frozen at no additional cost. Popeyes' premium lemonades (available in regular, strawberry, or mango flavors) cost 20 cents more.

Pricewise, Popeyes is treating its Pickle Glaze like any other sauce. If you order wings, Pickle Glaze will appear as a choice on the wing sauce list and won't cost extra to order — a six-piece will run you roughly $6.99. A Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich without a drink or side costs around $5.49, which is the same price point for the original Classic Chicken Sandwich.

In the grand tradition of new menu releases, Popeyes' pickle-themed items will leave a fleeting mark on the modern fast food zeitgeist. The Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich, Pickle Glaze Boneless or Bone-In Wings, Fried Pickles, and Pickle Lemonade will be on menus at participating Popeyes locations until May 5, 2025. That gives you just over a month to get these items in your clutches, assuming that none of them sell out before then.

New menu rollouts are all about testing the waters and being attune to how consumers respond. If customers gobble up the pickle chips, go gaga for the Pickle Glaze, and slurp down a bunch of Pickle Lemonade, Popeyes will have incentive to revive some or all of these items after this first promotion is through. For now, Popeyes isn't counting its pickles before they hatch, so if you want to taste anything on the limited-edition menu, order up while you can.

Actually, it may not depart enough. The chicken sandwich is one of those legendary fast food items, like the Whopper or Big Mac, and it has helped propel Popeyes onto the international stage. There's a definite "if it ain't broke don't fix it" quality to a sandwich like this, but there's no harm in jazzing it up with a little Pickle Glaze either.

"A little" was the biggest takeaway here. The chicken sandwich sat before me looking as perfectly crisp, warm, and understated as it usually does. Wait, understated? Yes. A peek beneath the bun revealed a circular swipe of Pickle Glaze beneath the pickle itself. The chicken wasn't coated in glaze from the top down like I expected it to be (based on its appearance in the promotional photos).

This was easy to shrug off for a couple of reasons. One, the chicken sandwich still tasted delicious. It was its usual lovely self with a zing of zest (once you reached the middle of the sandwich where the glaze was). Two, I did not pay for this sandwich. It's hard to be disappointed when you're eating something that's tasty and free. That said, had I been a paying customer at a local Popeyes eager to try the new Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich, I would have found the glaze aspect underwhelming, and felt a twinge of disappointment as a result.

If it's spicy pickles you crave, Pickle Glaze Wings bring the heat. The glaze is a melange of Cajun dill, ancho chili, red peppers, ghost peppers, garlic, butter — all the good stuff. Subtlety and ghost pepper are not words that go together, but Popeyes has never shied away from spice. In fact, when Popeyes was the new kid in New Orleans back in the early 1970s, spicy chicken was all it sold. So in a way, Pickle Glaze Wings are a contemporary interpretation of something Popeyes has done well all along.

Both the Pickle Glaze Boneless and Bone-In Wings serve as a great vehicle to showcase the Pickle Glaze in a flattering light. The ruddy orange color and speckles of dill and seasoning evenly coat the sturdy, crispy breading. Since we eat with our eyes, these were good signs. On the first bite, the breading is pickle-y with a spice level that builds up after a few seconds and pleasantly lingers. This is a glaze with levels, and since I'm a helpless sucker for flavor complexity, I was impressed.

The bone-in wings actually seem spicier than the boneless ones. Sauces and glazes tend to absorb more deeply into bone-in wings because the skin, sinew, and bone remain intact. That's not to say the boneless wings are skimping on flavor. On the contrary, because the boneless wings are just meat, the vinegary pickle notes in the glazed breading don't get overpowered by spice.

Popeyes' experimentation with a "weird enough to work" menu item comes in the form of Pickle Lemonade, and yes, it is. Popeyes didn't invent Pickle Lemonade, but rather used the traction this quirky drink has gotten online to its advantage. Apparently, pickle juice contains electrolytes, so Popeyes is emphasizing that Pickle Lemonade is very refreshing. The pickle juice used to make the drink comes from the jars of pickles Popeyes uses on its menu, which lends a thoughtful, sustainable touch to the recipe.

Popeyes does a good job of balancing the lemon and pickle components in the lemonade and that's why it works. You quickly pick up on the salt, but the sweet and sour notes from lemon and sugar are able to keep up. I tried the Chilled Pickle Lemonade, and as I sipped, part of me began wishing that it was a sparkling beverage. Carbonating the Pickle Lemonade would bring in a hint of sharpness that might help to further round out the drink's flavor profile. I'm curious to know if Popeyes' Frozen Pickle Lemonade (which I did not try) provides a similar kind of textural intrigue.

I've had some extremely salty Fried Pickles in my life, and this was not one of those times. Popeyes didn't try to reinvent the wheel with this one because there was no reason to. The ingredients were already in Popeyes' repertoire and already beloved by the people. Popeyes uses the breading from its Classic Chicken Sandwich on the pickles and it's harmonious. Incorporating a smattering of different seasonings would likely have overwhelmed the petite slices of pickle, or made them feel overworked.

During the tasting, chef Amy Alarcon, Popeyes' VP of Culinary, stressed that quality pickles are necessary to make proper Fried Pickles. Popeyes uses barrel-cured dill pickles that are "always fresh, never frozen." I've never seen frozen pickles, but Alarcon's mere mention of them convinced me that they're out there. Serving the fried pickles with a tangy, straightforward Buttermilk Ranch dipping sauce makes a lot of sense, but could read as a little boring for the sauce connoisseurs in the crowd. On the other hand, Fried Pickles and the Buttermilk Ranch sauce are a thoughtful break in Popeyes' punchy, pickle-themed menu. It's the kind of simple, comforting side that makes fast food satisfying.

Pickles are salty and Popeyes is fast food, so as long as you're at peace with that, the nutritional info for the new items won't be super alarming. The most unexpected nutrition statistic is the prevalence of trans fat. In the last couple decades, trans fat has largely been phased out of cooking fats and processed foods. The Pickle Glaze Chicken Sandwich has 800 calories, 49 grams of fat, and 3 grams of trans fat. That's 100 more calories, 7 more grams of fat, and 1.5 grams more trans fat than the Classic Chicken Sandwich.

A six-piece order of Boneless Pickle Glaze Wings brings in 1,010 calories — the second-highest calorie count of any Popeyes' wing flavors (Louisiana Garlic Wings have 10 more calories per serving). There's also 82 grams of fat, 3 grams of trans fat, 9 grams of sugar, and 1,910 milligrams of sodium. A six-piece of Pickle Glaze Bone-In Wings have 1,180 calories, 94 grams of fat, 3 grams of trans fat, 8 grams of sugar, and 2,350 milligrams of sodium.

The Fried Pickles contain over 383 calories, 24.5 grams of fat, 1.2 grams of trans fat, 0.2 grams of sugar, and more than 1,049 milligrams of sodium. Both the Chilled and Frozen Pickle Lemonades are fat free. The Chilled Pickle Lemonade has 270 calories, 67 grams of sugar, and 380 milligrams of sodium. Frozen Pickle Lemonade packs 400 calories, 99 grams of sugar, and 380 milligrams of sodium.