Wendy's Is Upgrading a Menu Item That Fans Have Been Begging For

A fast-food chain menu is nothing without good french fries, and Wendy's is going to make sure it has some of the best on the market to go with its burgers. The chain announced plans to upgrade its fry recipe to give fans a crispier fry that is not going to get soggy. Fans will recognize the difference in quality the second they taste a new fry.

The upgraded fry should keep in more heat and crispiness longer, compared to the previous Wendy's fry recipe. The new fries should be available around the country by mid-September. Wendy's decided now was the time to make the change to its most-ordered menu item during the COVID pandemic because more people are ordering via drive-thru or to-go. No one wants cold french fries by the time they get home.

"They're going to notice a difference as soon as they taste it," Wendy's President Kurt Kane told CNN Business Thursday. "The proof will be in the tasting." As Kane explains, the company balanced the "cut of the fry and kept a little bit of the skin of the potato," which should "drive" flavor. "We used a batter system that allows us to be able to maintain crispiness, both when they're fresh and hot out of the fryer as well as several minutes later," Kane explained.

The batter system involved dunking the fries in oil. These new fries should be better because the fry baskets are shorter, so fries will be fully dunked in oil, Kane said. "What those new fry baskets do is enable us to make sure that we fry the fries correctly each and every time," he told CNN, adding that they tested 20 different fry basket designs before picking one that is different, but still "fairly consistent in shape and size" compared to what was previously used.

This is the first time Wendy's has changed its fries since November 2010, when they began using sea salt and a natural "skin-on" cut for fries. The new fry has already gotten some rave reviews from a taste test Wendy's pointed to, where participants said they liked the fries more than McDonald's by a two-to-one margin.

This isn't the only major change Wendy's announced this month. During the company's second-quarter earnings report call with analysts, CEO Todd Penegor said the company will invest $10 million in advertising its breakfast menu in an attempt to compete with McDonald's in that arena. Wendy's only launched its national breakfast menu in March 2020. The goal of the advertising push will be to convince people that Wendy's can be added to their morning routine, Penegor said, reports CNN Business.