Chipotle Is Releasing a New Chicken Flavor: Chipotle Honey Chicken

A brand-new flavor may be coming to a Chipotle Mexican Grill near you. 

On Tuesday, Chipotle announced it’s in the process of testing the new Chipotle Honey Chicken flavor at 80 of its locations across Nashville, Tennessee, and Sacramento, California. Prior to introducing the flavor to these markets, Chipotle conducted consumer taste tests as part of its “stage-gate” process to see if they would work with a wider audience. It turns out everyone loved the flavor combination. The brand noted that the initial test “surpassed consumer expectations and achieved the highest marks of any chicken innovation that Chipotle has sensory tested.” 

The flavor, Chipotle shared in a statement with Food & Wine, is meant to “spice up” go-to orders with a little heat from the chipotle peppers and a little sweet from the honey to be “unlike any of our proteins yet.” 

“Consumers have clearly shown their enthusiasm for sweet heat flavor combinations,” Chris Brandt, the chief brand officer of Chipotle, shared. “We have had tremendous success with ‘swicy’ innovations and believe Chipotle Honey Chicken will capture fans with a whole new level of excitement.”

According to the company, its culinary team worked tirelessly to perfect the new chicken flavor. It noted that the Chipotle Honey Chicken is “marinated with seared, smoked adobo (chipotle) peppers, seasoned with savory Mexican spices, and finished with a touch of pure honey.”

The new flavor will only be available for a limited time in these markets, but odds are if fans in Nashville and Sacramento love it as much as the initial test audience, we can all likely expect it to roll out to Chipotle stores near us too. 

This also isn’t the only chicken flavor innovation the brand has launched in recent memory. Over the last two years it’s also rolled out Chicken al Pastor and Pollo Asado. Chicken al Pastor quickly became the number one most requested menu item during its initial run, thus prompting its return a year later. So, again, everyone in Nashville and Sacramento, please go order this new flavor as often as possible so everyone else can try it eventually, too.