It’s fun for our sales team to go out there and disrupt the fried chicken breast market under the Hormel Foodservice flag
Blake Flores, director of marketing for the Foodservice division at Hormel Foods
“When you sous vide, the protein is always going to be at the optimal temperature, and it’s never going to go over,” said Barry Greenberg, corporate chef and culinary team lead at Hormel Foods. “It delivers a consistent temperature over an extended period of time, and it ensures that you’re not going to lose a lot of moisture during the cooking process. This approach is at the heart of our Flash 180™ brand.”
With Battered Sous Vide Chicken Breast, the protein isn’t the only thing that’s pre-cooked in a sous vide bag. The liquid batter is also sealed in the package. From there, operators themselves are invited to innovate, with many choosing to add their own custom blend of breadcrumbs and/or spices to the battered product before dropping it into a 350-degree fryer.
“You can’t do that with any other chicken breast on the market,” Flores said. “You’re not dealing with raw chicken, but you’re delivering quality levels that taste as though you did cook it from raw. And with the customization aspect of this product, operators can turn these battered chicken breasts into something that is entirely unique to their establishment.”
“It’s so versatile,” Boen said. “It tastes great. All we do is throw some panko on it, drop it in the fryer, and boom, a minute and a half later it’s on its way to the customer. A minute and a half. That’s insane.”
“Every customer last week walked out the door with a smile on their face after eating that sandwich, and that’s the value,” Boen continued. “That’s where it’s worth it to me. It saves me labor, it saves me time, and it gives me a happy customer.”
Just the Beginning
When Hormel Foods made its annual splash at the National Restaurant Show last month in Chicago, the Flash 180™ brand was displayed prominently at the heart of the company’s showstopper booth. Battered Sous Vide Chicken Breast was, of course, on display as members of the company’s Foodservice team demonstrated the product’s preparation process from beginning to end. Curious onlookers were then treated to samples, which seemed to inspire both satisfaction and shock.
“People are at first a little bit surprised to see that Hormel Foods can do a great fried chicken breast,” Flores said. “It’s been really well received. People see it, they’re surprised, and then when they start talking, we hear, ‘OK, I love this. How do I buy this?’”
The Foodservice team at Hormel Foods likes the sound of that, and its direct sales team has been instrumental in the product’s early success.
“Our Hormel Foodservice sales team deserves the most credit for the success of our Flash 180™ brand,” Flores said. “The chicken goes through a unique process and isn’t the least-expensive option on the market for foodservice operators. That said, our sales team knows how to communicate a value proposition — they do this every day, face-to-face — and the Flash 180™ brand has a one-of-a-kind value proposition. The team has quickly learned how to effectively sell on the benefits of this breakthrough innovation.”
And the company is only getting started with its new Flash 180™ brand. In the near future, a smaller, 3-ounce version of the Battered Sous Vide Chicken Breast will be made available, answering the call of foodservice operators who want to explore smaller sandwich applications, like a spicy chicken biscuit. Other product iterations are also being explored, Flores said, as Hormel Foods ventures to broaden its presence in a category that is hungry for innovation.
“We aren’t a traditional chicken manufacturer, which is the very reason we’re best equipped to disrupt this category,” Flores said, “because sometimes to truly disrupt a category, it’s often best to be category-adjacent. It’s an advantage for us to not be burdened by years of fried chicken-breast tradition, and we want to capitalize on that.”
