Burger King Debuts Plant-Based Crispy Chicken Burger in Austria

Burger King has expanded its vegan menu in Austria with a crispy chicken burger, a first for the fast-food giant, featuring The Vegetarian Butcher’s plant-based alternative.

Extending its long-standing partnership with The Vegetarian Butcher, Burger King has introduced a new plant-based crispy chicken burger at its stores in Austria.

The launch marks a global first for the fast-food chain, which will offer the vegan take on a menu classic across all its locations in the country. It’s available as a single or double burger, as well as a wrap.

“Our guests want a diverse selection and increasingly plant-based alternatives to products they already know and like,” Georg Eder, managing director of Burger King Austria.

“With the plant-based crispy chicken, we are therefore bringing another popular classic to the menu in a plant-based version and are consistently developing our plant-based range,” he added.

Burger King builds on Austrian vegan menu

The new vegan option features a chicken alternative made from soy and wheat protein, which is sprinkled with small pieces of pumpkin seeds to distinguish it from the classic version. (It made a similar move with parsley flakes in Germany.)

The burger comes in an extra-long sesame bun, topped with lettuce, tomato and vegan mayo. Each serving delivers 17g of plant-based protein in the single-patty burger, and 17.5g if you choose the wrap.

It’s the latest realisation of a partnership with The Vegetarian Butcher that dates back to 2019, when it launched plant-based beef burgers at its European stores.

At the time, the latter was owned by Unilever, but last year, it was sold to Vivera, a meat-free brand owned by JBS, the world’s largest meat company. Months later, the two plant-based brands were united under one label, now called The Vegetarian Butcher Collective.

The crispy chicken option adds to a growing list of plant-based options at Burger King’s Austrian stores, including the signature Whopper beef burger, long chicken burgers in regular and curry flavours, as well as vegan nuggets.

Plant-based meat has been a Burger King staple for years

As QSR chains go, Burger King has been more receptive to plant-rich menus than most. In fact, a 2023 report named it the most vegan-friendly fast-food giant globally, coming out on top against McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC.

In the US, it partnered with Impossible Foods the same year it struck a deal with The Vegetarian Butcher, with the former’s plant-based beef patty forming the base of the Impossible Whopper, which is still on the menu (the build, however, isn’t vegan as it contains egg-based mayo).

Burger King’s collaboration with The Vegetarian Butcher also extends to Asia-Pacific, where it also teamed up with Australia’s v2food in certain markets (including Australia, where it operates via the Hungry Jack’s franchise).

The chain has turned over a dozen of its restaurants meat-free worldwide, starting with a site in Cologne, and including a highly publicised month-long experiment in London’s Leicester Square. In fact, it has pledged to make half its UK menu plant-based by 2031.

In one store in Vienna, Austria, it gave customers plant-based burgers instead of conventional meat unless they specifically asked for the latter in 2022. A year later, it made Oatly the default milk option for two months at 10 locations in Germany, where it also sells plant-based options for cheaper than meat to encourage broader meat-free eating.

Burger King’s plant-based promises haven’t been without their missteps, though. Last year, it announced it would permanently make oat milk the default in all hot drinks in Austria, removing the choice of dairy altogether. A week later, however, it reneged on the decision, citing consumer feedback despite an “overwhelmingly positive” response to its non-dairy transition.