Popeyes settles in Paris. Not a spinach restaurant, no, but a fried chicken specialist straight from Louisiana. On the menu, the iconic Chicken Sandwich, launched in August 2019 in the United States. His recipe – chicken marinated for twelve hours in a secret mixture of garlic, onion and Cajun spices before being breaded by hand – 20 minutes was invited to concoct it early in the morning, a few days before the official opening of its first French address, on February 1 at 11 a.m. opposite the Gare du Nord in Paris.
Popeyes, where does it come from? Originally, it was a restaurant created in 1972 by Alvin Copeland Sr in homage to the character of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, played by Gene Hackman in French Connection, success of the cinema of the time. His specialty: spicy chicken with Creole and Cajun notes, will be declined as desired and served, five decades later, in more than 3,900 restaurants around the world.
Recipes adapted to French tastes
In France, it’s the young chef Laura Zani who was responsible for working on the recipes to bring them back to the tastes of our compatriots. “They are less salty, less sweet, and less greasy to the touch,” she says. The brioche bun is a French exclusive, like the Caesar salad or the grilled chicken. On the other hand, we kept the same twelve-hour marinade, which gives the chicken its juicy side, and the cooking technique which gives it its crispness. »
Even trying to pull the worms out of chef Peter’s nose, guarantor of the Popeye taste, we will not know anything about the compositions. We just learned that we had to roll the chicken fillets twice in flour, as the video shows: once before and once after being dipped in a sauce that we imagine made from egg and fermented milk. Not so bad…
Table service in reusable dishes
We do not yet know the prices of the sandwiches which will only be revealed at the very last moment. But we know that this international brand (whose Canadian owner, RBI, also owns Burger King) will only use “100% French” ingredients here – cantal instead of cheddar for example, and that, for vegetarians, the brand is betting on a burger made from red beans. For a more comfortable welcome, “the trays will be served at the table in reusable dishes”, assures the French boss Xavier Expilly. Fast food obliges, we will still eat without cutlery, just to be able to put ourselves “Fingers full”, as we say at 20 minutes. And as we like that, the brand intends to quickly establish itself in France. After Paris and soon Marseille then Lyon, around a hundred addresses are expected throughout the year and, if all goes well, two hundred more by 2030. That is about as many as KFC, its main competitor.