The Product
bb.q Chicken is rolling out BBoom Chicken — a crispy Korean fried chicken coated in a four-cheese seasoning blend — across all U.S. locations beginning Sept. 9, 2026, adding a proven international bestseller to its domestic menu for the first time.
The item debuted in South Korea in 2025 and moved 1 million units in its first 100 days, making it one of the fastest-selling launches in the Genesis BBQ-owned brand's history. The U.S. introduction brings the same recipe: a dry seasoning blend of gouda, cheddar, parmesan, and blue cheese applied to bb.q's signature fried chicken wings.
Why It Matters
The launch is strategically timed to the growing appetite among American consumers for global flavor profiles — particularly Korean food formats that pair familiar comfort elements, like cheese, with differentiated preparation. Cheese-flavored snacks and proteins have shown consistent shelf velocity in both foodservice and retail channels, and Korean fried chicken chains have been among the faster-growing restaurant segments in the U.S. over the past three years. bb.q was ranked by YouGov as the seventh-fastest emerging dining brand in the country and listed by Yelp as the third most-loved brand and seventh-fastest-growing brand in the restaurant sector — metrics that reflect the brand's expanding consumer footprint ahead of this rollout.
"BBoom Chicken sold a million units in just 100 days when it launched in Korea last year," said a bb.q Chicken U.S. spokesperson. "We're eager to introduce our new and longstanding fans to the deliciously cheesy BBoom Chicken." The brand was also recognized by Restaurant Business Magazine as one of the fastest-growing chains in the U.S., a designation that underscores the commercial logic of transferring a proven international SKU rather than developing a domestic-only item.
Activation & Outlook
To support the launch, bb.q is offering free delivery on all online and mobile app orders system-wide on Sept. 9. At its New York City K-Town location, the brand is running a weeklong activation from Sept. 9 through Sept. 15 — daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. — featuring samples, giveaways, and consumer-engagement programming tied to the brand's mascot birthday event. The New York flagship serves as a visible test case for how the chain uses urban flagship markets to seed awareness before driving traffic to its broader U.S. network.
For franchise operators, the BBoom Chicken addition represents a low-friction menu extension: the item uses the existing frying infrastructure and a proprietary seasoning blend, limiting capital outlay at the unit level. The brand has positioned franchise growth as a core pillar of its U.S. strategy, and menu velocity — demonstrated by Korea unit-sales data — is a key selling point in franchise recruitment. Operators and industry observers tracking Korean fried chicken's expansion in the U.S. foodservice market will note that bb.q's ability to import a proven SKU directly from its home market compresses the typical product-development cycle and reduces launch risk. Similar cross-market menu transfers have become a competitive playbook across global fast-casual chains entering or expanding in North America.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
