1953, its menu predominantly consisted of hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, milkshakes, and desserts. The company introduced the first iteration of its breakfast menu, along with the company’s “Specialty Sandwich” morning star spicy black bean burger line, in a 1978 menu expansion.
The products were some of the first designed by a fast food restaurant chain that were intended to capture the adult market, members of which would be willing to spend more on a higher-quality product. The expanded Burger King menu was part of a plan by then-company president Donald N. Like its menu, the equipment the company cooks its hamburgers with has also evolved as the company grew. Insta-Broiler, was one of two pieces of equipment the founders of Insta-Burger King purchased before opening their new restaurant. The Insta-Broiler worked by cooking 12 burger patties in a wire basket, allowing the patties to be cooked from both sides simultaneously.
When the predecessor to the modern Burger King, Insta-Burger King, opened in 1953 in Jacksonville, Florida, the company’s menu consisted predominantly of hamburgers, French fries, soft drinks, and desserts. A BK Original Chicken Sandwich, one of the products introduced under Operation Phoenix in 1978. The company introduced its first broiled chicken sandwich, the BK Broiler, in 1990. The sandwich included a dill-ranch mayonnaise and was served on an oat-bran roll.
Although Wendy’s was the first to have a value menu in 1989, Burger King decided to offer its own value menu in 1998. This menu featured seven products: the Whopper Jr. Returning to the practice of targeting the adult demographic as it had in 1978, BK introduced several new products to its menu in 2003. The new products included new or revamped chicken sandwiches, a new salad line, and its BK Joe brand of coffee. The Burger Bundles returned in 2011 with beef and chicken patty options. During 1997, BK revamped its French fries in North America. The improved fries were coated with a layer of potato-based starch, giving the fries a crisp shell that maintained its texture longer.
In 2002, Burger King offered “Shake ’em up Fries”, which included a bag of fries and a packet of spices. The customer would add the spices to the fries and then shake the bag until the fries were coated. Beyond French fries, the company has introduced several other side products over the course of its existence. Onion rings have been part of the menu for the majority of BK history. Originally made from whole, sliced onions, they were reformulated into a formed product made from onion paste in 2001 as part of a menu revamp. One of Smith’s significant contributions to the menu was the addition of a breakfast product line as part of the 1978 product line expansion. Up until that point, breakfast was not a market Burger King had served.
Pillsbury produced a fresh-baked biscuit product for the chain in 1996 and miniature cinnamon rolls called Cini-Minis in 1998. As part of the cachet built into the products, Burger King advertises that products are cooked fresh in the restaurant each morning. With the effects of the late-2000s recession reducing breakfast traffic to the stores, Burger King announced that it was making the first wholesale changes to its breakfast line-up in many years. A now-shuttered kosher Burger King restaurant that was located in Jerusalem. The company exited the country in 2010.