From snail porridge to Marmite sprouts and bacon and egg ice cream, we’ve been tempted by some very unusual food combinations.
Now Marks & Spencer has launched another, in the form of chicken doughnuts – and the party snacks are flying off shelves.
Since going on sale just two weeks ago, shoppers have bought 52,000 boxes of its Chicken Doughnut Dippers. Rather than a sugary treat with jam, the battered chicken bite comes with a choice of topping – savoury barbecue sauce or sweet waffle crumb sprinkles.
Customers have bought more than 52,000 boxes of Chicken Doughnut dippers from Marks and Spencer over the past two weeks prompting the company to increase production at its Norfolk plant
Eight of the sweet and savoury festive canapés come packed in a doughnut box and sell for £5. Retail experts predict at least a million more packs will be sold in the run-up to Christmas.
M&S is already considering ramping up production at its processing plant in Thetford, Norfolk.
As Dame Julie Walters says in her voiceover for the store’s Christmas TV advert: ‘Huh, now I’ve seen everything… If a chicken doughnut doesn’t excite you, nothing will.’
While M&S is reaping the rewards of this year’s festive food craze, the creation seems to have been first dreamt up by The Great British Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain. She told BBC1’s Graham Norton Show on Friday how she came up with a similar idea – pulled chicken doughnuts – in her sleep.
April Preston, director of food development at Marks & Spencer, said she was not surprised by the reaction to the chicken doughnut, adding: ‘If a chicken nugget and a doughnut had a love child, this would be it.’ She said her team of 20 went on secret reconnaissance trips to top restaurants seeking out the best new culinary trends.
Inspiration came from top London eaterie the Duck and Waffle, where a £13 ox cheek doughnut with apricot jam and paprika sugar is on the menu. An £8 crab-stuffed doughnut at the Chiltern Firehouse and a cheese truffle doughnut at Frog by Adam Handling, both in central London, cemented the idea. ‘Doughnuts are tried and tested,’ said Mrs Preston. ‘Gourmet doughnuts are everywhere now in London.
Marks & Spencer's customers will buy an estimated 1 million packets of the savoury snack before Christmas
‘We wanted something everyone likes and that would make people smile. We wanted a canapé with a swing to it.’
Waitrose, meanwhile, has once again turned to Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal – creator of snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream – for some Christmas culinary wizardry.
His wacky idea this year is edible table decorations. Heston’s Chocolate Bucks Fizz Candles, which cost £9 for five, are made of white chocolate with a chocolate centre and a splash of champagne.