10 Discontinued Popeyes Side Dishes That Deserve A Comeback

Popeyes' march towards fried chicken awesomeness began in the outskirts of New Orleans back in 1972, and has since imbued its sensational spicy Cajun flavors across the globe. While the chicken has always been the main draw, what kind of a meal is complete without some succulent side dishes? In the annals of Popeyes history, it has produced many delicious sides, with several still with us to this today. If you're curious which is the one or ones to get, The Takeout has got you covered in this handy dandy ranking of all Popeyes side dishes.

While there are indeed plenty of side items to choose from now, there are several dearly departed ones from Popeyes' past that are primed for and deserve a comeback. Let's rev up the old time machine and head back to those golden fried eras of yesteryear, where you could mosey into a Popeyes and order up a corn dog or a chicken taco to round out your lunch or dinner. 

As a rabid fan of Popeyes for over four decades, I speak from a well informed and greasy mind to guide you on this journey. The following ye olde side items are listed in order of my own personal preference, but all should equally be welcomed back to the fold. Got that, Popeyes?

Popeyes has never lost its grip on churning out awesome fried chicken, and I'd never question its motives or moves, but the biggest mistake it ever made was ditching its amazing Onion Rings. They were not only the best side item the chain ever produced, but Popeyes Onion Rings were the best onion rings period. Exclamation point! 

These beauties had been hanging around the menu since the early days in the '70s, and were at one point hand battered and made fresh in store. The onions were large, totally greasy, and the thin, flaky, and crispy fried skin kept them in check and delivered a crunchy gift direct from the heavens. The real kicker was the salt and slightly spiced seasonings, which gave these onion rings a flavor like no other before or since.

I'm not sure there was a soul on earth who ever said, Popeyes Onion Rings suck. Well, there was at least one time someone had a bad experience eating them. In 1987, a family from Brandon, Mississippi received a dead dried mouse with their order of rings. The family took Popeyes to court, with plaintiff Grace Harrison telling AP in 1991, "Sometimes I don't go to sleep until two, three o'clock in the morning for thinking about this." I actually have the same problem, but my insomnia is fueled by how we as a society are able to function without them in our lives. Basically, I willed this article into being on the singular purpose of getting Popeyes Onion Rings back in stores, and once again, as the chain noted in a clever 1986 newspaper ad, be ruled by "the lord of the rings."

A rainy day turning hot dog buns soggy apparently gave rise to the origin of corn dogs in the late 1930s. Regardless of when or how it happened, corn dogs exist, and are awesome. I think it's safe to say everyone loves corn dogs, unless you're a vegetarian or you hate awesome foamy sweet and chewy savory foods united on a stick. Well, for a short, and perhaps glorious period of time, starting in the chain's olden days in the early '70s, customers who entered the doors below Popeyes' signature red roof had an option to partner their corn dogs with fried chicken, or even a gizzard, liver, or clam dinner.

It's hard to find much information on Popeyes' take on this very American treat, but it was good enough to remain on menus through at least through 1982, but not good enough to stick around forever. There are many reasons to build a time machine, but I would put eating a Popeyes corn dog right next to being at the album cover photo shoot for The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the top of my list.

Louisiana may not be especially well known for its tacos, but that doesn't mean The Pelican State is not familiar with stuffing tortillas with meats, cheeses, veggies, and other toppings. Believe it or not, Popeyes was once in the shell game itself, serving a Chicken Taco. This is another item that was a part of the chain's early life, and even hung around on nationwide menus through at least 1983. However, lucky patrons from parts of Texas were able to get their hands on the Chicken Tacos through the early '90s.

Popeyes Chicken Taco used a hard, crunchy tortilla, filled with chunks of its own spicy chicken, topped with sliced lettuce and tomatoes. The taco definitely stood out on the Cajun-fied menu, even prompting San Diego Magazine in 1985 to call the item "unusual."

While Popeyes jumped into the soft tortilla wrap game in 2025, no one for a second is thinking those guys pass as tacos. Now that tacos are bigger than ever, there's no reason why Popeyes shouldn't bring Chicken Tacos back to menus, with a hard shell adding another layer of textured crunch alongside crispy fried skin. The closest we ever got is when Popeyes took to its own blog in 2022 to describe how to make your own Chicken Sandwich Tacos by essentially cutting the sandwich in two — but this suggestion was more silly than satisfying.

New Orleans is home to so many signature dishes that it's hard to single out one as the most representative. Well, when it comes to names, it's hard to say that any of these creole creations can top "jambalaya." It rolls off the tongue, and it's also a joy to feed it to the tongue, whether you're having the red jambalaya with tomatoes or the brown, without them. While never earning permanent menu status, Popeyes has cooked up a few versions of its own jambalaya over the years.

Popeyes' first version debuted in 1994, where a bed of white rice hosted bits of sausage, onions, and green peppers, all swimming in a rich tomato sauce along with a pinch of the chain's blend of seasonings and spices. Two years later, the same dish was served for a limited time, but out came the sausage, and in came shrimp. Popeyes jambalaya popped up again around 2014, but hasn't seemed to resurface ever since. It's not often you see jambalaya on a menu of a fast food joint, and since no one else is picking up the slack, it's time for Popeyes to right this wrong — mainly so this dish's name can be expressed more often in public across America.

Jambalaya may be the absolute most fun Cajun dish to utter in this world, but don't sleep on the word "étouffée." It too is a signature dish of The Big Easy, where shellfish is "smothered" (the French translation of the word) with a savory sauce, and laid over a bed of rice. It's commonly filled with shrimp or another Louisiana staple: crawfish.

In the late '90s, Popeyes launched a line called "Louisiana Legends," and a Crawfish Étouffée was one of the first items to launch from it. Then chef Billy Jacob even tweaked his own mom's recipe to make a version for the masses at Popeyes. Along with the seafood tail meat, the dish was infused with bell peppers, celery, and carrots, and a spicy sauce.

Popeyes' Étouffée would return sparingly, whenever it decided to throw a "Crawfish Festival," like in 2002, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In 2010, syndicated columnist Ken Hoffman, aka the "Drive-Thru Gourmet" noted in The Birmingham News: "Etouffee is a very strong, potent concoction. You might want to try a spoon of someone else's first before you invest in a bowl. It's plenty spicy stuff. But warning: Etouffee is very addictive." Aren't we long overdue for another Crawfish Festival?

Rice dishes are big in creole and Cajun cooking, and have long been by the side of Popeyes fried chicken. While Red Beans & Rice is now the lone rice survivor on today's menu, there was another long running dish that was also universally loved. It had gone by many names on the Popeyes menu, from originally being called Rice Dressing, then Dirty Rice, and it's more commonly known today as Cajun Rice. The dish once was filled with dark chicken meat, gizzards and shallots sourced only from Louisiana, and in more modern times, is still flavored with bell pepper, onion, garlic, and cayenne.

Nothing lasts forever, and in 2021 Popeyes confirmed on Twitter/X that the Cajun Rice was discontinued. The news distressed many eaters, including The Takeout's own Allison Robicelli, who grew up gobbling up the dish and wrote a very moving tribute about Cajun Rice's demise. Cries for its return didn't fall on deaf ears, and Popeyes brought back Cajun Rice in honor of the brand's 50 years on earth. Alas, its return was a fleeting one, and has since returned to mothball status. 

Do we all have to wait until Popeyes turns 100 in 2072 to get our next taste? If you can't hold out until then, luckily one Popeyes franchise owner spilled the beans on the recipe and cooking method to The Minneapolis Star Tribune in 1991.

Does a fast food restaurant even exist if french fries aren't a part of its menu? There's just something magical when thin or even thick sliced potatoes get fried in oil, and are served with a burger or sitting comfy next to a few pieces of fried chicken in a box. Fries have been on the Popeyes menu since inception, but got a big shake up in 1990 when they became Cajun Battered Fries.

Cajun Battered Fries are a very Popeyes-esque item, super encrusted and crispy, and dolled up with seasonings including garlic, dry Worcestershire, sugar, and a mystery blend that harkens back to its Louisiana roots. What these fries add up to is almost too much savory flavor being delivered all at once. And although its crispy denseness ensures they won't go soggy, it's an overly-filling item that acts less like a side attraction and more like a main one. 

Popeyes should bring back its more rudimentary, plain fries to counterbalance its other fried offerings, not supplant it. Also, fries are a great delivery mechanism for condiments and sauces, and Popeyes has so many beloved sauces that are worthy of a plain fry dip. A lot of times less is more, and we should all hope for a return of fries with less going on with them.

One of the great mysteries in my own culinary life is to know what Popeyes Bar-B-Que Beans (and commonly written as "BBQ Beans") tasted like. This was a side that was with the chain from the early days, and hung around until at least 1990, where it was perhaps advertised one final time in the pages of the Lincoln Journal Star. No other real info exists, beyond this straightforward description in a 1990 print ad that said the beans were "specifically-seasoned and (like everything at Popeyes) they're made from 'scratch'."

I'm sure their being wasn't anything holy, just navy or pinto beans, smothered in a sugary sweet and tangy BBQ sauce. Although this is Popeyes we're talking about, and so that BBQ sauce had to be something special, right? Don't we deserve to know? 

It's not likely these will ever return, and so the only hack to make them a reality would be to wash the red beans of the current "& Rice" side dish and douse them with today's version: BoldBQ Sauce. It's either that, or fly to the U.K. and hope whatever their Popeyes Smoky Beans are are a close match.

Fried chicken makes for a great, although greasy option for a lovely picnic. A side that pairs well with fried chicken, as well for outdoor dining is a nice ear of corn, either as a two-handed full piece or more handsy half-cob option. This is yet another longtime Popeyes side item that once thrived, even lending many an ear for an all-you-can-eat contest at the 2006 Georgia State Fair. Sadly, it is no longer served under Popeyes' good name, disappearing from menus sometime in or around the 2020 pandemic.

While fast food corn usually isn't the best version of the kernel-ed delight — often cold, slimy, or not all that good — it's still corn, and is a rare veggie dotting the menu. That has to count for something, especially to eat alongside such fried and heavy food that the chicken chain serves. As Popeyes used to describe it so simply and perfectly, "throw some butter and salt or just tear into it plain. Either way it's a timeless side that never disappoints." Truer words have perhaps never been spoken. If only they were still spoken today.

Seems kind of strange, but a chain that once used Popeye cartoons in its branding and ads (but ironically wasn't actually named after the sailor himself), never once sold the character's signature dish: spinach. The closest greenery one could get to shove in their mouth, and take out their own Bluto in life, was a scarfing on a side order of green beans.

Look, I'm not going to try and convince you that Popeyes made the world's greatest green beans, but what they offered was definitely a departure from the same old same old. These beans were cut and then cooked up with bits of turkey bacon, giving it a nice smoky taste. While these Green Beans seemed like a side item that had been around since the dawn of Popeyes, they only first saw the light of day in 2004. Alas, Popeyes deemed them and Cajun Rice not worthy of a place on the menu, with both of their sad discontinued fate confirmed by Popeyes on Twitter/X in 2021. Perhaps if they ever came back, they could cook them up with pork bacon? Or what about adding in some pieces of fried skin?