Unclucking believable: ‘Is that a fried chicken head in my box?’ Popeyes customer asks

When Michael Smith dug into the box of chicken he had bought at Popeye’s Chicken on Route 234 in Dumfries, he found a fried piece of “something” and felt it required a closer look before he bit into it.

He examined it and said he was shocked to see that it was what he thought was a chicken head. Not a juicy drumstick, succulent thigh, or even a breast packed with white meat like many other Popeye’s chicken eaters have experienced. No, this looked like a chicken head, beak and all.
So he did what everyone else does today – whipped out his cell phone, took a picture, and posted it to social media.

“I sent it to their general manager so they could see what’s going on; she never got back to me,” he said. This didn’t sit well with him.

It all started on Tuesday, December 19, when Smith stopped by the Popeyes Restaurant with his son to get something to eat. He had been to the drive-through window at this store, but it was the first time he got out of the car and went inside.

Once his order came, Smith looked at one piece and felt he could see the beak and the rest of it was shaped like a head, so he became alarmed. He got a second opinion on the picture and then sent it to the manager.

Not so fast, said “Thi,” the manager at that Popeye’s store in Dumfries. She looked at the picture of a fried glob of batter and saw that the head Michael pointed out was just “a piece of bone that looks like a chicken head,” she said. “We know that it was not a chicken head,” she added, but just in case, she took it further in the process. “We forwarded it to our HR,” she said.

It’s not a done deal for Smith, though. He called the health department and consulted an attorney.
A chicken head discovery at the Popeye’s chain is not new. In September 2023, another apparent chicken head was found in another Popeye’s meal, and it turned out that the image used to back up the claim was a 2021 image.

“A Popeyes spokesperson told USA Today it has since been recirculated and mistakenly attributed to Popeyes,” said a post on the USA Today site under “Fact Check.” In 2019, a chicken head was found in a Popeye’s dish in Livingston, Texas, and another “chicken head” was found in a box of chicken in Williamsport, Penn., but this was at a pizza restaurant, and it turned out to be a real chicken head—lots of question marks on that one.

Mike Salmon is a freelance reporter for Potomac Local News.