Arby's Meat Carrot: What You Need To Know

Ah, 2019... What a time to be alive. You've got Burger King making tacos, you've got KFC piling Cheetos on chicken sandwiches, and best of all, you've got the Arby's marrot.

The chain, whose tagline is "We have the meats," now has the "megetables" too, in the form of a meat carrot. Because, according to Arby's, "If they can make meat from veggies (and other stuff), we can make veggies from meat." Darn straight.

With the meat carrot, Arby's dove head-first into the world of meat-based plant, while other chains are going the more obvious route of plant-based meat with offerings like the Impossible Burger. (For the record, Arby's says they'll never go the plant-based meat route, because, don't forget: They have the meats and only the meats.) 

Arby's Brand Executive Chef Neville Craw explained the marrot's inception to MyRecipes, saying, "Our CMO Jim Taylor called me on a Saturday, which is not unusual for him. He says, 'everybody's trying to turn something that's plant-based into meat. We're Arbys, we should be thinking of it the other way: can we turn meat into vegetables?' It was really that simple."

The marrot is made of 100 percent skinless turkey breast that's seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs, and then rolled in cheesecloth into the shape of a carrot. It's cooked sous vide before being coated in dried carrot juice powder (see, Arby's does care about vegetables), and oven-roasted to perfection. The last step — a maple glaze — gets hit with a blowtorch to bring out the sweetness and, of course, lock in that shiny orange finish that you want in your meat carrots. And according to MyRecipes' Tim Nelson, who actually tasted the marrot, "...it looks and tastes closer to the real thing than one would expect." 

Nelson notes a "convincing scent of roasted carrots" in the test kitchen, but concludes, "Eventually, of course, the turkey taste prevails. The meat and some elements of the seasoning bring more saltiness to bear than I'd expect from a carrot. Coupled with the presence of a chewy texture rather than the kind of slightly softened crunch one would expect, it's more like a carrot-flavored turkey sausage than a serious attempt to trick you into thinking you're eating a carrot."

Will we ever see the marrot on menus? According to The New York Times, Arby's says the meat carrot is not a stunt. "It is pretty funny," Rob Lynch, the company's president, told NYT. "We are actively working to determine whether or not we can scale this. I would probably put it at 50-50." Fingers crossed for all you carrot-loving meat-eaters out there that the marrot comes to fruition nationwide.