“(The) Just Meat Chicken is unlike anything else in the market,” says Joshua Tetrick, CEO and cofounder of Eat Just Inc. “Every piece is different. It’s tender, juicy and delicate. It chars on the grill, sizzles in the pan and falls apart on the fork.”

The Just Meat has now won back-to-back sensory tests against not only other plant-based products, but also conventional chicken. In its latest taste test, the Just Meat outperformed an unbreaded conventional chicken strip product across all four categories – taste, texture, appearance and overall.

The leap in quality is the result of Eat Just’s manufacturing technology, which builds meat-like fibers using soy and wheat protein, along with other natural ingredients. The process grew out of earlier research in Eat Just’s cultivated meat division, a program that grows real animal cells in a bioreactor. Eat Just was the first company in the world to sell cultivated meat commercially and one of two to have sold in the United States. The Just Meat is fully plant-based, not cultivated, but utilizes many of the program’s R&D breakthroughs.

The Just Meat addresses the greatest obstacle in plant-based chicken adoption – quality. As the Taste of the Industry 2025 report highlights, most plant-based meat products still lag behind their animal-based counterparts. The report called on companies to “increase product quality” to address growth challenges, and it specifically identified the “unbreaded strips and chunks” category as in need of R&D and innovation. Enter the Just Meat.

Eat Just is rolling out statewide with H-E-B, and the Just Meat is available in an 8-oz. package in the frozen section.

To mark the rollout, Eat Just hosted an event at Franklin Barbecue. The evening featured the Just Meat prepared alongside Texas BBQ offerings of brisket, sausage and other sides. With guests including barbecue pitmaster Aaron Franklin and other Austin tastemakers and innovators, the event showcased the Just Meat’s versatility and marked a new era in plant-based cuisine. The celebration included live music from Austin-based singer-songwriter Phil Hollie, cocktails from Desert Door Texas Sotol and dessert from vegan bakery Zucchini Kill.

The Just Meat has no cholesterol, 18 g of protein per serving – more protein per ounce than a conventional chicken thigh – and, like other plant-based meat brands, uses a fraction of the land, water and CO₂ of conventional products.

The Just Meat is now available at 240 H-E-B locations.