Survey: Chicken will best ribs and steaks this Labor Day

More than 200 million Americans intend to fire up their barbecue grills over Labor Day, and more of them will eat chicken than ribs or steak, according to a new survey.

While hamburgers and hot dogs remain the most popular items on the grill, barbecued chicken is the third most-popular item, according to the Budweiser Labor Day USA Survey. The survey of 2,000 U.S. residents aged 21 and older was conducted online between Aug. 1 and Aug. 12 by Learndipity Data Insights.

According to the survey, around 150 million Americans — 70% of all barbecue-goers — said they expect to eat hamburgers, compared to 109 million hot dog eaters (or 51%). Barbecued chicken follows at 40%, edging out steak (37%), ribs (32%) and sausage or bratwurst (24%).

The survey revealed cheese (79%) is the most preferred burger topping, followed by lettuce (71%), tomato (66%), onion (58%) and pickles (54%). American (66%) and cheddar (65%) are the cheeses Americans most like to melt on their burgers, followed by Swiss (43%), pepper jack (40%) and provolone (31%).

Potatoes will be the most common side dish in one form or another, the survey revealed. Potato salad (62%) was identified as the most popular side dish, while potato chips ranked as the second most popular side dish at 58%, and grilled or cooked potatoes (33%) ranked eighth. Corn on the cob (56%), watermelon (52%), baked beans (49%), macaroni salad (37%) and coleslaw (34%) also ranked as popular side dishes.

Around 98 million Americans will drink domestic beer at barbecues over Labor Day, about twice as many who will drink imported beers.