A popular online food ordering service is giving away 1,000 chicken sandwiches after a famous American fast-food chain opened its first restaurant in Essex.

Deliveroo is giving away 1,000 Popeyes Chicken Sandwiches as the brand opened its first restaurant in Chelmsford this month - and launches on the delivery app today.

The app teamed up with Popeyes to launch an exclusive 'waitlist' for customers, to help fans get ahead of the highly anticipated ‘drop’.

They'll be joining the first-ever fried chicken waitlist for the at-home experience - including a free Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.

The exclusive drop is inspired by sneaker drops nationwide and celebrates the opening of the chain's first restaurant in Essex, which will be followed by an opening in Romford in July.

Read more >>> Famous American fast-food chain opening its first Essex restaurant today

Aisha Jefferson at Deliveroo said: “In celebration of Popeyes expanding its restaurants across the UK, and partnering exclusively with Deliveroo, we’re giving our chicken-loving customers the chance to beat the queues and try the chicken sandwich that ‘broke the internet’ without leaving the front door.”

Customers who sign up to the fried-chicken waitlist will be in with a chance of winning free Deliveroo credit to be used on the American chain's famous chicken sandwich.

There are the equivalent of 1,000 free chicken sandwiches up for grabs.

Louisiana-inspired fast-food chain Popeyes made its UK debut when it opened a branch at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford in November.

The company has said it wants to open 350 restaurants nationwide by 2031.

Its first dine-in restaurant opened in the UK on June 11, with space for 46 seats, in Chelmsford High Street.

To join the exclusive waitlist customers should head to deliveroo-popeyes-waitlist.com to enter their details (including an email address linked to their Deliveroo account) and wait for the winners to be announced via email.

Once the winning customers have been announced, they will need to enter their personalised code found within the email confirmation into the app or website.

Customers using the app can go to their account and add the unique code into the ‘Enter a Promo Code’ field. On the website, click ‘Add a Code’ on the checkout page.

The Popeyes drop is running until all codes have been redeemed, minimum order, delivery fees and service charges may apply.