Happy Chicken Tenders Day!
Three years ago, after Popeyes threw down the gauntlet to Chick-fil-A, The Palm Beach Post braved the national chicken sandwich wars.
Well, never let anyone tell you we aren’t pain-averse, and this time we’re joining the chicken tenders battle.
KFC has spent millions of dollars advertising its new chicken tenders, which are made using the chain’s original recipe, and has issued a warning to all other local fast-food restaurants that sell chicken tenders.
But we (and by “we” we mean “I”) wondered whether it would be enough to beat out longtime local fast-food favorites like Chick-fil-A and Bud’s Chicken and Seafood, or popular newcomers like Raising Cane’s and Huey Magoos. We thought you might want to know, too.
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So over the past week, I tested chicken tenders/chicken strips from 10 local fast food restaurants that have the dish on their menu. I then ranked them on five criteria: taste, texture, temperature, batter/crust, and sauce. Each category can be worth up to 5 points, for a total of up to 25 points. I only tested the restaurants’ original tenders, no special flavors were allowed.
Some of you may be wondering, “How is this guy qualified to be a chicken tender judge?” The bottom line is that I’m a born and raised Southerner who refuses to throw away any part of the high-cholesterol diet I grew up on, and that includes fried chicken in all its various forms.
So without further ado, here is our top 10 list of local fast food chicken tenders, ranked (with prices included for the cost-conscious):
Rick Christie is editor-in-chief of The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at rchristie@pbpost.com and followed on X (formerly Twitter). translatorSubscribe to independent, pro-democracy reporting at subscribe.palmbeachpost.com.
