Who doesn’t love a chicken tender? Certain it doesn’t have all of the glitz and glamour of a juicy cheeseburger or a gargantuan chicken sandwich — and by glitz and glamour I imply there is no such thing as a bread and cheese — however if you chew into a terrific hen tender the pleasure facilities in your mind ignite. Life improves instantly. Sure, I’m absolutely conscious that I simply stated that scrumptious hen tenders make life higher however have you ever ever eaten a hen tender whereas offended? The one time that occurs is when your hen tender order was botched one way or the other and that’s a reasonably uncommon prevalence, contemplating that hen tenders are a reasonably simple dish to organize.

As long as it’s crunchy, tender, and battered in a mixture of spices that make it flavorful (no sauce required), it’s most likely going to be scrumptious. Rooster tenders are like french fries in that they require little or no effort to make proper. And like french fries, hen tenders fluctuate wildly from quick meals restaurant to quick meals restaurant.

For probably the most half, I’ve by no means eaten a hen tender that I don’t like. That stated, I positively have my favorites. Final summer time we ranked 18 different chicken tenders and I concluded that Dave’s Sizzling Rooster makes the perfect tender in the marketplace. However since a few of these 18 tenders featured sauce (some have been doused in barbecue or buffalo), it was solely honest to rank every of the 18 paired with the perfect sauce obtainable from every respective restaurant.

Which received us questioning: who makes the perfect hen tender no sauce required? If we ditched the sauce factor of the rating, would our #1 nonetheless be #1? We put our high 5 to the blind style check to seek out out.

Additionally Learn: The Prime 5 UPROXX Meals Rankings From The Final Month

How We Put Collectively Our Blind Rooster Tender Style Check

When conducting a quick meals blind style check, time is the enemy. I wanted a method to choose up all of those hen tenders in a brief window of time so that they’d all be warm-to-hot, as a chilly hen tender isn’t going to style almost nearly as good as a heat one. Fortunately, in Cerritos California, I can hit up the entire eating places that landed in final yr’s high 5 fairly simply.

Our high 5 from our 2023 rating have been, in descending order:

5. Jollibee
4. Popeyes
3. Chick-fil-A
2. Elevating Canes
1. Dave’s Sizzling Rooster.

In Cerritos, two of those eating places are throughout the road from each other, and the opposite three are all situated on the identical avenue across the nook. I positioned an order on every restaurant’s app whereas within the Jollibee drive-thru and rounded up all of the hen in about quarter-hour. Then I hit up a close-by good friend’s home and defined my very bizarre scenario (“I must eat hen tenders in your home whereas sporting a blindfold”).

Quickly, I used to be tasting away. All the tenders have been nonetheless heat so I take into account this successful. Now let’s get to the meals:

PART I — The Rooster Tender Blind Style Check

Style 1:

Regardless of the looks, there’s a noticeable lack of crunch right here… however it’s surprisingly juicy. It’s very tender and straightforward to chew with a delicate mixture of flavors. I’m tasting a touch of garlic powder and a contact of salt however the place it wows me is the just about candy buttery aftertaste.

The hen additionally comes aside extremely simply, the breading desires to slide from the tender with every chew. There’s a selfmade imperfect high quality about this hen tender that I feel works as a energy.

Style 2:

Significantly drier than Style 1 however nonetheless tender. The breading seems heavy however has a vivid and ethereal mouthfeel, with an nearly panko-like crunch. The dominant seasoning right here is salt however there’s something else right here lurking within the again finish.

It’s savory, nearly umami-like. I’m going to exit on a limb right here and say it’s MSG.

Style 3:

I do know that is Dave’s Sizzling Rooster as a result of it has that distinct cayenne and smoked paprika taste with a type of pickle-y briney aftertaste that’s attribute of scorching hen. And you recognize what? It’s not hitting. The hen is laborious to chew, and the breading has bits which might be so crunchy I’m fearing for my tooth.

There’s a type of chunkiness to the meat that I’m not into, it doesn’t have that tender texture that Style 1 and Style 2 had. The breading is a pleasant mixture of smokey and spicy sensations, however there’s a sure Sizzling Cheetos-like aftertaste that I’m not digging in the present day.

Style 4:

That pickle-brine taste returns right here. There’s a darkish, earthy sweetness to this hen tender that units it other than the opposite tenders I’ve tried thus far, much more so than the cayenne-heavy taste of Style 3. The breading has a mixture of black pepper, garlic, and onion powder, and the hen is tender and nearly melts within the mouth.

It is a fairly strong hen tender, I’m not bought on the sweetness, however I can inform that paired with the suitable sauce this is usually a actual winner. No complaints right here.

Style 5:

Audibly crunchy, however dry as hell. This has a noticeable spicy kick to it, it nearly tastes like a mix of the flavour of Style 3 and the feel of Style 2. Whereas I benefit from the crunch, it’s clear that I’m getting extra breading right here than meat itself.

I like the flavour however I really feel like this tender is severely missing in hen, which is type of an issue.

PART II — The Rooster Tender Rating

5. Popeyes — Spicy Rooster Tender (Style 5)

Nobody desires to see Popeyes come lifeless final in a rating, I get it, however I can’t in good consciousness rank a hen tender larger than final when it has this little, you recognize, hen. In the end, whereas I appreciated the spicy taste and the crunch of this hen, there merely wasn’t sufficient meat.

If this was a rating on the perfect hen tender breading, then possibly, possibly, we’d be capable of rank this larger than final, however that’s not what this rating is. It’s with a heavy coronary heart that I give Popeyes final place.

The Backside Line:

The ratio of breading to meat is all off right here.

4. Dave’s Sizzling Rooster — Rooster Tender (Warmth Degree: Sizzling)

That is fairly a fall. As I discussed earlier than, in our rating of 18 hen tenders, Dave’s took the highest spot and I’m undecided what occurred right here, but it surely didn’t stand as much as the blind style check. Possibly it was the dearth of sauce, however I simply discovered the flavour type of off-putting, and the feel of the hen itself means too chunky and chewy.

Contemplating the entire goal of this blind style check was to see how every tender stacked up with out the assistance of dipping sauce, I assumed this successful was a certain factor. It’s noticeably seasoned greater than the competitors, and but… it couldn’t stack up. We’re going to must revamp our full rating after this one.

The Backside Line:

The champ has fallen!

3. Jollibee — Rooster Fingers (Style 2)

Jollibee hails from the Philippines and whereas there isn’t something about this fried hen that strikes me as notably harking back to Filipino delicacies, there’s a noticeable distinction within the texture of the breading and the general taste of the seasoning mix.

In my blind style check, I suspected monosodium glutamate as the key ingredient right here, and whereas I can’t verify that, there’s a noticeable savoriness right here that’s missing within the different tenders on this style check. Whereas I like that umami high quality, the hen was a bit too dry to take the highest spot so I’m going to must award this one the bronze medal.

The Backside Line:

In the event you’re in search of a hen tender that tastes really totally different from the competitors, Jollibee is the play.

2. Chick-fil-A — Chick-n-Strip (Style 4)

Chick-fil-A’s Chick-n-Strip will get the award for probably the most annoying identify. The chain goes loopy with the hyphens, and that’s coming from somebody working in media, the place going loopy with hyphens is our favourite factor to do.

Annoying identify apart, this hen tender, or… Chick-n-Strip is every little thing {that a} good hen tender needs to be: juicy, flavorful, and crunchy. The breading right here is effectively seasoned and the noticeable candy aftertaste that this hen tender has is distinct sufficient that I can see this being somebody’s favourite.

However… it’s not mine. I feel the candy facet is attention-grabbing, and I like the combo of seasoning, however this tender desires for a sauce to steadiness it out. Due to that, I’ll most likely by no means eat one in every of these sauceless once more, so I can’t give it the highest spot for that motive alone.

The Backside Line:

A near-perfect hen tender. Alas…

1. Elevating Cane’s — Rooster Tender (Style 1)

Elevating Cane’s hen tender ticks all of the packing containers. It’s juicy, tender, and has the right meat-to-breading ratio. Sure, it’s simply the least crunchy tender on this record, however what you lose in crunch you achieve in taste. There’s a excellent steadiness between the salt, onion powder, and a touch of garlic taste, with an addicting buttery end. The meat is tender and melts in your mouth, and whereas sure, sauce would enhance this tender, you don’t want it.

There’s satisfying and full about biting into this hen tender — it tastes the closest to selfmade that you just’re going to get within the quick meals area. It doesn’t really feel like several corners are being minimize right here, the standard is palpable.

Right now, it’s the clear winner. The opposite hen tenders we tasted don’t even come shut.

The Backside Line:

The hen tender, perfected. That is the perfect hen tender within the quick meals area you’re going to seek out.