I can’t remember seeing Chicken Tenders until the early 90’s. They just popped up on menus and I found my new favorite lunch. A 8 piece tender with Red beans & rice and ranch dip is my standard order at Popeyes.
I vaugely remember chicken strips in the 80’s. That’s just sliced and fried chicken breast. Strips are more dense and require more chewing compared to Tenders. I buy chicken strips at restaurants.
Chicken McNuggets came out first in the late 70’s/early 80’s. They’re mystery bits of chicken formed into a nugget. I quit buying them a long time ago.
I’m not sure how tenders are made. I assume it’s a small piece of the breast that’s tender? I buy them raw at the grocery. Batter & fry. They’re pretty good. Popeyes is better.
When do you first remember buying Chicken Tenders?
I suppose some chicken tenders are good, but in general I much prefer having bones in my meat. It’s bad enough grocery store butchers remove the bones in in increasing variety of cuts (boneless pork chops, chicken tenders, etc.), but I fear one day they will genetically engineer boneless livestock. Sure, you won’t have to worry about your chickens, cows and pigs running away, but having no succulent bones to gnaw on would be a travesty.
The first time I can specifically recall ordering chicken tenders/fingers was circa 1997 at an “upscale casual” restaurant in suburban New Orleans called Houston’s. They were listed as one of the proper entrees, right next to the steaks and the seafood fare. I want to say they were panko-crusted. They were served on a pile of razor-thin sliced onion straws and came with multiple dipping sauces (teriyaki and honey mustard were two that I recall).
I am quite certain I had chicken fingers many times before that – I have vague memories that they were the kind of thing local grocery-store caterers would offer as a (then) cheap way to feed a lot of people of mixed ages, especially children.
Not a lot to it – debone a chicken breast and set aside the rib meat. Take the resulting chicken breast “fillet” and chop it lengthwise into two to four strips (depending on the size of the breast and/or how big around you want your tenders). Then, as you say, batter and fry.
I honestly don’t remember the first time I ordered chicken tenders. Guess it didn’t really register as an ‘event’ in my life at the time. If it was a Big Deal I’d probably measure time in accordance with the event.
“so, when did you graduate?”
“That would have been back in 8 BOCT.”
“BOCT?”
“Yeah, you know, 8 years Before Ordering Chicken Tenders.”
The tender is the little strips of meat that are tenuously attached to the underside of each breast. They’re expensive because there’s only 2 from each chicken.
Some people may include them with the other chicken strips. I do at home. I buy boneless breasts and slice. They cook more evenly than frying the entire boneless breast.
It might be a regional thing. Growing up in Texas and Oklahoma, I’ve always had access to them. Chicken fingers and country gravy was a childhood fave of mine.
Dairy Queen and Sonic has had them for a while now (Like since the 70s)>
When we moved a few towns over when I was 9, in 1992, one of the first times we went back was when the new Cracker Barrel opened. They had both fried and grilled chicken tenders. I might have had them before then (I don’t recall being intrigued by them at the time, my mom was the picky eater who ordered them), but if I did, I don’t remember it. I think our school cafeteria always had nuggets or patties, never fingers or tenders.
To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever actually bought them for myself. Well, no, I take that back. I’ve eaten at Raising Canes a few times. But that’s all been within the last five or ten years.
This thread is the first I ever knew that a “tender” is a specific part of a chicken. So the next time I have one, should that ever happen, I will make a point of remembering it as my first time.
Having dissected a few birds in college biology, one thing I learned, in a sideways manner, is that a chicken breast is the pectoralis major muscle, and the tender is the pectoralis minor.
McDonalds invented Chicken Nuggets in the 80s. My memory is Burger King later came out with their own version they called Chicken Tenders to compete but I don’t know if they invented the term.
I would have said early nineties, but maybe i was just behind.
I greatly prefer meat on the bone. Or whole breasts, cut into chunks. If I’m cutting a breast into chunks, i do pull out the tender and cut it into two or three pieces, and then sliced up the larger muscle. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a tender, just by itself, either. But i wouldn’t swear to it.
