# When do you first remember buying Chicken Tenders?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** food-cooking\
**Created:** [May 27, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222 "2022-05-27T16:59:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222/21 "2022-05-30T11:44:40Z")

</div>

Ref the Wendy’s ad (which I agree is a memorable classic) there was another ad I recall. I’m pretty sure it was for Steak 'n Shake, a Midwestern almost-fast food burger chain but with sit-down service.

Anyhow, the camera focuses close on a plate of mis-shapen lumps of something while one sorry chunk is turned slowly on a fork and the voiceover intones

> [@](#):
>
> What part of the chicken _is_ the “tender”??

where the italics, scare quotes, and doubled question mark are very, very emphasized. It’s not dripping with sarcasm, it’s made of sarcasm.

Then they cut to a closeup of a real recognizable complete chix breast on a bun and go on to say “At Steak n Shake (or whoever it was) we use real whole chicken breasts. Blah blah blah. Etc etc.”

I always loved that line: What part of the chicken _is_ the “tender”??

I trot that out whenever I’m eating something where I’m not real sure of the provenance or naturality of the ingredients. It’s one of the many in-jokes I shared with my now-deceased first wife who used it as well. Funny the little things you miss. Sigh.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222/22 "2022-05-30T11:48:55Z")

</div>

> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> I would have said early nineties, but maybe i was just behind.

Or I’m ahead. I’m a real bad judge of pop culture & its timing, especially from now so long ago. As well, in that era (on your timeline or mine) I was living in Las Vegas, which may have been a bit ahead of wherever you were living.

When I moved from there to the Midwest I did notice a bunch of mass market stuff that had been popular in Vegas for a couple years only later arrived in St. Louis. Kind of weird, like having gone back in time a couple years then re-living some aspects of what you’d already done.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222/23 "2022-05-30T11:54:10Z")

</div>

[aside]

> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> What part of the chicken _is_ the ‘tender’

And this now evokes Frank Perdue’s immortal ad tag, “it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken”.  
[/aside]

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-first-remember-buying-chicken-tenders/965222.md?page=1)