12 Chain Restaurants That Serve The Highest Quality Chicken Tenders

According to the USDA, chicken is the most-consumed meat in America since the mid 2010s. As such, chicken tenders have become some of the most sellable and profitable products in the food industry. It's no surprise, then, that many fast-food and fast-casual chains have pivoted and have devoted more spaces on their menus to tenders. And, many new businesses have emerged that focus solely on chicken tenders. 

Among the many brands and companies offering breaded, boneless chicken tenders, it's hard to know which ones are the highest quality and worth trying. We looked into the specifics of how today's chain restaurants source, prepare, and cook chicken tenders, and found 12 that hit the mark. These restaurants have taken great care ensuring food quality, from sourcing the best cuts of chicken to developing proprietary recipes and cooking techniques that produce the tastiest, crispiest, and juiciest tenders possible. Read on to find the best of the best chicken tenders money can buy.

Several global companies can claim to be the biggest internationally, but such titles matter little in regions where homegrown fast-food chains are more beloved. If you drive South, for example, Bojangles is the clear favorite. Originating from Charlotte, North Carolina, the chain is famous for its from-scratch biscuits and crispy, bone-in, fried chicken. But, there is another rising star on its menu, and that's the Bo's Chicken Tenders.

For the white meat, Bojangles uses tenderloin, which is one of the most tender and juiciest cuts of chicken. Just like the bone-in, fried chicken, Bo's Tenders are not frozen, and much of the prep takes place in-store. They are marinated for 12 hours, then hand-breaded and served fresh off the fryer. Bojangles keeps its proprietary marinade recipe tightly under wraps, but recipe copycats say that sweet tea may be part of it. For the breading, the chain adds Cajun spices in the flour mix to give the tenders its signature bold flavor. 

Bo's Chicken Tenders are not to be confused with the pre-breaded Boneless Supremes. The latter is wildly popular among loyal customers, but Bojangles has discontinued it in many newly-opened locations. Fortunately, with the Bo's Chicken Tenders, fans can get the same crispy, flavorful tenders made fresh daily, which definitely counts for quality.

Raising Cane's has made it clear that it's in the business of serving perfectly cooked, delicious chicken. Since its inception, the chain has maintained a simple, straightforward menu focused on chicken fingers, plus traditional sides, like French fries, coleslaw, and toast.

But, fewer food options doesn't mean that less care and effort were put into the making of the menu. In our exclusive interview with one of its founders, Todd Graves, we learned that the chain's core principle is to serve good quality, craveable food. To ensure its tenders are of the highest quality, Raising Cane's uses only chicken tenderloins from carefully-selected breeds that produce the most flavorful meat. They are marinated for 24 hours in a brine solution, which tenderizes the meat and keeps it juicy during frying. The chain also cooks the tenders to order in a single fry line. After hand-battering and breading the chicken it is fried. There are no heat lamps and no microwaves. Just warm, crispy tenders served immediately along with Cane's iconic secret sauce.

Raising Cane's doesn't offer anything particularly unique. But, Graves believed in focusing on one thing and doing it better than anyone else. His professors at business school might have thought otherwise, but this core principle of quality over quantity is the reason the chain became so successful. It's also why Raising Cane's is on this list of highest quality chain-restaurant chicken tenders.

Most people don't go looking for quality chicken tenders at a seafood restaurant, but many will say otherwise when the restaurant in question is Long John Silver's. The fast-seafood chain rose to the mainstream with its signature fish and chips, but it recently underwent a major brand overhaul to highlight another star on its menu: Crispy chicken tenders.

In keeping with the chain's original nautical theme, LJS calls its tenders Chicken Planks (a clear nod to a ship's gangplank). They are made from 100% white meat chicken sourced from U.S. poultry farms. Unlike most of the tenders on this list, these chicken planks are hand-dipped in a tempura-style batter (allegedly the same batter used for the fish and shrimps) instead of coated with a thick, floury breading. This is why LJS chicken tenders have a smooth exterior instead of the typical rough surface that most fast-food chain tenders have. The restaurant also fries tenders in 100% canola oil, which ensures every batch of Long John's chicken is crispy and safe for Catholics to eat during Lent. 

Long John Silver's may have once made headlines for making the most unhealthy fast-food meal, but today, people talk about it because of its tenders. The chain surprisingly landed in first place in Joshua Weissman's ranking of best fast food chicken tenders, and we totally get why.

When a chain's name literally boasts about the quality of its food, expectations are high. PDQ (People Dedicated to Quality) set out with that goal in mind. Created by one of the founders of Outback Steakhouse,PDQ exists to provide the market with quality chicken tenders that are on par with fine-casual restaurants, but prepared and served with the speed of a fast-food chain.

Just like Raising Cane's, PDQ's menu is heavily focused on boneless chicken. In order to stand out from the competition and live up to its name, the chain has strict standards for its tenders. First, it only uses chicken that hasn't been injected with steroids, hormones, or preservatives. Second, the chicken is always fresh and never frozen. Third, the chicken tenders are dipped in buttermilk, which is an excellent tenderizer and also helps to keep the meat juicy after frying. Fourth, the chicken tenders are cooked-to-order and served hot out of the fryer.

PDQ cooks and serves orders in just two minutes or less, so if you ever noticed there's hardly any line inside or at the drive-through, this is why. To cap it all off, the menu only costs $7 on average. From quality ingredients to affordable prices, PDQ is the complete package, and that's why we think it's one of the chain restaurants with the highest quality tenders today.

As the second-largest fast-food chicken chain in America in terms of sales, Popeye's is clearly doing something right with its chicken. The chain prioritizes quality, and it starts with the poultry products that it buys. Popeye's proudly shares that its chicken and eggs are all sourced locally from cage-free American farms, and unadulterated with antibiotics or other substances that could impact human health.

Popeye's chicken menu items are prepared fresh daily. They are marinated for at least 12 hours, which tenderizes the meat and allows it to soak in the Cajun-inspired spices that make Popeye's chicken stand out. Once ready, they are hand-battered, breaded in a large vat of seasoned flour, and deep-fried. Allegedly, some locations double-bread the tenders (dip them in flour first, then the batter, and again with flour).

Popeye's also earns points for addressing customer complaints about the sizes of its tenders. The chain has been one of the many restaurants accused of shrinkflating their food. Josh Kobza, CEO of Popeye's parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), acknowledged that anyone would be bummed to receive too-tiny tenders. The company now demands stricter specifications for Popeye's chicken suppliers to ensure that the chicken tenders are consistently the right size.

Two years ago, Culver's ranked No. 1 in our list of fast-food restaurants with the highest quality chicken sandwiches. Unsurprisingly, it also makes it on this list for chicken tenders. A big part of these recognitions comes from the chain's standards for its chicken and poultry. From 2011 to the present, the chain buys its chicken filets exclusively from Springer Mountain Farms, a Georgia-based, family-owned and run farm that doesn't use antibiotics on its flock. The farm is also American Humane Certified, and supplies restaurants with all-natural poultry products.

For the tenders, Culver's uses whole white meat chicken breast. The tenders are hand-battered and coated with breading and spices before getting pre-cooked, then frozen. While frozen meat gets a bad rep, in this case, pre-cooking and freezing is necessary to preserve the freshness, consistency, and quality of the tenders as they are delivered from Georgia to all Popeye's locations nationwide. 

The rest of the preparation takes place in-store, where the tenders are fried-to-order. Whether you're dining in or ordering for takeout, you'll get freshly-cooked chicken tenders that are crispy, juicy, and flavorful. For these reasons, we think Culver's' chicken tenders are some of the best chain-restaurant tenders you can buy today.

Church's Texas Chicken is one of the smaller chains on this list with just over 1,500 locations worldwide, but the chain's blend of Texas spices makes its chicken tenders big on flavor. The boneless chicken menu is actually pretty new, having been launched in 2021. The chain is known for its affordable meals, and its tenders are no exception. When you can get a 10-piece tender meal, plus five biscuits, sauces, two large sides, and a drink for just $22, that's great value for the money.

But, are the tenders high quality? We think so. The hand-crafted filets are made with 100% white meat chicken breast. Like a few of the QSR chains on this list, it uses a buttermilk marinade, which makes the meat juicy and flavorful. The filets are hand-dipped in batter, double-breaded, and served hot off the fryer. The staff cooks them in small batches, so no customer gets soggy tenders that have sat under a heating lamp for hours. The crispy, flaky breading has lots of spices, so the tenders have a bold flavor that's likely inspired by Texas barbecue.

Chick-fil-A has long touted its commitment to using quality ingredients for its entire menu. Its chicken filets, in particular, are made from 100% breast meat— no preservatives, and certainly no fillers added. The chain also has strict rules against chicken meat injected with steroids, hormones, or antibiotics, so it sources poultry products raised by local farms that meet these standards.

Chick-fil-A's Chick-n-Strips are always cooked fresh and served warm. The filets are dipped in an egg batter, hand-breaded, then cooked in the chain's famous pressure fryers using peanut oil. This unique cooking method adds to the quality of the tenders: They come out with a crispy shell, while the meat inside is juicy, tender, and evenly cooked.

But, what sets the Chick-n-Strips apart from the competition is it has a distinct flavor from the chain's nuggets. The chain uses a different marinade for the tenders, so customers get a unique flavor profile compared to when they bite into a nugget. No doubt it would have been cheaper to simply use the same recipe for both menu items, but Chick-fil-A's dedication to carefully crafted recipes are added points for quality, in our books.

We can hardly talk about fried chicken without including KFC, especially since the global chain recently announced that it is re-focusing its menu and marketing around boneless chicken. It is one of the biggest changes to have happened to the brand, but after 96 years of operating in the U.S. and worldwide, KFC has chicken tenders down to a tee.

The chain's tenders are Original Recipe, which means they are seasoned with the iconic 11 herbs and spices. KFC uses chicken tenderloin, once again, an ideal cut of white meat for this recipe. They are then battered and breaded by hand, in-restaurant, and cooked in open deep fryers. The breading is nicely crisp, but it is thin, which is a quality signal in our books; it means you're not paying for 50% breading on a tender.

KFC, however, appears to struggle with consistency. Not all locations are run the same way, so there are franchisees that cook KFC tenders the way they should while others give the brand a bad rep. The mixed customer experiences only prove, however, that KFC Original Recipe Tenders are among the best in terms of quality and flavor when done right. That's enough for us to add it on this list, for now.

Chicken Guy! is a chicken concept created by Food Network star Guy Fieri. As a trained chef who has toured the entire country and many parts of the world in search of the most delicious dishes, he knows more than a thing or two about making delicious fried chicken. He poured his knowledge and business know-how into this business, where chicken tenders are the star of the show.

This brand aims to elevate the customary chicken tender to the level of fast-casual restaurant cooking. This promise of quality no doubt starts with the chicken itself. The chain's supplier is not publicly known, but press releases reveal that it uses quality white meat that's antibiotic-free and never frozen.

To build a flavor profile that is as bold as the Mayor of Flavortown, the chain marinates the chicken in a brine that has lemon juice, pickle brine, and buttermilk. This combination of acids and sharp flavors and makes the tenders taste more like a fast-casual meal instead of your average fast-food fare. Fresh herbs also add a sophisticated touch to the flavor profile. Finally, each piece of boneless chicken is pounded flat to ensure quick and even cooking, then pressure-fried or grilled to perfection.

For anyone who considers size a factor for quality, then Krispy Krunchy Chicken fits the bill. The chain is famous for its Cajun-style fried chicken and crispy, white-meat tenders that are larger than average. These Jumbo Tenders weigh an average of three ounces each, and are regarded as great value for money. One customer was especially happy getting four pieces of large tenders with red beans, rice, and one biscuit for just $11.

So, what makes Krispy Krunchy Chicken tenders high-quality? They are always freshly made in-restaurant, and the chicken is never frozen. The chain's supplier is Sysco, a national restaurant food distributor with local partners from all over the country. Sysco's vast network makes it possible for fresh poultry products to be delivered regularly at every Krispy Krunchy Chicken store, so freshness is guaranteed.

To achieve the "Perfectly Cajun" flavor profile, the chicken is marinated in a proprietary blend that packs flavor into the meat itself. These tenders are flavorfully breaded and cooked in small batches using zero trans fat oil,so customers always get them hot and crispy. Lastly, Krispy Krunchy 

Some might be surprised to find Dairy Queen in an article discussing chain restaurants with the highest quality chicken tenders. You're reading this right: DQ, the ice cream chain, does sell really good chicken tenders. A survey on Reddit with over 500 votes proves as much: DQ won first place with a high margin over the second placer (168 votes vs. 65).

What makes Dairy Queen's chicken strips so good and high-quality? Its poultry suppliers are all local, and these farms run cage-free facilities that meet DQ's chicken welfare standards. The tenders are made from 100% white meat chicken tenderloin and are served freshly fried. The breading coats the meat nicely, locking in moisture and keeping the chicken tender. So tender, in fact, that press-visit attendees from the Daily Meal discovered that the chicken tenders easily tear into chunks when tossed in a bowl of sauce.

Speaking of sauced tenders, Dairy Queen has two saucy tenders flavors (Parmesan Garlic and Honey Barbecue) and two dry tenders (Original and FlameThrower). It has the most variety that we've seen so far, and we're nearing the end of this list. Sadly, you can only buy chicken strips (and other food items) at DQ's Grill & Chill locations. 

To determine the highest quality chicken tenders from chain restaurants, we looked into the disclosures on the ingredients of each chain's tenders, particularly about the cut of the meat. Chicken breasts are commonly used, and tenderloins are more favorable because they are less stringy. We also looked into customer feedback online to gauge the public's opinions regarding freshness, flavor, chicken-to-breading ratio, tenderness, and overall quality.

Since chicken tenders are not made equal, we excluded chicken fries from this list since they are more like nuggets than tenders (made from different cuts of white meat chicken, ground and mixed with binders to hold the shape of nuggets). We also excluded dips, even if a couple are mentioned, on grounds that high quality tenders will hold up on their own.

We acknowledge that quality can vary per location, as some franchisees simply run restaurants and manage kitchens better than others. As such, we looked at the general feedback about each chain restaurant's tenders and considered the most common comments from customers.