This Seafood Chain Serves Some Of The Highest-Quality Chicken Tenders

While most folks might know Long John Silver's as the fast food joint with one of the most extensive seafood menus, no one should sleep on its poultry. In fact, you can easily count it among the chain restaurants with the highest-quality chicken tenders because its Chicken Planks are just that good.

This might be a bit of a shock considering the chicken was at the very bottom of Mashed's rankings of Long John Silver's menu items back in 2023. At the time, we found the chicken unbearably dry, with the crunchy batter being its only saving grace. It looks like things have improved tremendously since, however, with customers now finding the item incredibly juicy and among the very best in the market. One possible explanation for the jump in quality is that the chain changed the way it prepares poultry. As QSR noted in 2024, Long John Silver's has sought to make the meat more moist by implementing a new marination process. The report didn't divulge specifics. However, an Instagram user claimed the company switched from using frozen battered chicken to thawed, hand-battered, and 24-hour marinated meat.

A good number of online reviews specifically highlight the batter, which is the very same one Long John Silver's uses for its fish. The tempura-style coating creates the kind of light, crispy exterior you can't get with traditional breading, making the Chicken Planks a standout among other tenders. If you don't have a Long John Silver's nearby, you can get a pretty good idea of how that texture makes a difference by trying out this Long John Silver's Chicken Planks copycat recipe.

The prominence of poultry at Long John Silver's shouldn't come as a surprise to longtime fans. The restaurant's original menu included a chicken dish. The Chicken Planks themselves debuted sometime in the mid to late 1970s, according to several self-identified former employees on Facebook. On Reddit, you can find users raving about them from as far back as nine years ago and up until today. It's safe to say that the seafood offerings just claimed more of the spotlight.

Long John Silver's aimed to fix that discrepancy in attention when it rebranded in late 2025. The chain put chicken front and center on its logo and proudly proclaimed itself to be a chicken and seafood joint. In a press release announcing the shift, Long John Silver's vice president of marketing and innovation Christopher Caudill shared that customers have been calling the restaurant's chicken its "best-kept secret."

While Long John Silver's adopted a new marination process, it seems that other aspects of the Chicken Planks recipe have remained relatively consistent over the years. The chain still uses all white meat and its signature batter, just as it did decades ago. For customers who've enjoyed the poultry since the 1970s, Long John Silver's even brought back its original chicken dish, Peg Legs, under a new name: Crispy Chicken Wings.