On chicken tenders

June 26, 2018 9:56 AM

“There’s no narrative to chicken tenders, there’s no performance. That is the substance of their allure: If you’re ordering them, you don’t have to look at the menu. You don’t have to think about whether you’ve been posting a lot of pasta lately or whether it’s kind of passé at this point to go for a kale salad. Chicken tenders aren’t cool. They’re not retro. They’re not funny. They ask nothing of you, and they don’t say anything about you. They are two things, and two things only: perfect, and delicious. That’s enough. That’s everything.“
posted by Grandysaur (82 comments total)

I love this article, and more than that I love Helen Rosner, who is very smart and interesting on twitter at @hels.

I do disagree with her distaste for dipping sauce with chicken fingers. Sweet n Sour for life.
posted by hepta at 10:07 AM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

Hello I am a tendyholic and this post is relevant to my interests.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:10 AM on June 26, 2018 [14 favorites]

easy to eat with the hands but absolutely okay to go at with a knife and fork

Oh...oh, no.
posted by AndrewInDC at 10:11 AM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

Guess what I'm eating as I go to read the article.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:11 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

She is Extremely Wrong about the sauce situation, though. You choose to dip because dipping enhances your enjoyment, it's not to conceal the dubious origins of the meat or to add flavour where none exists. However, if, somehow, implausibly, the only dip to which she has been exposed is ranch then I concur with the NO DIP assessment, as ranch is vile.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:18 AM on June 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

Tenders are a vehicle for sauce, which makes them a good food in my eyes. I have always wondered when the anti-tendies splash back would begin. Looks like we're on the road for a restaurant that serves overpriced tenders presented in some outlandish way or paired with some expensive fancy nonsense so people in NYC or wherever can buy 18 dollar chicken tender served in a granite tupperware container with avocado roots sprinkled on it.

Madeleine on the page said it herself better:
"I think this essay about chicken fingers is possibly the perfect content for other food careerists to pass around on Twitter, noting their equally-contrived appreciation for it."
posted by GoblinHoney at 10:20 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Guthrie's. Box. Extra Sauce.

The only way to live.
posted by dudemanlives at 10:21 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Chicken fingers are the best food-of-last-resort. We were all hangry at the zoo this weekend and I wrangled the kid while my wife went to get emergency lunch, and she came back with the most amazing chicken fingers. Legit, you guys, the Central Park Zoo has high-quality chicken fingers.

(I did not ask, and do not want to know, what they cost.)
posted by uncleozzy at 10:21 AM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

This is a great piece but she is wrong about one very important thing. Honey mustard dipping sauce or gtfo.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:22 AM on June 26, 2018 [7 favorites]

When they're good, they're great. Sauce enhances them and fork and knife are only required when they're substantial (or hot) enough that fingers grow weary.

But most of the time they're Sysco garbage and basically Doritos filled with dried out protein slurry.
posted by abulafa at 10:23 AM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

The main difference between Chicken Tenders/Fingers and Chicken Nuggets is that sauces embellish the Tenders but are absolutely necessary to make Nuggets edible.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:23 AM on June 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

Just call it chicken katsu and you get your cool points back.
posted by Space Coyote at 10:23 AM on June 26, 2018 [26 favorites]

In addition to the sauce issue (I'm partial to barbecue, but have no grievance with honey mustard purists), I also disagree with her assertion that "real" chicken tenders come in frozen bags of 500. I'm not arguing for a haute cuisine reinvention of the chicken tender; I'm just saying that a slice of fresh chicken breast filet coated in a house-made beer batter is a revelation.
posted by Faint of Butt at 10:24 AM on June 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

I didn't realize adults ate chicken tenders plain. Blue cheese all the way.
posted by praemunire at 10:25 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

The two things I miss the most from Texas: Whataburger, and Chicken Express. You could get a box of 25 perfect crispy-crunchy tenders - they rarely sat more than 4-5 minutes between batches - plus two quart sides for about $22ish, and a half-gallon of tea for like a dollar more. We'd have tenders and sides for dinner that night and then chicken tender salad - heavy on tomatoes and cucumber - several more nights that week.

I can't find anything like them in California.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

The third rule of chicken tenders is that sauce is a last resort. You shouldn’t have to dip your chicken tenders in anything. If you want a vehicle for ranch dressing, order the crudités.

Oh, someone is looking for a fight that they're going to lose.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:34 AM on June 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

"There’s no narrative to chicken tenders, there’s no performance. [...]"

False!
posted by theorique at 10:37 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hi my name is annika and I had chicken tenders at the Alamo drafthouse last night while watching Jurassic World.
posted by nikaspark at 10:44 AM on June 26, 2018 [12 favorites]

As usual, poffinboffin is correct-ranch is absolutely foul and has to stay at least 5 feet away from me at all times. (Hard to do with nephews who i regularly eat meals with, which has led to anyone in our family screaming "Bradley's not ranch-free!" at any given moment in time, a great memory).

As sauces, I like honey mustard but i'm picky about it (can't be too thin, can't be too tangy, etc). I'll make my own at home with mayonnaise and zesty catalina and spices. Raising Cane's has a sauce similar to this, which i love. I might be the only adult I know that will actually make chicken tenders, like, "go out of my way and spend time in the kitchen cooking" make them.
posted by FirstMateKate at 10:52 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Looks like we're on the road for a restaurant that serves overpriced tenders ...so people in NYC or wherever can buy 18 dollar chicken tender

already one step ahead of you (they're not fancy, but $10 for two chicken fingers is, uh, Something.)

also i did a CTRL-F for ketchup and none of you are living your lives right. keep your sauces and dips, your toppings and drizzles and glazes, and especially keep that vile ranch and bleu cheese the hell away from me. honest, simple ketchup is all i need.
posted by halation at 11:00 AM on June 26, 2018

Chicken Rings. That is all.
posted by asperity at 11:01 AM on June 26, 2018

The third rule of chicken tenders is that sauce is a last resort. You shouldn’t have to dip your chicken tenders in anything.

This idea that sauce for tenders necessarily implies dipping weirds me out a little bit. Are tenders/fingers with hot sauce really that regional? I mean I've had them in Ontario...

But then again this is the place where you can get tenders/fingers with hot sauce made into a sub.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:02 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Are they served in a mug? Because that's the only way I serve em.
posted by yellowbinder at 11:09 AM on June 26, 2018

This is so fun and well written.

Tangent: It pairs nicely with the conversation we were having about music in this thread. Basically about how surprise and deviation from the expected is what makes music light up the mind and delight.

I was arguing that musicians (and critics, I imagine) tend towards more and more esoteric music as conventional popular music becomes bland and predictable. Then I read this line in the tenders article:
“Why do you think every chef says his favorite food is roast chicken, or oysters, or a steak?” he asked. So much complexity makes simplicity appealing.

What's the musical equivalent, I wonder. I'm tempted to bring up blues standards or Michael Jackson, but I think that's off. Cuisine is to sustenance as music is to expressive sound. So I think that's why I listen to more podcasts and relish perfectly timed exchanges in comedies when I'm burnt out on music. Music is language done all fancy. Sometimes you just want language prepared well.
posted by es_de_bah at 11:10 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I had chicken tenders at the Alamo drafthouse last night while watching Jurassic World.

Chickens are technically beaked, winged dinosaurs so it was fitting.

Ever since the kids were little kiddles we had a meal called "fingers and toes" -- chicken fingers and potatoes. Easy to make and every body liked them.

A couple years ago we went to a restaurant we'd never been to before, and they called their kid's chicken-fingers-and-fries basked "fingers and toes" . We were taken aback that a Wisconsin diner would be as clever as us.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:13 AM on June 26, 2018 [12 favorites]

Bruno Mars is the modern music chicken tender?
posted by Grandysaur at 11:14 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure chicken tenders need any advocacy. There are three different restaurants near my house where chicken tenders is the only meat on the menu. You want the chicken finger, the world is prepared to give you the chicken finger.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:16 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Agreed on delicious but not on perfect. Only some chicken tenders are perfect.
posted by grouse at 11:18 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Every picture of food is a selfie."

I might need that framed in my kitchen.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 11:19 AM on June 26, 2018 [8 favorites]

but the ones that are perfect are transcendent
posted by poffin boffin at 11:20 AM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

I am not a fan of dipping sauces in general, but I do think that Chicken McNuggets and honey are a strangely ideal combination. Of course, it has gotten harder and harder to find McDonalds restaurants that will give you honey, but when you do it's actually real stuff. I suspect it's the most natural product that you can get at a McDonalds.

Damnit, now I want chicken nuggets. What the hell.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:25 AM on June 26, 2018 [9 favorites]

I have always wondered when the anti-tendies splash back would begin.

For me it began the first time I saw someone referring to them as "tendies".
(Ugh. It sounds like how someone into baby roleplay would refer to his genitals.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:29 AM on June 26, 2018 [14 favorites]

Whataburger chicken strips with cream gravy...
posted by jim in austin at 11:35 AM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

I have always wondered when the anti-tendies splash back would begin.

The year is 2018 and the tendie purge has begun. Anti-tendie forces have consolidated their power and are systematically targeting communities with known tendie-sympathizers. Trucks full of mechanically-separated chicken are being seized at the border, their drivers dragged out and beaten. The streets run orange with sweet and sour sauce. The nation lives in fear.
posted by dephlogisticated at 11:36 AM on June 26, 2018 [6 favorites]

Yes, "tendies" is more unpleasant than most other words and certainly shouldn't be used to describe delicious chicken fingers.

Does Pizzeria UNO still call them chicken thumbs?
posted by uncleozzy at 11:37 AM on June 26, 2018

My favorite chain (and my favorite chicken period) is Bon Chon. It's Korean fried chicken, which is crispier and tastier than any chicken I've ever had. They have a killer honey-soy sauce that can be hot or mild. Hot can be wonderfully excessive, you were warned.
posted by doctor_negative at 11:37 AM on June 26, 2018 [11 favorites]

Just dropping in to say I'm about to meet a fellow tender-loving friend (not as weird as it sounds) for an impromptu lunch thanks to this post!
posted by natabat at 11:38 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

The best chicken tenders I've ever eaten are made in a mostly defunct seafood franchise in Louisville, KY. Each location prepared them differently, and one in particular fried them using a blend of corn starch and spices that was so subtle in flavor and perfect in crunch to juicy ratio that I would order them in lieu of the similarly amazing fish.

AND NOW THEY'RE GONE. AS IS MY SOUL.
posted by Young Kullervo at 11:38 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I see that the author has not appreciated Korean fried chicken tenders, both in terms of differentiating between quality of tenders and the sauces that can be added.

For me it began the first time I saw someone referring to them as "tendies".
(Ugh. It sounds like how someone into baby roleplay would refer to his genitals.)

It's worse, it's generally because of a 4chan meme.
posted by Candleman at 11:44 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

I came here to mock "they don’t say anything about you" (wrong, as witness the whole tendies meme), but the article revealed that there actually is such a real thing as the chicken tenderloin, and I had no idea that that was what they were called, that delectable spindle of meat that you get to when you've peeled away the outer breast. I'd just assumed that all "tendies" were differently-formed McNuggets. I can't imagine making a whole meal out of chicken tenderloins; that would be up there with lark's tongues in aspic in terms of decadence.

(thanks, I'll have a dozen--no, two)
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:48 AM on June 26, 2018

you can get a giant bag of frozen tenderloins at Walmart for like seven bucks but good luck finding even a whole lark there
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:53 AM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

Old Yankee Stadium used to have a food stand that may have had other food but was only good for buckets of tenders and fries. A big, Yankees branded bucket, filled to the brim with freshly-fried chicken tenders and fries. It was pricey at the time - maybe 18 bucks in 2004 or so, but could easily be split between 3 or 4 people. It was glorious, carrying one of those buckets back to the stands, like a prize.
posted by rachaelfaith at 11:56 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I am not a fan of dipping sauces in general, but I do think that Chicken McNuggets and honey are a strangely ideal combination.

Oh, man, I'd forgotten I really like this! It's been so long since honey was offered as an option when I get McNuggets that it slipped my mind how good they are together.

We bought some gajillion dollar farmer's market wildflower honey recently, and now I know what's for dinner.

Aside: Did you know about meadowfoam honey? I had no idea it was a thing until it changed my life. It tastes like marshmallows. Dear god.
posted by malthusan at 12:06 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

you can get a giant bag of frozen tenderloins at Walmart for like seven bucks but good luck finding even a whole lark there

It's mostly "rib meat" tho.

Actually since it's Walmart it's probably mostly back meat.

Mmm, mmm good old back meat.
posted by Young Kullervo at 12:06 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’ve hit some sort of patch recently (stress? Hahaha maybe!) where I’ve been been craving bland fat bomb kind of food, and in order to not go bankrupt at Cane’s there have been a lot of McNuggets in my life. I’m not proud of this. Mostly I eat them plain and share with the dog.
posted by PussKillian at 12:08 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have found that some McDonalds locations keep honey around, but if they have it it's invariably behind and below the counter, so you have to know to ask for it, and there's a sort of weird drug-deal aspect to getting some.

It's also the one product on their menu that has not seemingly changed in packaging or content as long as I have been eating there, though. (Apparently, until a few years back the packaging still had a copyright date of 1983!)

Meadowfoam honey sounds amazing.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:39 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I know there's a fair amount of hate out there for Jamie Oliver but I found this to be a lot of fun. There are about 4 related videos at that same school.
posted by hearthpig at 12:39 PM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Nah, she is wrong about everyone loving those things. I hate those white meat boneless things. Give me a nice chicken leg or chicken thigh any day.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:40 PM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

For me it began the first time I saw someone referring to them as "tendies".

This right here is the very first time I've seen that. I wish I could un-see it now. Ew.

I'm an advocate of barbecue sauce with chicken tenders, or sprinkled with hot sauce and dipped in blue cheese dressing.
posted by Daily Alice at 12:47 PM on June 26, 2018

Yes, "tendies" is more unpleasant than most other words and certainly shouldn't be used to describe delicious chicken fingers.

Tenders are delicious morsels heaven that are crunchy on the outside and, well, tender on the inside, seasoned and/or sauced to one's individual tastes. They are internationally recognized as comfort food across class and cultural borders, and are best savored until one largely resembles the tender itself: prone, rumpled, somewhat warm to the touch, and occasionally forming funny shapes.

Tendies are bland, soggy mass-produced blobs that squalling brats--of all ages--demand that someone else make for them and be delivered to their insatiable maws as quickly as possible. They, like revenge, are a dish best served cold.
posted by zombieflanders at 12:48 PM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

Now I'm wanting Long John Silver's chicken with extra crispies and double slaw. That is all.
posted by TrishaU at 1:23 PM on June 26, 2018 [5 favorites]

Chicken fingers and a cold beer is my go-to comfort meal. I like mine too hot to touch and dipped in either ranch or straight sriracha, or sometimes one and then the other.
posted by coppermoss at 1:35 PM on June 26, 2018

Now I'm wanting Long John Silver's chicken with extra crispies and double slaw. That is all.

Long John Silvers are legit time machines. Want to know what Long John Silvers looked and smelled like in 1985 and 1995? Just go to one today. They looked and smelled just like that.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:44 PM on June 26, 2018 [4 favorites]

I have many thoughts on chicken fingers:

When we go out to overpriced venues, I pretty much always steer little purr to the chicken fingers (they mostly just want fries and ketchup) so I can eat the remainders. So much better than a half-eaten hot dog.

We also used to have chicken finger fridays at college, where people would come out of the lines with plates heaped to the brim with the crunchy little buggers. I liked the food fine during my 4 years, but chicken finger day was the best day.

Bon Chon is excellent chicken, but it is really best hot and on the bone. The wings look like legs, and the legs look like huge cartoon versions of "meat on the bone". The boneless ones are ok, but can be a little tough. I bet they would be fantastic chopped on a salad, but I usually eat them out of the fridge at 1 am before going to bed. They also have delicious zucchini fries.

When we went to see the eclipse last year, we bought a huge box of Bojangles for dinner one night, and used the box as a pinhole camera. It worked extremely well, and the chicken fingers were yummy.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 1:50 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love chicken tenders and they were created as a carrier for El Yucateco Green Sauce.

OK now I suppose I should go read the article.
posted by moonmilk at 1:58 PM on June 26, 2018

I recently had a chicken tenders kick and ordered them every time I was out. People were jealous. I hope I kicked off a chain of people ordering tenders the next time they went out, which started others doing it, and so on and on.
posted by Emmy Rae at 2:19 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I order them all the time at my age and I am not ashamed. I am not picky on sauce but they must be crisp.

I never did like Chicken McNuggets though, what the hell are they covered in that's so...weird?
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:29 PM on June 26, 2018

Also, not chicken fingers, but our local chinese place does great sesame/general tso's chicken, I think it's thigh meat with a heavy coating of cornstarch and then fried, but every time it is fast, hot and delicious. The sauce is just ok, but the chicken is always tasty.
posted by Hermeowne Grangepurr at 2:50 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who insists that the best dipping sauce for tenders is a Wendy's chocolate frosty.

For all I know he's entirely correct, but the entire concept makes me go "bleargh" so I've never tried it.

Also, I'm on a gig now in a place with no chicken tenders in sight, which means that now I will have to stop somewhere and get some on my way home which means I will be eating fried food at like 11 pm tonight which is not exactly healthy. I blame all y'all.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:50 PM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

I was once at an engagement party at The French Laundry and one of the grooms-to-be's favorite food is chicken tenders. This was a long-planned dinner for 10, and it turns out that Chef Keller takes requests, and so we were served the first ever chicken tenders straight of that gleaming 3-Michelin starred kitchen. They were perfectly cooked, lightly breaded, and came with a creamy dijon dipping sauce. In short, they were glorious.

Yeah, the Oysters & Pearls are good. But if you're ever at The French Laundry, order those chicken tenders. You won't regret it.
posted by Amplify at 3:21 PM on June 26, 2018 [12 favorites]

I have a friend who insists that the best dipping sauce for tenders is a Wendy's chocolate frosty.

We'd probably be shocked to learn how many ingredients the two items have in common.

I'm betting it's somewhere in the range of the human/chimp DNA ratio.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:22 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

i appreciate chicken tenders in that they seem a ubiquitous source of protein for picky eaters who may otherwise only eat carbs. picky eaters (i don't mean that in any pejorative sense btw; maybe "selective eaters" is a better term?) also often appreciate how blander, carby foods function as conduits for sweetness (e.g. fries and ketchup), and sure there are lots of fries that are good without condiments, but also lots that aren't, and even less chicken tenders - in my (extensive) experience most are beautiful terribly dry without the Sauce. ranch is a no for me (but whatever floats your boat) but caesar dressing on the other hand ;}
posted by LeviQayin at 3:58 PM on June 26, 2018

Eating Wendy's chicken fingers right now while reading this - with sweet and sour sauce.

Nothing better IMO
posted by Roger Pittman at 3:58 PM on June 26, 2018

I keep a box of frozen chicken tenders in the freezer at work, for those days when I neither want to leave work nor think much about lunch—on a restaurant menu, there’s always something else I’d rather have, but they’re one of my favorite things to pull out of a breakroom toaster oven.

Blue cheese or Caesar dressing, or mustard, or hot sauce—we keep a lot of condiments.
posted by box at 4:31 PM on June 26, 2018

puffin boffin : "ranch is vile."

oh no... no no no... I pray for your soul, for when judgement day comes...

"And then I will confess to them, 'I have never known you, remove yourselves far from me, you workers of evil.!"
posted by symbioid at 8:20 PM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

I recently discovered the wonder that is Trader Joe's chicken tenders. They are really good quality, with a good meat-to-breading ratio, nice flavoring, and good quality white meat. I like to keep them in the freezer for those nights that I don't have the energy/desire to cook, and want something proteiny and carby but not terribly unhealthy. If I'm feeling really fancy, I'll make a salad to have with them (in the summertime, they go great with a Greek-ish tomato-and-cucumber salad) and then it's a pretty well-rounded meal! My favorite dipping sauce for those is actually Trader Joe's Greek Feta dressing. Creamy like ranch but without that overly-MSG-ish ranch dressing flavor.

I almost never get them at restaurants, unfortunately, but there's this one sports bar in Seattle that has them and their ranch is surprisingly good. I'd be shocked if they made it from scratch (not that kind of place) but it tastes like it is. Otherwise I'm a honey mustard partisan.
posted by lunasol at 10:16 PM on June 26, 2018

what I always want is dark meat tenders, and apparently this isn't a thing. And so the resentment, cloying and bleak.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:31 PM on June 26, 2018

What is the origin story of honey mustard?

Why is America so great at making condiments that conquer the world?
posted by tirutiru at 11:25 PM on June 26, 2018

Came here for the chicken-tenders love and was met with ranch-hate! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??? Ranch is the dressing created by the gods so that we mere mortals may taste heaven.

Although chicken tenders with cream gravy is really the best combo.
posted by LizBoBiz at 2:28 AM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

So what's the difference between a goujon and a tender?
posted by trif at 4:00 AM on June 27, 2018

Would you like a Goujon?
posted by Homemade Interossiter at 4:23 AM on June 27, 2018

Came here for the chicken-tenders love and was met with ranch-hate! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??? Ranch is the dressing created by the gods so that we mere mortals may taste heaven.

GOOD ranch dressing is really good. BAD ranch dressing is REALLY BAD. FWIW, I don't like any "lite" ranch, and Fat Free Ranch is a sick joke.
posted by mikelieman at 5:08 AM on June 27, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ranch mixed with Frank's Red Hot. Come at me bro!
posted by VTX at 6:09 AM on June 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

Although chicken tenders with cream gravy is really the best combo.

I realized after I posted that the cream gravy is what puts my beloved Chicken Express over the top. Hot, fresh chicken tenders with nuclear-hot cream gravy - and it may have black pepper in it but you should add more at the table - and maybe a shake or two of vinegar hot sauce (Louisiana or Crystal preferred, Tabasco and Smoked Tabasco also good). Same principle as Chicken Fried Steak.

When we'd make leftover tender salad I usually mixed ranch with Frank's or sriracha, but ranch with a dollop of BBQ sauce is also excellent.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:47 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

ranch dressing is demonic explosive fart slurry and i will ban it under my totalitarian dictatorship
posted by poffin boffin at 10:24 AM on June 27, 2018

Just got back from lunch and want to say that doctor_negative's recommendation for Bonchon is just one of the myriad ways Metafilter has improved my life. Thanks!
posted by whuppy at 10:48 AM on June 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

I didn't sleep great last night, and it always makes my stomach upset the next day, so what did I reach for at lunchtime? Yup, delicious, comforting chicken tenders.

No ranch, 'cause ranch is gross, though.
posted by PearlRose at 11:01 AM on June 27, 2018

Why is America so great at making condiments that conquer the world?
Don't know... But will admit to actually factually sitting down with chicken tenders (or OMG corn dogs) all bare on a plate with half-a-dozen condiments. There's a dab of ranch, a dab of BBQ, a ... of Cock Sauce, some bacon bits, some home-made honey mustard, the list can go on and on.

It's a bit of what can I make nice and easy and eat in multiple ways and crispy chicken strip is the obvious choice for turning into anything depending on what you put on it.

Ten-thousand-things from the same basic cooked protein based on what you decide at the end.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:50 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

It's Korean fried chicken, which is crispier and tastier than any chicken I've ever had.

I cannot let this comment go without mentioning that the proper name for this classic Korean fare is chimaek, which is a portmanteau of chicken and maekju (Korean for beer). I've seen it slowly gaining visibility but not fast enough!
posted by like_neon at 8:15 AM on June 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

I largely quit eating meat several years ago, but chicken tenders (along with pepperoni pizza) are high on my list of exceptions. Whenever one of my kids orders them, one or two quickly go missing when they're not looking.
posted by slogger at 11:29 AM on June 28, 2018

"Whenever one of my kids orders them, one or two quickly go missing when they're not looking"

This is proper parenting!
posted by kevinbelt at 1:44 PM on June 28, 2018

Everyone is wrong, the best dip for chicken tenders is mashed potatoes and gravy, best eaten hot from your KFC 3-tender meal.

The second best dip is ranch.
posted by nicodine at 4:21 PM on June 28, 2018