Chicken tenders are pretty trendy these days and my 13 year old loves ’em. He has recently becomes obsessed with Raising Cane’s, a wildly successful chicken which like most fast food, is flat out overpriced. I’ve cracked the code on making Raising Cane’s sauce at home. Now it’s time to figure out how to make the Chicken tenders at home.
This review happened quite unintentionally. My wife and I separately bought frozen chicken tenders at the supermarket in the hopes of squashing our son’s craving for Raising Cane’s. We also both went down the internet rabbit hole searching for the best brands. This reddit thread justified my purchase.
I spotted this at Sprouts market. It was on sale, normally marked at $15. But you can get it for around $12 at Target. Reviews on Reddit were strong for this one. It has that look of “healthy and premium” and I did buy it at Sprouts which strikes me as a market in between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.
This is what my wife picked up at our regular grocery store(HEB). Priced at $8, Realgood is cheaper than Just Bare but you get a little less: 20 oz vs 24 oz.
My son took to these tenders real quick. I tried them too and they were pretty decent. It tastes like premium fast food but made at home.
Realgood said to cook their tenders at 330 which was basically a mistake. It took well over the 14 minutes they listed on the bag. These were greasy, the coating tended to fall off and my kid barely touched it.
It might cost more but the kid ate these up. FWIW I did cook the Realgood tenders again, at a higher temp and I want to say it came out better. But between the two, I would stick to Just Bare.
Between air fryers and general improvements, frozen fried chicken has come a long way since I was a kid eating Tyson nuggets cooked in an oven. While it might not be nearly as good as frying chicken tenders yourself, the convenience is clear and these taste about the same as Raising Cane’s if it was delivered or even from the drive thru.
Can’t say dipping into the world of freezer section in the grocery store is a culinary achievement but if it’s between dropping $15 for a single meal at a fast food restaurant vs getting a week’s worth of Chicken Tenders, viva la frozen foods!
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