Speaker 1: I think you're going to have to sit a little tighter to each other. All right, there we go. Shall we? Shall we? This off the bat looks to be the most breaded of the tenders.

Speaker 2: Chicken tenders, also known as chicken strips,

Speaker 1: It's juicy.

Speaker 2: chicken fillets, or chicken fingers,

Speaker 1: Cheers.

Speaker 2: are having a moment. Between 2020 and 2024, grocery store sales of the American food staple rose 104%. And now fast food chains, struggling with slumping sales, are jumping on the tender bandwagon, too. In May 2024, they sold about $6 billion of strips.

Speaker 3: This is the dance I always do when I'm eating chicken tenders.

Speaker 2: I don't eat meat, so I enlisted some of my colleagues to help decide if they're worth the hype and the price tag. Let's have you all try the...

Speaker 4: The same chicken.

Speaker 2: The first one, the one on the left. In October 2024, number three chicken brand KFC launched a new ad.

Speaker 5: The chicken tender battle has just begun. This is going to be big for us. Tender battle begun.

Speaker 2: As if the ad wasn't enough to rile up competitors, On October 17th, the company handed out free strips at what they called carefully selected cities. Those were Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Also known as close rivals Popeye's, Chick-fil-A, and Raising Cane's hometowns, Catherine Tan Gillespie was hired less than two months prior. You could assume this was her idea. We've got the best tasting tender. We should let people know about that. I felt that we should kick off a fight. This battle is the latest attempt to turn the struggling company around. KFC's parent company, Yum Brands, reported the chicken chain faced same-store sales declines in the first three quarters of 2024. KFC's story is one of many. Between 2014 and 2024, fast food restaurants raised menu prices by an average of 60%. That's nearly double the rate of inflation. McDonald's and Popeye's rose their prices the most. And the consumer has responded by pulling back. KFC, as with many others, has put an emphasis on value as of late.

Speaker 6: For me, it's putting our iconic recipe on a really modern product that so many customers want, especially the younger generation. So we think that's going to do really well for us.

Speaker 2: Now even McDonald's, whose chicken sales alone were $25 billion in 2023, is getting in on the action.

Speaker 7: When they innovate and do something new, like that is the real indicator that a trend has gone mainstream.

Speaker 2: The chicken battle is not new for the chicken chains. In 2019, Popeye's ignited a chicken sandwich war after its new sandwich was so popular that it eventually helped the company overtake KFC as the No. 2 U.S. chicken chain.

Speaker 7: With a chicken sandwich like that overnight, people wanted it and wanted to compare it against other chains. This stuff can flip overnight.

Speaker 2: But the excitement around chicken sandwiches has peaked. And now chicken tenders are all the rage.

Speaker 5: I didn't smell these. Yeah, we should have taken, like, you know, sniff wine before, like...

Speaker 4: All right, here we go, moment of truth.

Speaker 2: So we took it into our own hands to figure out which brand we thought would win the battle.

Speaker 4: I'm gonna eat this whole thing.

Speaker 2: It's really, really tender, not to... It is a chicken tender, but it is. While a private company, Raising Cane's is the only one that focuses solely on tenders. Founded in 1996, it has more than 840 locations and expects to reach almost 900 by the end of 2024. It reported its first billion-dollar quarter in Q1 2024 and in its most recent quarter, it grew Sainstore's sales and traffic by double digits.

Speaker 1: Less seasoned than the first.

Speaker 4: Yeah, kind of plain-tasting.

Speaker 5: I feel like this one was made for sauce. It's almost meant to take on the flavor of whatever you're dipping it in. Yes, I definitely see that.

Speaker 2: After major chicken players Chick-fil-A, Popeyes, and KFC, Barclays ranks it fourth, capturing about 8% of the market.

Speaker 8: We believe consumers, we call them customers, they're looking for everyday value. They're not looking for a gimmick, and we can deliver that. So we are pretty bullish about where we are and how we will continue to deliver on that promise. That's awesome.

Speaker 2: Wingstop is another major player whose tender offering has proven successful. Some of the smaller tender-focused competitors have also become some of the fastest-growing concepts in America, thanks to the Cutlet's popularity.

Speaker 5: This one has more flavor than the other one.

Speaker 4: This one's the winner.

Speaker 5: Just from looking at the three pieces of chicken, my guess was this is Chick-fil-A.

Speaker 2: As of Q3 2024, nearly half of all U.S. restaurants carry chicken tenders, and many are innovating by offering them in other dishes, like in salads, wraps, and sandwiches. Mexican-inspired chain Taco Bell, who shares the same parent company as KFC, has been testing them in its tacos.

Speaker 7: Everyone kind of going back to 2019 took that lesson. They kind of saw, like, there's so much growth happening here. There's like this viral menu item. Let's go in and get a piece of it ourselves.

Speaker 2: According to some reports, the Puritan Backroom Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, invented the chicken tender in 1974 after its owner wanted to find a use for the one leftover piece of chicken, the tenderloin, the meat closest to the rib cage. His concept was simple. Marinate it, deep-fry it, and serve it up with some sauce. Simple yet delicious. A few years later, Burger King took chicken tenders mainstream as a way to compete against McDonald's success with chicken nuggets.

Speaker 9: Chicken tenders, real fillets of all white meat chicken breasts, not form bits and pieces of chicken like McNuggets.

Speaker 7: They first started off as, like, more of a kids' menu item, and I think that is one of the big reasons why adults tend to love them today, how you can get it in kind of an adultified form.

Speaker 5: If I'm going to eat out or order food, I want something that's, like, better than what I would make at home, and these are better than what I make at home.

Speaker 2: Now they're everywhere, at schools, birthday parties, gas stations, diners, baseball games, you name it. And tenders are a hit at home, too. Chicken producer Purdue says that with fast-food inflation up, sales of its frozen tenders are up 64% in 2024 compared to 2020. Tenders are easy and cheap to make. You don't need a lot of manpower or have to handle fresh produce like lettuce, tomatoes, or bread. And their versatility allows them to pair with different flavor combinations and sauces, something which also helps drive more sales.

Speaker 7: It's pretty simple to prepare. Throw it in your fryer along with the fries you're probably already frying up anyways, and call it a day.

Speaker 2: From the consumer's point of view, they make sense, too. They're filling, practical, and easy to pick up on the go. Plus, people perceive them as a healthier alternative to nuggets, which are processed, or beef burgers. And then there's, of course, the nostalgia factor.

Speaker 1: Well, I did grow up a picky eater. I was a kid that would go to, like, a fancy restaurant and would order chicken tenders. They were a graduation from chicken nuggets, which are for kids.

Speaker 2: Chicken overall has been the fastest-growing category in the U.S. for over a decade. In 2023, U.S. consumption was double the amount of beef. One study showed Gen Z and Gen X prefer chicken tenders, while boomers and millennials ranked them second.

Speaker 9: How do you remove the reputation of being a kid's meal? It's because you can play with nostalgia. It's the same that McDonald's has done with the adult tech meal. All these elements, you know, playing with your emotions, are ways to be reattracting consumers and make them reconnect with their own childhood. And that helps boost up the traffic.

Speaker 1: I think this one is my winner.

Speaker 4: I would say it would be between this one and the one on the end.

Speaker 1: I think this looked like KFC to me. Because of the breading, it appears more, usually if I go to KFC, I get like a bucket of chicken. So that's what it looks like the most to me.

Speaker 2: Not every company can be successful when participating in a trend. It could risk hurting its reputation if it doesn't get the product right or spend too much money marketing it at the expense of something else, like Starbucks and its olive oil-infused coffee that it discontinued in November 2024. There's a reason Raising Cane's has only one product, though it says it doesn't want to be involved in whatever chicken tender battle is happening between other chains.

Speaker 8: You know, if you're consistently doing one thing and one thing only, you get really good at it. So we are exceptional at serving very high quality, craveable chicken finger meals. We're not in a war. We're not competing. We're not reacting. We focus on ourselves. That's all.

Speaker 9: If this is not your core offering and you're entering into a space because you have a scale and you think you could be replicating a recipe that is successful somewhere else, it doesn't mean that you're going to be succeeding.

Speaker 2: It tastes vaguely like cough syrup. I don't like that. And for consumers, it also comes down to price. For the meals we ordered in New York City, only KFC's was under $10, though Raising Cane's includes other items like coleslaw and bread.

Speaker 1: I would pay up to probably $10 for like maybe four or five tenders.

Speaker 5: For a value meal with tenders, I'd be wanting to spend about $8.

Speaker 4: I felt like this one kind of tasted the cheapest because it just didn't taste like much of anything to me.

Speaker 5: I would agree with that. The lack of flavor in this one made it taste cheap, but it was good chicken and chicken's expensive. That's the actual expensive part. So I'm kind of torn.

Speaker 2: It's still early to gauge impact. Chicken tenders are also a very U.S.-centered favorite, and this is KFC's first quarter with the new product. The company said it took two years to develop this latest version.

Speaker 3: Good consistency. I love chicken fingers. Chicken tenders, sorry.

Speaker 6: When we sampled them in New York and L.A., we had lines around the block. I think it is gonna be huge for us, absolutely. And I think we are still gonna see this amazing fried chicken category innovate.

Speaker 2: Overall, putting efforts into an already beloved food item is pretty low risk but potentially high reward. And even if the spotlight fades, tenders will remain a classic, much like burgers and fries. It is, after all, an American icon at this point. But success and longevity also hinge on taste, and there can only be one clear winner, and that's up to consumers.

Speaker 4: KFC. Wow. I know my Chick-fil-A. I know my Chick-fil-A.

Speaker 1: I'm surprised.