Chicken Fingers - Wikipedia

U.S. dish of breaded and fried chicken meat Chicken tenders

Alternative names	Chicken fingers, chicken fillets, chicken goujons, chicken strips
Course	Appetizer, main course
Place of origin	Manchester, New Hampshire, United States
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Chicken, breading
Media: Chicken tenders

Chicken tenders (also known as chicken goujons, chicken strips, chicken fingers, chicken tendies, or chicken fillets)[citation needed] are chicken meat prepared from the pectoralis minor muscles of the bird.[1][2] These strips of white meat are located on either side of the breastbone, under the breast meat (pectoralis major).[3] They may also be made with similarly shaped pieces cut from chicken meat, usually the breast, or sometimes just pulverized chicken flesh.[4]

Chicken tenders are prepared by coating chicken meat in a breading mixture and then deep frying them, in a manner similar to the preparation of schnitzel.[5] They are a very popular fast-food snack or main course due to their convenience and have become a staple across the United States.[6] Some of the most popular fast-food restaurants that sell chicken tenders include Guthrie's, Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, Chick-fil-A, Church's Chicken, KFC, Popeyes, Zaxby's and Culver's.[7]

History

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Chicken tenders were first made at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1974.[8] Charlie Pappas salvaged chicken pieces that had been trimmed from larger cuts of chicken, marinating and frying them to create chicken tenders.[2][9]

Other restaurants in Savannah, Georgia, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, have challenged this claim with later assertions to the invention of chicken tenders, although the consensus supports the claim in Manchester.[10] In 2023, Manchester was officially declared the "Chicken Tender Capital of the World" by Mayor Joyce Craig.[11]

Mass production

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Chicken tenders are a mass-produced product in the United States.[12][13] They gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s as an alternative fast food choice to chicken nuggets, since they retained more chicken meat.[14] Production can involve coating chicken meat with spices, polyphosphate and breading or crumbs, flash-frying the product to hold the breading in place, and then freezing it[12] prior to shipment for consumer, retail and commercial use. Tyson Foods is one such company that mass-produces chicken fingers.[13] Some are manufactured with a specific flavor profile, such as with a Buffalo-style hot sauce flavor.[13] They are also manufactured with flavors such as Honey BBQ and Parmesan Herb Encrusted.[15]

Variants

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Chicken tenders are sometimes grilled rather than fried; they may accompany salads or pasta.[16]

The chicken tenders invented at the Puritan Backroom in 1974 were marinated in pineapple juice, and marinated "Manchester chicken tenders" can be found at other restaurants in the Manchester area.[17]

See also

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• Chicken as food
• Chicken nuggets
• Fish fingers
• List of chicken dishes
• List of fried chicken dishes
• List of hors d'oeuvre

References

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1. ^ "The History of Chicken Fingers" (Archived 2016-01-09 at the Wayback Machine). Leite's Culinaria.
2. ^ a b Wells, Pete (1 October 2024). "How Chicken Tenders Conquered America". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2024.
3. ^ "Chicken – Description of Parts" (Archived 2007-02-20 at the Wayback Machine). RecipeTips.
4. ^ "Give a hand for homemade chicken fingers".
5. ^ Ellie Krieger. Crispy Chicken Fingers Recipe (Archived 2017-04-19 at the Wayback Machine). Food Network.
6. ^ How can I make Chinese chicken fingers like in the northeast? (Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine). Cooking.stackexchange.com. Retrieved on 2012-04-19.
7. ^ McDowell, Erin. "I ordered chicken tenders from 8 fast-food chains and the best were from the smallest chain". Insider. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
8. ^ Sylvia, Byline: Andrew (2025-04-18). "Puritan Backroom hosts celebration honoring 50 years of chicken tenders, feeds Jersey Shore gang - Manchester Ink Link". Retrieved 2025-05-06.
9. ^ "The History of Chicken Tenders and the Best Places to Get Them". The Epicentre. 2020-07-06. Retrieved 2021-11-01.
10. ^ SouthFloridaReporter.com (2019-07-27). "Chicken Fingers Were Created In Baton Rouge, Savannah Or Manchester (NH)?". South Florida Reporter. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
11. ^ "Reviewing culinary history in Manchester, the Chicken Tender Capital of the World". Liu, Michelle and Furukawa, Julia. New Hampshire Public Radio. Published August 18, 2023. Accessed December 20, 2023.
12. ^ a b Booth, R.G. (2012). Snack Food. Springer US. p. 222. ISBN 978-1-4613-1477-6. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
13. ^ a b c Bangura, Fatima (April 17, 2019). "You still can't eat Tyson Buffalo-style chicken strips sold in Michigan". WSYM-TV. Retrieved April 26, 2019.
14. ^ Simon 2020, p. 102.
15. ^ "Breaded Chicken". Tyson.com. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
16. ^ Jawad, Yumna (8 December 2019). "Grilled Chicken Tenders". FeelGoodFoodie. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
17. ^ Jagoda, Caleb (2023-02-15). "Love Me Tenders: A Chicken Tender Crawl Through Manchester". New Hampshire Magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-24.

Works cited

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• Simon, Bryant (2020). The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 9781469661377.
• "FoodData Central Search Results". United States Department of Agriculture.

Further reading

[edit]

• Wells, Pete (1 October 2024). "How Chicken Tenders Conquered America". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 October 2024.

External links

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• Media related to Chicken strips at Wikimedia Commons

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