6 Fast Food Chains With The Highest Quality Chicken Tenders

Over the past few years, more and more fast food restaurants have added a variety of chicken tenders to their menus. Customers can't seem to get enough of the poultry strips, whether they're roasted, grilled, or fried. In fact, tenders are often better sellers than traditional bone-in chicken, with eateries like Raising Cane's growing faster than some more established chicken brands.

But while tenders are getting easier to find, not all of them are created equally. Some come plumped up with additives and sodium to increase the juiciness and the weight. That salt might increase the flavor, but in such large doses, it's can be less nutritious. Luckily, there are plenty of fast food joints that use higher quality chicken that tastes just as good.

But how do you determine what's high quality? For us, we looked for chains using minimally processed and sustainably raised poultry that wasn't injected with extra sodium, chemicals, or antibiotics. The restaurants on this list fit the bill, with many of them also hand-breading the tenders and cooking them fresh in-house. So, the next time you're in the mood for a crispy strip of chicken, you can rest easy knowing that these restaurants are giving you some of the best chicken in fast food.

Raising Cane's is one of the biggest names in the fast food chicken tenders game. The restaurant's menu is devoted to the strips and only has a few sides and drinks to choose from. That focus allows the eatery to maintain high-quality standards, which are further enhanced by its made-to-order cooking system. The chicken doesn't sit under heat lamps for hours. Instead, it's fried up fresh whenever a customer orders.

The chain sources its never-frozen all-white-meat chicken tenderloins from Ben E. Keith Co., which has been in business for more than a century, and OK Foods, which has been operating for over 70 years. After the chicken reaches the Raising Cane's stores, it's marinated for 24 hours, hand-breaded, and fried. Fans of the tenders have catapulted the chain into rapid expansion, and there are currently more than 1,000 locations across the globe. For those who don't care for breading or just don't want any on the strips that day, you can order the tenders "naked," provided you're willing to wait a few extra minutes for the order.

Wingstop was an early adopter of chicken tenders and has been serving them since 2006. Customers can choose from 12 different flavors when they order, and the strips can even be mixed and matched for those who can't decide on just one rub or sauce. The chicken tenders are made from whole tenderloins, meaning they're all-white meat, and they're also trans fat free.

While there has been some confusion on social media about whether or not the chain serves Tyson-sourced chicken, in a 2010 article with Restaurant Business, the Executive Vice President of Purchasing, Andy Howard, confirmed the restaurants bought its chicken from Tyson, Harrison, and Pilgrim's Pride. That's the most up-to-date information available about Wingstop's chicken tender supply, but the tenders taste the same to people online today as they did back then, likely meaning the suppliers haven't changed. And that doesn't mean you're getting the same tenders you can buy in the grocery store, though, as the chicken is coated in the chain's own proprietary breading and seasonings. And the chicken isn't the only thing that gets a special seasoning treatment. The Wingstop fries have their own range of spices that are enhanced by several sugars to give them a unique and delicious finishing touch.

Chick-fil-A is one of the country's most famous chicken chains, both for its limited menu and its secret recipe that took years to perfect. But many people don't realize the company is just as serious about the quality of the chicken it sources as it is about keeping that recipe locked away in its headquarters' safe. The restaurant only uses breast meat from the chickens for its sandwiches, nuggets, and strips. The meat is hand-breaded in each location to ensure freshness.

The chain also has a commitment to animal welfare, using only U.S. raised chickens that were cage-free and not treated with any antibiotics important to human medical use. That means that any medicine the animals received was necessary for the chickens' health. The chickens are also free from fillers, steroids, and extra hormones. This allows the meat to be naturally flavorful, instead of including additives like extra sodium to increase the poultry's weight. When cooked, the meat doesn't have any trans fats, and there's just 2.5 grams of saturated fat per serving.

Huey Magoo's might not be as familiar to the public as many of the chains on this list, but the restaurant has earned legions of fans and the No. 2 spot on Food Republic's ranking of the best fried chicken chains. The growing company primarily operates out of Florida and has nearly 100 locations. It sources its chicken meat through ArrowStream, a popular software platform and supplier in the foodservice industry.

The chain says it uses only the "filet mignon of chicken" because the premium tenderloins it buys are only about 3% of the total chicken. That small amount lets the restaurant control the texture, flavor, and overall quality of its tenders. The strips come in fried or grilled versions, and the poultry is hand-breaded twice for maximum crunchiness. The grilled tenders are also marinated for 24 hours before being cooked, and all the chicken is free from antibiotics, steroids, hormones, and preservatives. That attention to quality and flavor is why this restaurant outperforms many of the more established chicken chains.

Whether you know this chain as Church's Chicken or Church's Texas Chicken, the 75-year-old company is still dedicated to providing great flavor and high quality chicken to its customers. Those principles are so important to the brand that, back in 2024, the chain returned to the original 1952 recipe after customers began complaining of bland-tasting chicken. The original recipe marinates the chicken in a blend of savory proprietary spices, seasoning the meat all the way through.

The tenders are then hand-battered, double-breaded, and cooked in open fryers to give diners the crunchiest chicken possible. The chain has even partnered with FreshFry Pods to keep the oil cleaner in the fryers, helping customer's taste the chicken instead of old grease. The strips also contain no trans fats and have less sodium than many competing brands.

Church's has been sourcing its chicken through Performance Food Group since 2021. The chain's Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain and Quality Assurance, Randy Lawrence told Meat+Poultry,  "We knew that the [company] understood our expectations in terms of sourcing and providing the high quality of product we insist upon for our guests." Fans seem to agree, as reviewers are calling the upgraded tenders crispy and tasty.

Zaxby's was created as a chicken tender eatery in 1990. The concept was novel, but customers enjoyed the strips of poultry and Zaxby's hospitality, turning the business into a quickly-growing success.

The company sources some of its chicken through Pilgrim's Pride Corporation and ensures that all its suppliers comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's animal welfare guidelines. Former Zaxby's employees say the tenders are made from boneless breast meat that's marinated overnight. The marinade contains a high amount of sodium, but there's no trans fats in the tenders.

The juicy strips are also hand-breaded, and fans have hacked a tasty way to turn the brand's Texas toast into a pocket for the tenders. This makeshift sandwich showcases the all-white meat strips and crunchy breading against tangy Zax sauce and the buttery bread. Of course, the tenders can stand on their own, as well. One Facebook user even posted a review, saying, "the chicken is so juicy that it makes other juicy tenders seem not juicy... these are definitely quality chicken tenders."

There are numerous fast food chains serving chicken tenders these days. But not all of them use chicken that's high quality. To determine which chains belonged on this list, we first did general searches for restaurants that bought poultry that was raised without extra hormones and antibiotics. We then made sure the chicken was processed without having extra sodium or chemicals injected.

After narrowing down the options, we began looking at exactly what the chains did with the chicken once it was in their stores. Only the restaurants that source high quality poultry that's then minimally processed made this list.