A fast-food chicken tender ranking that covered 14 chains across the US has handed the crown to Raising Cane’s, with Zaxby’s a close second, while a wave of new entrants from McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s reshaped the competitive landscape over the past year.
The fast-food chicken tender ranking in full
Business Insider’s Erin McDowell visited locations across Austin, Brooklyn, and New York City, scoring tenders on taste and value. Raising Cane’s three-finger combo, priced at $12.19 excluding tax, offered thick, juicy chicken with a crispy exterior and the chain’s signature Cane’s sauce, creamy, tangy, and with a slight kick that McDowell described as unlike any other sauce she had tried. Zaxby’s five-piece combo at $15.43 came agonisingly close, with exceptionally flavourful breading and an addictive quality, but its Zax sauce fell marginally short of Cane’s sauce.
Chick-fil-A placed third. A three-piece tender costs $9.69 at McDowell’s nearest New York City location, with a meal at $17.35. The tenders delivered what she called the perfect balance of crispy breading and a briny flavour, taken over the top by the chain’s signature sauce. Wingstop, which recently revamped its tenders, landed just below, with a five-piece combo at $15.39. The chicken tore apart easily with every bite, and the breading was evenly fried, though it lacked the depth of the top two.
Taco Bell’s Crispy Chicken Strips, launched in June 2025, ranked highly despite their limited run. Marinated in zesty jalapeño buttermilk and breaded with tortilla chips and breadcrumbs, they shared the same recipe as the chain’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets but were larger in size, according to The Fast Food Post. An order of strips and two sauces cost $9.14 excluding tax. The strips were available as standalone items or inside three types of tacos and burritos: a Crispy Chicken Taco at $2.79, a Crispy Chicken Burrito at $5.49, and two standalone strips for $3.99, USA Today reported. The strips have since been pulled, though Taco Bell regularly cycles items back as limited-time offerings.
The three new entrants and where they landed
McDonald’s entered the tender race in May 2025 with its McCrispy Strips, the first chicken strips on the menu since the chain discontinued its buttermilk crispy tenders at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The strips are made with 100% white meat chicken, coated in crispy golden-brown breading with a bold black pepper flavour, and were launched alongside a creamy chili dipping sauce created specifically for them, according to a McDonald’s press release. A three-piece order at McDowell’s Brooklyn location cost $10.99. She found each bite evenly coated with well-seasoned, peppery breading and thick, juicy chicken inside, though on their own the strips were a touch blander than the higher-ranked options.
Wendy’s launched its Tendys on 30 September 2025 as a new core menu item, according to the Wendy’s investor relations newsroom. Alongside them came six new dipping sauces, including Sweet Chili, Creamy Ranch, and Scorchin’ Hot, each nearly double the size of the chain’s previous sauce portions, MassLive reported. ‘Consumers told us what they wanted in a chicken tender, and we listened, taste-tested, fine-tuned, and delivered,’ Wendy’s US chief marketing officer Lindsay Radkoski told Business Insider of the launch. A three-piece Tendys order at McDowell’s Brooklyn location cost $8.12. She appreciated the peppery flavour and the new signature sauce, but found the breading chunky and felt there was less chicken meat inside than at rival chains.
Taco Bell’s CMO Taylor Montgomery had framed the chain’s chicken push explicitly around younger consumers, telling Business Insider that Gen Z was eating more crispy chicken than other generations and ‘we need to evolve to where youth culture and the next generation of consumers are going.’
The mid-table positions went to Cook Out (four-piece combo at $10.49), Popeyes (three-piece combo at $16.89), McDonald’s (as described above), and Sonic (five-piece at $8.41). Smashburger’s three-piece at $9.99 disappointed on texture, with thick, dry breading overpowering the chicken inside. Whataburger, at $7.48 for three pieces, delivered classic, well-priced tenders that held their own despite lacking the crunch and seasoning depth of the higher-ranked chains.
With McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s all having staked claims in the tender space within a single calendar year, the fast-food chicken tender ranking is unlikely to stay settled for long. The next chain to launch (or relaunch) a strip could shift the order at the top.