Chicken tenders

Chicken tenders were first made at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1974. Charlie Pappas salvaged chicken pieces that had been trimmed from larger cuts of chicken, marinating and frying them to create chicken tenders. 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. In 2023, Manchester was officially declared the "Chicken Tender Capital of the World" by Mayor Joyce Craig. == Mass production ==

Chicken tenders are a mass-produced product in the United States. They gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s as an alternative fast food choice to chicken nuggets, since they retained more chicken meat. 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 == Variants ==

Chicken tenders are sometimes grilled rather than fried; they may accompany salads or pasta. 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. == See also ==