DEERFIELD, IL – Curion, the leader in product, marketing, and consumer insights, has declared the winners in the latest chapter of the Chicken Wars* — this time it’s the battle of the chicken tenders. Leveraging the Curion Score™— an industry-defining product benchmarking tool built on over 1.5 billion datapoints—this study delivers a clear answer to a question on everyone’s mind: Who really has the best chicken tenders?
In a time where inflation is causing restaurant prices to rise faster than grocery prices, consumers are increasingly questioning whether dining out is worth the cost. As meal deals and value offerings continue to dominate, consumers want to know which chicken is worth the splurge.
The Chicken Wars, which began in 2019 with Popeye’s taking on Chick-fil-A, have evolved into a battle over more than just sandwiches. Chicken tenders, wings, sauces, and other poultry products have taken center stage. The pandemic’s supply chain issues further highlighted chicken tenders, which even replaced fillets in some sandwich offerings. This shift sparked new debates about which brand truly reigns supreme.
Introducing the Curion Score™
Curion’s innovative benchmarking tool allows restaurants to gain insights not just on a specific product, but on how it stacks up against the entire competitive landscape. From quick-service restaurants (QSRs) to fast-casual and family dining, Curion’s category-wide perspective provides restaurant leaders with unparalleled confidence in their decisions—far beyond what traditional product scores offer.
“Curion Score™ brings the power of hundreds of taste tests to your decisions through its ability to size up product performance in comparison to the broader defined category. By using Curion Score™, you go beyond liking to measure your product’s total performance.”
Curion put the biggest names in chicken to the test: Applebee’s, Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, KFC, Popeyes, and Raising Cane’s. The Curion Score™ uncovered which brands truly deliver on their promises, cutting through the noise to serve up the 5-star winners of this study.
The Chicken Tenders Results Are In
KFC and Popeye’s emerged as joint winners* in the Chicken Tenders category, both receiving 5-star category ratings.
However, some of the most popular brands with cult-like followings, like Chick-fil-A and Raising Cane’s, didn’t score as highly as expected. Their chicken tenders, while beloved, didn’t live up to the hype suggested by their long drive-thru lines. Interestingly, much of their appeal seems to lie beyond the tenders themselves, rooted in their signature sauces—a debate of which sauce reigns supreme remains unresolved among consumers.
“The chicken tenders wars are heating up, with KFC’s latest announcement and campaign positioning their new tenders as a top priority. Like KFC’s ad suggests, our data shows their product holds up against the competition even without sauce. Whether this new offering will outperform the old remains to be seen, but our insights can help other restaurants gear up for battle and find their place in this fast-changing market.”
As the Chicken Tenders Wars heat up, the Curion Score™ offers a data-backed way for restaurants to refine their offerings and understand what truly resonates with consumers.
Interested parties who want to see the full results and behind-the-scenes of this study can request the results and explore how the Curion Score™ can be applied to their own products.
* results based on 100 consumers in the Dallas metro area.
