Southern Tender Showdown

Well ladies and gentlemen, this was a big one. I’ve been talking about doing this post for a really long time. To be frank the amount of effort and detail that went into it was too much for a simple Facebook status, so it was sort of a big impetus in creating a WordPress site.

If you’re just interested in the results, hop on down to the corresponding section!

Background

I was inspired to take this journey by my wife’s hometown of Mobile, AL. Mobile is nothing short of a “Southern Chicken Tender” mecca. These joints are defined by some key characteristics:

• The use of chicken breast tenderloins, as opposed to full breasts
• The inclusion of french fries, a bread, and slaw as default sides
• (Crucially) a “Special Sauce” that’s a heavily spiced mayonnaise with ingredients like Worcestershire sauce and Anchovies

Not only does Mobile have a metric ton of these, they also have a significant variety in the nearby region.

Organizing this involved identifying as many as I could within driving distance of one another, setting up multiple cars for simultaneous delivery, and an equidistant meeting place (Outside, partially because of Covid) to where each place would have a fair shot at being fresh. Ultimately this style of food is absolutely delicious but as a rule does not reheat well.

Southern Tenders really do have to be tasted to be believed. During a 2-year stint at Kansas State University, I had the opportunity to drag friends down to Alabama for a spring break. Each visitor was able to try Zaxby’s for the first time, and each returned to KS with a (surprising, to me!) permanent fixation on a restaurant style they just couldn’t get anywhere else. No, they’re not a prime ribeye… but the unique combination of flavors is something that is a genuine treat if you haven’t experienced it before.

Methodology

First, we have to introduce our competitors:

• Zaxby’s
  • Zaxby’s is the 800 pound gorilla of the chicken tender business. Based in GA, it’s experienced rapid expansion. It has a huge menu and presence. It’s brought this style of cuisine to a huge number of geographies, and can’t be excluded.
  • Order: 5 Regular Chicken Tender Plate
• Raising Cane’s
  • An internet favorite, it’s been discussed at length and challenged by snobs like Joshua Weissman.
  • Order: Caniac Combo
• Wemo’s
  • Wemo’s is a bit of an outlier, for reasons I’ll discuss more below. This is a wing place in Mobile, but offers a signature sauce and fries, so was included.
  • Order: Chicken Tender Combo
• Foosackly’s
  • Another hometown favorite, started in Mobile, and exclusive to Alabama.
  • Order: Bigger Box
• Goldfingers
  • This tiny chain is in the Southeast, and has very sparse locations
  • Order: 5 Tender Meal

Now I know what many of you may be thinking:

Where the hell is Guthrie’s?

Guthrie’s was originally slotted to appear in this comparison. It’s one of the earliest examples of a southern tender restaurant and has one of the simplest menus you’ve ever seen. However, it was a whopping 40 minute drive across the Mobile Bay between it and our other competitors. We may explore Guthrie’s in another post, as my expectation is that it would be a heavy hitter.

For each competitor, I ranked them for the taste of the tenders, bread, fries, slaw, and sauce. We’ll also discuss some of the intangibles and value for each in the results section.

Each judge received a plate with a tender, the store’s sauce, and a quarter of their bread. Ultimately I went with my judgement for scores, but importantly it should be noted (with the exception of Fries) the judges were unanimous in everything else. We didn’t judge blind: rather, the appearance of food is important, and fast adjacent comparisons made some differences really clear.

No pictures of my wife. It’s because she was photographing. If we get a couple hundred shares I may treat y’all to a shot of her.

Results

I won’t waste your time. Here are the scores, with the winner receiving 5 points when it won a category, 0 (zero) if it did not compete, and an adjusted score if there were fewer competitors (Slaw). 5 boxes and a whopping 10,486 calories later* we had the rankings:

*We weren’t able to finish the entire plates, and I filled in the lowest (yes the lowest) for unobtainable information. Don’t order extra sauce with your meal – we were all thoroughly dehydrated at the end of testing. At almost 200 calories a pop they changed the experience quite a bit.

Let’s work our way from the bottom up.

Goldfingers

There’s no other way to put it. Goldfingers was a bit of a disappointment. For a small chain, I was expecting a bit more focus and execution. Here’s a shot of the plate:

It’s tough to see in the picture here, but Goldfingers had a couple small problems with execution. Their special sauce wasn’t as heavily spiced as others. Side by side, it was a clear outlier in color and texture. If you look at the bottom edge of the bread, you’ll see that parts of the crust were burnt.

There were some bright spots. The fries used a light dusting of seasoning salt, which is generally a good thing. And the most important component here – the tenders – were well executed. They had a completely unique dark brown color and while there were no visible spice flakes they were well salted and seasoned. A minor complaint with this breading is that it was thin and fragile relative to competitors other than Wemo’s, and seemed to rip a page from Guthrie’s which uses a similar philosophy. Tenders were oblong but of an average size.

Upon pickup we noted that customer service was excellent. The other X-Factor? Goldfingers was the most affordable plate of the bunch, by something like an entire dollar.

Wemo’s

Wemo’s was really just a substitute for Guthrie’s, but it did have a special sauce (aptly named “That” Sauce).

Wemo’s was, right out of the gate, the most expensive meal of the bunch, at a whopping $12. For the price you got a couple significant upgrades. First, the tenders were full tenders (not loins). Second, the fries were a rare thick-spiral seasoned variety that you don’t see often. Third, they offered an extra dressing like ranch or bleu cheese on top of that signature sauce.

Wemo’s sauce was excellent, with a bit more sweetness than other place’s. Horrifyingly, we were offered to coat the tenders in the sauce. For a hot buffalo I can start to understand, but wrapping these huge things in spicy mayo sounds positively insane.

One consequence of this tender type is that the breading just can’t stand up to the weight and moisture from such a huge piece of breast meat. We saw breading flaking off as we worked out way through the test.

Clearly these tenders are meant to be buffaloed, which is what I’ll do next time. In any case, a solid entry.

Customer service was a simple Par for fast food – nothing special or particularly friendly. In aggregate it was below each of the other competitors.

Zaxby’s

My first thought when opening this Zaxby’s box was “Man. That’s a bit sad.”

You can’t see the tenders here, as they’re strategically covered with toast. I’d describe them as small, shriveled, and brown. Bonus shot of this pathetic slaw, which is literally just cabbage:

Now to be clear: The tenders still do taste good. Zaxby’s breading and oil combination produces an utterly distinctive flavor you can recognize anywhere. Their sauces are excellent.

I’ll mention here that besides me, Zaxby’s fries were the winner for all other judges. They’re heavily covered with seasoning salt, with shallow crinkles. They’re extremely filling, with a great variety of soft and crispy textures. Over many years I’ve considered them very consistent.

Another plus? Zaxby’s has top tier ice. The only problem is that they have muddy and perpetually disgusting freestyle soda machines, perhaps the worst thing to happen to corn-syrup delivery since ever.

The other X-factor here is the rest of the menu. No other competitor comes close to Zaxby’s breadth of offerings or availability. The Kickin Chicken sandwich is responsible for at least 20 pounds during my senior year of high school. I distinctly recall eschewing Guthrie’s in my hometown of Bham for the big Z’s offerings. I don’t think I was alone either – the Guthrie’s folded after just a couple years, whereas Zaxby’s has thrived.

My take? The chain’s rapid expansion has led to higher prices, slightly lower quality, less consistency, and made it closer to the rank-and-file of general fast food. It’s still far better than the likes of Burger King (what isn’t?) and if it’s your only way to get a tender plate then it’s 100% worth it.

Raising Cane’s

As we mentioned earlier, Cane’s is a bit of an internet darling. It has a massive footprint compared to the winner of the test, and our particular restaurant put up an impressive showing.

What you can see instantly from this photo is that Cane’s bread absolutely blew the rest of the competitors out of the water. All this margarine toast is good, but Cane’s is thick, sweet, and coated with sesame seeds. The next standout? Heinz dip and squeeze packs, which are significantly more expensive than packets, generally the hallmark of A-Tier fast food like Chik Fil A. When you see Hunt’s or god forbid some other ketchup packet, you know that corner-cutting is inevitable.

Cane’s is big enough to have its own branding on its packaging, unlike every competitor besides Zaxby’s.

Cane’s fries were pale, and a bit soft compared to other spots. This is my personal preference, as it allows seamless dipping into sauce and eating of multiple fries at a time.

Cane’s approach to chicken and sauces was a bit unique. The texture was nothing short of fantastic – crisp, ridged, and paler than all the other tenders. However there was almost no seasoning.

Instead, you’re intended to lean into their sauce, which came second in our rankings. It’s peppery, thick, and delicious. The breading texture stands up to it perfectly.

In terms of slaw, our tasters pointed out it was a bit heavy on the mayo, but otherwise palatable.

Foosackly’s

Foosackly’s takes a page out of Zaxby’s branding and uses “foo” in the names of their various sauces, advertising, etc. (like how Zaxby’s uses a Z). Their slogan is “Can’t fake the foo”, and so while it only beat Cane’s by a point this has more to do with Cane’s toast than anything else.

Soft bread laid across very deeply-ridged fries. These were crisp and allowed maximum sauce retention, but weren’t heavily seasoned like some other entries.

Foosackly’s was the top choice for sauce, tenders, and slaw. Compared alongside Raising Cane’s, the slaw had more pepper and visible color, with less reliance on mayo.

The sauce also had more visible pepper, a deeper flavor, and was a bit thicker. Otherwise it was quite similar.

Finally, the tenders frankly destroyed the competition. Without any sauce at all they had a perfect set of seasoning, with a delicious golden brown color and perfect flaking from the breading. One thing you may notice from our orders: Foosackly’s had 7 fingers compared to other plate’s 5. Because their tenders were smaller, they were roughly equivalent (perhaps a bit more food overall). This 7 finger box was also close in price. Foosackly’s offers smaller boxes as well, so generally wins on value.

In fact the only real issue here with Foosackly’s tenders is that they are so impressively seasoned that the sauce occasionally feels like overkill. I generally dip my bread in it instead.

Foosackly’s felt like it had iterated over the offerings from Cane’s, Zaxby’s, and Guthrie’s – moving each part of the formula up a notch.

As you drive around Mobile, the wisdom of the crowd is apparent. While fast food is a huge part of the food scene in the city, Foosackly’s is generally slammed, even of off hours.

Conclusion

This started as a bit of a flight of fancy, but ended up being really fun. As mentioned above, this sort of test is actually kind of hard on a body. I think we should have pre-hydrated more with a significant amount of water beforehand. Those of us who accompanied their testing with Soda had a bit of a difficult afternoon.

Do you have questions, comments or concerns? What fast food genre should we tackle next? Shoot them down below!