Review: KFC Original Recipe Tenders and Comeback Sauce

KFC Original Recipe Tenders feature chicken breast strips that are double-hand-breaded with the Colonel's Original Recipe blend of 11 herbs and spices and then fried.

The new Comeback Sauce is described as "a creamy, zesty, craveable sauce."

KFC currently offers a deal called the "Original Recipe Tenders Box" where you can get three tenders and Secret Recipe Fries for $5 so I ended up getting that. If you just want to buy a tender by itself, they're $2.69 each in my area.

My particular tenders seemed to have been sitting in the warmer for a while. They were still crunchy but there was a bit of a staleness to the breading and the chicken inside was only lightly moist and overly firm. In terms of flavor, they were salty with a strong, seasoned herby note. It's a distinctive and enjoyable flavor that I associate with KFC's Original Recipe, but it has more crunch than its bone-in chicken counterpart. The size of the tenders were average for fast-food chicken strips with a decent thickness.

The new Comeback Sauce appears to be KFC's take on Raising Cane's Sauce. It's mostly mayo and ketchup, which is good for a creamy, savory base and tangy notes. It's given added depth with black pepper and hints of other spices. The big difference is that Raising Cane's chicken fingers are only very lightly seasoned and take on the flavors of Cane's Sauce well. On the other hand, KFC's Original Recipe Tenders are deeply seasoned and provide a contrasting flavor to the Comeback Sauce.

Overall, I found myself liking KFC's Original Recipe Tenders but, while my memory is a bit fuzzy on the matter, they didn't seem much different from when they last offered them as Original Recipe Chicken Strips. The same issue arose where I preferred eating them as is rather than dipping them in sauce.

Nutritional Info - KFC's Original Recipe Tender (each)
Calories - 170
Fat - 6g (Saturated Fat - 0.5g)
Sodium - 400mg
Carbs - 20g (Sugar - 0g)
Protein - 11g