Chicken tenders are widely credited as having been invented at The Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, around 1974, though some locations dispute this claim.

Quick Scoop

Most food historians and reference sites point to the Puritan Backroom in Manchester as the birthplace of what we now call “chicken tenders.” In the mid‑1970s, cook Charlie Pappas began marinating and frying trimmed pieces of chicken breast there, serving them as a standalone dish that quickly became popular.

However, the idea of breaded, fried strips of chicken appears slightly earlier in other places under different names, such as “chicken fingers” or “chicken strips.” For example, a Pennsylvania restaurant advertised “French‑fried chicken fingers” in the 1960s, suggesting similar items existed before the “chicken tender” name caught on.

By the 2000s and 2010s, chicken tenders had become a staple of American casual dining, fast food menus, and kids’ meals nationwide. Manchester, New Hampshire, later leaned into this origin story so strongly that it was officially recognized as the “Chicken Tender Capital of the World” by the city’s mayor.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.