Review: Wendy's Goes Big And Bold With Brand New Chicken Tendys And A Slew Of Sauces

For a place that calls itself Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Wendy's has been one of the more innovative and aggressive fast food chains. It's probably better known for its chili, baked potatoes, and the curiously flavored Frosty than it is for its square patty burgers, and Wendy's has certainly made a name for itself in the chicken space. With its four-piece chicken nuggets a constant presence on its value menu and in combo meals leading the way, Wendy's has introduced and revived spicy chicken nuggets, condiment soaked Saucy Nuggs, and countless chicken sandwiches. In September 2025, the company launched a major addition to its poultry offerings: boneless, all white-meat, breaded and fried Chicken Tenders. To make it even more fun, Wendy's, embracing the slang surrounding the almost universally beloved chicken strip, insists on calling them Tendys.

Along with the premium chicken pieces permanently joining the menu, Wendy's has also introduced six new sauces designed to be paired with the Tendys and appealing to a wide variety of preferences and appetites. Here's everything you need to know about Wendy's new Chicken Tenders — or Tendys, rather — and a whole bunch of associated dipping sauces.

Long known for its chicken nuggets and ever-changing line of chicken sandwiches, Wendy's has finally unveiled its take on fried chicken in another, widely popular format: the strip, or more technically speaking, the chicken tender. Made from actual strips of breast tender meat, Wendy's Tendys — a playful, rhyming secondary name too good to pass up — are well-seasoned, gently breaded chicken pieces made from only white meat. A long way from its inexpensive, dark meat-forward, and greasy nuggets, Wendy's Chicken Tenders are a premium product that look to stick around the menu for a long time.

Included in the launch of Tendys, Wendy's is also debuting a line of six dipping sauces designed to pair with its carefully crafted chicken tenders. All are familiar blends and condiments, but made a bit more special at Wendy's HQ. The new sauces include a Honey Mustard, Honey BBQ, Creamy Ranch, Sweet Chili, Scorchin' Hot, and Wendy's Signature.

Those new Chicken Tenders went up for sale all at once across the nearly 6,000 Wendy's locations in the U.S. on September 30, 2025. Tendys are a regular, not limited-time-only menu item, and they'll be available at Wendy's during lunch, dinner, and late night hours. The tenders are sold in three-piece or four-piece boxes, either all by themselves or as part of a combo meal, which includes fries and a soft drink. And because kids love chicken strips almost as much or even more than adults do, the new Wendy's Tendys will also be available as a Wendy's Kids' Meal entree choice.

When sold in three-piece and four-piece orders, either on their own or as part of a combo meal, customers are entitled to a total of two dipping sauces, picked from the selection of six new blends: Wendy's Signature, Sweet Chili, Scorchin' Hot, Creamy Ranch, Honey BBQ, and Honey Mustard. The cardboard container used for the tenders even includes a convenient cut-out spot to place the cup for easier dipping.

Wendy's new Tendys can be purchased in a variety of configurations, anywhere from two to four pieces if standard ordering procedure is followed. They're made with real strips of chicken tender breast, along with rib meat, and treated with a seasoning blend that contains maltodextrin, salt, MSG, chicken broth and fat, and garlic and onion powder. The breading is made with a concoction that utilizes wheat flour, rice flour, wheat gluten, and a slew of spices, applied before the strips are fried in a composite vegetable oil, a mixture of soybean, canola, corn, and potentially cottonseed. Because they're fried in the same oil vessels as so many other Wendy's products, food allergy warnings are in place for Tendys as they may contain traces of eggs, fish, milk, sesame, and soy.

One Wendy's Tendy adds 140 calories to one's daily total, along with just over 7 grams of fat, of which slightly more than 1 gram is saturated fat. A strip has about 26 milligrams of cholesterol and 350 milligrams of sodium to go along with a modest 7 grams of carbohydrates and a hearty 11 grams of protein.

Wendy's seems to always be offering some new chicken-based product, but it's usually a variant on something it has already sold for years. For example, Spicy Chicken Nuggets and Saucy Nuggs are just some hot stuff and gloop tossed onto its stalwart chicken pieces, a soggy, fatty, overly breaded thing sold cheaply because it's of poor quality. One might expect the same routine or makeup for the new Tendys, or Wendy's Chicken Tenders. Fortunately, because the ongoing fast food chicken war has forced chains to raise their game, the chefs in the Wendy's corporate kitchen clearly tried very hard to make a contender for the best mass-market chicken tender. Amazingly, they succeeded.

Wendy's Chicken Tenders are crispy on the outside, and decidedly not crunchy or at all soggy. That's because they use a thin but precisely perfect level of breading. The coating doesn't overwhelm the chicken inside, but rather complements it. It tastes like a mixture of panko or crackers to maximize crispiness and protect the chicken inside. 

The meat is white meat, juicy, and maintains that level of moisture as well as a hot temperature for the duration of the meal. It's not dry like so much fast food chicken can be, and benefits from a moderate spice blend with notes of onion, garlic, pepper, and salt. The Tendy is a better product than any other Wendy's chicken offering, and it sets a new standard for the quick-serve tender.

Six brand new dipping sauces suggests that Wendy's really believes in its Chicken Tenders, aka Tendys — it wants to appeal to as many people as possible with a condiment aligned for many tastes and moods. But any big slate of products will result in a mixed bag — and some of the new Tendys-based sauce cups are better than others.

Honey BBQ is objectively the best of the bunch. It's tangy, sweet without being cloying, and powerfully smoky, with all of the barbecue sauce elements hitting in equal measure and all at once upon first bite. Also delightful is the Honey Mustard, an elevated and improved take on the mundane condiment Wendy's has stocked for years. It's got a kick of zesty, spicy mustard akin to a Dijon as well as a hot mustard found in Chinese-American restaurants. The heat hits the tongue first and then the throat, supporting but not interrupting the taste of the chicken. The Sweet Chili Sauce is a very good condiment, just as good as the stuff that comes with spring rolls at the average Thai restaurant. It's sweet and flavorful at first, and then spicy, but too much of a good thing here overpowers the Tendy.

The other three Tendys sauces disappointed. Wendy's Signature Sauce is simply a flavorless mayonnaise, Creamy Ranch is gloopy and foul, and Scorchin' Hot, while it resembles buffalo or chicken tikka masala sauce, provides no flavor at all — only obnoxious heat.