The plant-based chicken space has been getting increasingly competitive of late. The last year has seen an explosion in the number of brands competing for your fake-chicken dollars. The latest I spied, the popular Beyond Meat brand with these faux-tenders. Here, six frozen tenders come in a resealable bag.
Cooking: Bake, air fry or microwave. For the best results I’d recommend (as with most things) avoiding the microwave. But hey, if you’re in a rush, you have the option.
Taste and texture: These are immediately identifiable as a non-meat based product; and I should note my vegetarian wife appreciated this. The texture is *very* firm with lots of chew, they are dense and heavy. The exterior breading is quite thin, and even using the air fryer, they dont’ get all that crispy. Taste wise there’s nothing massively to love or hate, they’re a fairly neutral palate for whatever dips or dish you throw at them.
Overall: I will admit to some initial disappointment with these. The original Beyond Burger was a huge leap forward in meat-free options, the mimicry of a real beef burger something to behold. These nuggets are not that same leap forward. They will fool no one but perhaps thats the point. I believe this is the roughly same product in KFC’s Beyond Chicken – those are superior with the better exterior batter.
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Overall
Are Beyond Chicken Plant-Based Tenders any good
For me, these are a pass. They’re not a poor product per se, just mediocre in the face of so many other far better products on the market.
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.
I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen. Follow along on Instagram too!