Review: KFC Vegetarian Tenders

On a recent trip to Belgium, I was unreasonably excited about all the vegetarian fast food products that I miss out on living in Morocco. Initially, I would only try Burger King vegan nuggets (you can see my review here), since I felt like a real dingus for traveling to Belgium and eating at fast food chains, but I couldn’t resist trying KFC vegetarian tenders, too.

Unlike Burger King’s vegan “chicken” nuggets, KFC’s “chicken” tenders are only vegetarian, as they contain eggs and milk. I believe it can depend on the location, but there’s no real guarantee that these aren’t fried in oil that also fries meat products. I know there are some vegetarians and vegans out there who are really serious about any contamination with meat products, but I’m not, because…you just have to pick and choose your battles, I suppose.

With that said, I don’t know why fast food places can’t at least grill their plant-based burgers on a different corner of the grill to try to keep meat grease off. Is it really that hard?! Yeesh.

Tendies.

Anyway, I tried the vegetarian tenders. They were pretty damn good. They have that 11-herb-and-spice breading on the outside, and imitation chicken on the inside. Made from what? Apparently, fermented mushrooms. I chose garlic mayo as my dip and it was a great accompaniment.

Honestly, I was never a fan of KFC or fried chicken in general before I went vegetarian. It always sounded good, but ended up being disappointing. I wasn’t a big “meat” person and I suppose the poor-quality chicken was just too nasty for me. So, it’s no exaggeration to proclaim these vegetarian “chicken” tenders to be the best thing I’ve ever had from KFC. The texture is much firmer than the BK nuggets I tried, and does a decent job of replicating chicken. I highly recommend them not just for veggies, but for meat-eaters to check out, as well!

KFC’s vegetarian tenders are available in numerous countries across Europe.

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