Atlanta Remains Neutral In So-Called ‘Chicken Tender Wars’
KFC Nashville Hot Food Truck in Hudson, Mass. Tuesday, Jan.l 5, 2016. (Josh Reynolds/AP Images for KFC)
There’s a storm brewing in the South and it’s all because of chicken tenders. At least, that’s the contention of commentator Nick Rogers in his segment, “Fried Pies and Moonshine,” on “City Lights.”
“Like the great Cola wars of the 1980s, this escalating conflict between fried chicken superpowers is spurring constant innovation, some inspired and some ill-advised,” Rogers explains.
With Church’s Chicken first shot, Rogers says they focused on exploiting “the Southerner’s well-known sweet-tooth” with Honey-Butter Biscuit Tenders. KFC then entered the fray armed with their version of Nashville Hot Chicken. The final player, Popeyes, followed suit by releasing Southern Fair Chicken Tenders.
With Kentucky, New Orleans and, as Rogers says, “Church” all following the rules of engagement, he wonders if Atlanta’s own Chick-fil-A is truly a “neutral Switzerland in the Southern Chicken Tender Wars or the sleeping giant the United States was before finally being pulled into WWII.”
Rogers concludes by acknowledging that Southern food is having a moment of its own in the world of high cuisine. Nonetheless, he says, “the real action is in the drive-thru trenches of the fast food theater. Wise men have said that war has no winners, but those wise men never learned to think with their stomachs. Here, the spoils of war are plentiful, and the only collateral damage are our arteries.”
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