This Unusual Flavor Combo Might Be What Makes Texas Roadhouse Chicken Tenders So Good

Don't let the prospect of jumping on a saddle and having the whole restaurant sing "happy birthday" scare you away from chain restaurants like Texas Roadhouse. Sure, the traditions are gimmicky and the wait time can exceed upward of an hour, but you'd deprive yourself of those honey cinnamon butter rolls and complimentary peanuts, even if you can't toss the shells on the floor anymore. One of Texas Roadhouse's rather popular items, other than its steaks and bread rolls, is the renowned Chicken Critters. Contrary to its name, the appeal of this entree has very little to do with critters and everything to do with pickle juice.

According to an alleged employee on Reddit, Texas Roadhouse's Chicken Critters are marinated in a citrus base, but the unusual combination of "hot sauce and pickle juice" is to thank for the dish's spot on our list of every Texas Roadhouse kids' meal ranked. All in all, the supposed recipe involves letting the tenders sit in a bath of hot sauce, seasonings, and marinade powder, but the "KEY ingredient [is] pickle juice." Other copycat recipes for Chicken Critters display a similar ingredient list for the chicken's marinade, specifying the use of pickle juice. There are also just as many opposing copycat recipes that do not use these ingredients, but we already know that pickle juice is the easiest brine for baked chicken, anyway.

Texas Roadhouse's Chicken Critters are made from white meat, which is "golden-fried and lightly crispy," according to the website, but there are no further specifications about batter or marinade. You can choose a dipping sauce from a large dropdown menu and select two sides to go along with the meal, or you could swap those two sides for a half-sized appetizer instead, among 10 other Texas Roadhouse menu hacks you need to know. The meal comes to about $15.99 before tax (depending on your location), but don't get these confused with the restaurant's Country Fried Chicken, which is also battered and fried but utilizes chicken breasts, not chicken tenders.

In about 2017 or 2018, Texas Roadhouse customers began noticing a difference in the Chicken Critters recipe. While the restaurant never made an official comment on the change, customers begged for the return of the original recipe, even going so far as to start a Change.org petition with over 500 signatures to bring back the old recipe. "I miss the OLD Texas Roadhouse Chicken Critters more than any other food on earth," said one user on Reddit, while another Redditor agreed, saying that they were "so disappointed when [they] ordered awhile back and [the Chicken Critters] were regular breaded tenders you can get anywhere." Seems like that pickle juice and hot sauce combo is really what makes these tenders special.