What On Earth Is A Chicken Critter At Texas Roadhouse?

Even if you've never set foot in a Texas Roadhouse, you likely have a good idea of the type of food you'll find on the menu. With a name like Texas Roadhouse, it's fair to assume you can get steak, barbecue, and other Southern classics. However, one item that might catch newcomers by surprise is the Chicken Critters.

Many Southern foods go by unique names that offer little information about what they are, such as chitterlings, cracklins, and hushpuppies. Chicken critters, however, do not actually fall into this category. Instead, they are a specialty of Texas Roadhouse that was trademarked by the restaurant chain in the early 2000s.

Despite their name, a Chicken Critter is pretty basic. Essentially, it's a chicken made up of a tender, boneless white meat chicken that's been coated in buttermilk, breaded, then fried until crispy and golden. The dish can be ordered as part of a combo alongside a sirloin steak, in a salad, or just with two sides and two dipping sauces.

Though most restaurants would simply call them chicken fingers or chicken strips, the reason Texas went with Chicken Critters instead is probably the same reason Dunkin' refers to its donut holes as Munchkins or why McDonald's chicken nuggets are technically called McNuggets. Restaurants often come up with unique names as a branding strategy to make their menus more memorable and, perhaps in Texas Roadhouse's case, create a sense of curiosity among diners who have never heard the name before. Judging by a menu from 2000, it seems that Texas Roadhouse has called them Chicken Critters from the very beginning.

As for why the name is Chicken Critters and not another unique moniker — it likely has something to do with their shape. Chicken fingers, for example, are called that because they're shaped like fingers, so it isn't far-fetched to say that Texas Roadhouse considers Chicken Critters to be critter-shaped. Since the term "critter" often evokes images of playful creatures typically associated with the American West, it's easy to see why the restaurant gravitate toward such a quirky yet catchy name.

While the bread rolls are arguably the most popular food to get at Texas Roadhouse, the Chicken Critters have their fans, too. In fact, circa 2018, many were quick to notice a change in the beloved recipe. Customers began to voice their concerns on a Texas Roadhouse Facebook post about customer satisfaction, criticizing the perceived decline in quality of the Chicken Critters, particularly noting issues with texture and changes to the taste of the breading. Some patrons even signed petitions to advocate for a return to the previous recipe.

Years later, people are still commenting on the old recipe every time Texas Roadhouse posts about the Chicken Critters. There are also TikTok videos of content creators who continue to lament these changes, indicating that the restaurant likely never reverted back to the original recipe. If that's the case, it wouldn't be a rarity. Many restaurants have changed their signature recipes and bet that they were popular enough that customers would continue to order them anyway, and it seems that may have been the case with Texas Roadhouse and Chicken Critters.