Whatever Happened To McDonald's Discontinued Chicken Selects?
From McNuggets to Crispy Chicken Sandwiches, there's no shortage of poultry options when ordering from McDonald's. However, there does seem to be a chicken tender-shaped hole in the hearts of some customers that the company has not been able to fill. Long-time fans may have fond memories of the discontinued chicken item we wish the fast food chain would bring back: Chicken Selects.
These crispy tenders debuted at McDonald's in 2002 and remained a fan favorite until their removal in 2013. Per CNBC, McDonald's reported that Chicken Selects simply did not earn a spot on the permanent menu. A spokesperson for the restaurant via Reuters said, "We are constantly evolving our menu and listening to our customers to meet their changing needs." While the Selects have never returned to the U.S. menus, they can still be found at McDonald's locations in the U.K.
Another version of McDonald's chicken tenders did appear in the U.S. in the form of Buttermilk Crispy Tenders in 2017. Fans were so excited about this item that McDonald's ran out of its supply shortly after its debut. Sadly, the tenders were also removed from menus in 2020 due to the pandemic in a bid to simplify menus for efficiency and safety reasons. Four years later, chicken tenders still have not returned to American Mickey D's locations.
Chicken Selects may not have been as popular as nostalgic fans recall
Like many McDonald's menu items, Chicken Selects were not universally loved by customers. While fans of the crispy tenders fondly reminisce about the item they claim was gone too soon, others seem to have less happy memories about trying Chicken Selects. Users on Reddit did not hold back about their true feelings for the chicken strips, calling them "90% breading and 10% chicken." Another user asked, "Were these the things that looked good but felt like you were trying to chew rubber?" Others claimed the tenders were "nasty" and "cheap" tasting, and many agreed that Chicken Selects fell drastically in quality after their initial release. So, not everyone was heartbroken by McDonald's decision to remove them from menus.
Whether you loved them or not, the reasons behind McDonald's choosing to discontinue Chicken Selects remains a mystery. Per Business Insider, some speculated that the chicken tender option experienced low sales for years before their removal. It was also rumored that chicken tenders were more expensive to keep in stock, so McDonald's tried to find new ways to add Selects to other dishes before supplies went cold and had to be thrown out. If McDonald's does ever take another crack at offering chicken tenders on menus, we hope to add it to Daily Meal's list of the best fast food chicken tenders since the original Chicken Selects didn't quite make the cut.