Tuesday, December 17, 2013

REVIEW: Buffalo Wild Wings Naked Tenders

I do love me some saucy, spicy buffalo wings (who doesn't really?), but Buffalo Wild Wing's nutritional stats for theirs are pretty horrendous. Just eight wings have 768 calories- and really, eight is nothin'!!! I mean, my little brother can polish off about twelve whenever we go. I'm guessing a lot of you adults out there can eat even MORE than that given the opportunity to, am I right? And I'm sure some of you realize that BWW's wings aren't so healthy and are looking for a lighter option when you go out to eat there or whatever. Thankfully, Buffalo Wild Wing's offers Naked Tenders: plain, unbreaded, grilled chicken tenders. Sounds boring, but sounds like an obvious healthy choice as well. That's the sacrifice you'll have to make at BWW's, since the amount of healthy pickins' is slim. At least you get the sauce you want with your Naked Tenders. An order of six of them, along with your sauce of choice, costs around $9.29. 

A six-piece order of Naked Tenders (without sauce or fries) contains 260 calories, 120 of them being from fat, 12g of total fat, 1g of saturated fat, 0g of trans fat, 50mg of cholesterol, 3420mg of sodium, 34g of total carbohydrates, 2g of dietary fiber, 10g of sugar, and 10g of protein.

So, sorry to disappointing you low-carbers out there, hoping you've found your salvation at BWW's, but sadly a Naked Tender contains 6g of carbohydrates each. Now, I'm no low-carber, but from what I've deduced, that's an awful lot for just one wee slab of chicken. But these aren't breaded though, so that's the strange thing. They must put some sort of seasoning or flavor injection into these things, because other than that I can't really THINK of a reason each tender would be so high in carbs. I suppose a seasoning or injection would also explain just WHY IN THE WORLD a six-piece order of Tenders has nearly enough sodium for the day- and until the afternoon of the next. Naked Tenders obviously aren't perfect, but they still aren't as bad for you as regular wings, so that's a start. At least I think so.

I ordered my Naked Tenders with a side of Buffalo Wild Wing's Teriyaki sauce, since teriyaki is the boss of sauce. At least from my experiences. Of course I had never actually HAD BWW's Teriyaki before so I wasn't sure if it would taste as good as the "real" thing or not... you know, authentic.
The chicken tenders were fairly large, and there was a lot of meat for the six of them. They were tender and juicy, well-cooked, but the taste was fairly bland. You'd think for all the sodium in these things they'd have a fantastic seasoning or something in the taste, but they did not. Thankfully, dousing the tenders in teriyaki seemed to help. BWW's Teriyaki was thick and sweet, but also had an odd amount of spice. It was too soy sauce-y and gingery, and not as sweet as good teriyaki should be. It was an okay sauce and it made the chicken more flavorful, but even so there could have been more sauce to go along with the meal. I mean, I like my chicken dripping in sauce, but there was barely enough to cover each tender completely. Maybe less is more, but when you think about how much sauce is on the regular buffalo wings, it seems a bit unfair to me.
Afterwards, I realized ordering one of the most sodium-high sauces with chicken tenders that have enough salt to carry you through the next day and a half was NOT the best choice. All the sodium turned my stomach into knots. Maybe it wasn't a good thing these tenders don't come with more sauce, or else I would've probably been on the floor in pain from using it all.

Overall, Buffalo Wild Wing's Naked Tenders are cooked well and are juicy cuts of meat, but are bland and basically an empty palette for whatever sauce or seasoning you want to put on them, so their tastiness depends on your choice of sauce. I was a little disappointed with BWW's Teriyaki, so consequently I was a little disappointed with my meal. But that's not really fair- a specific menu item's success should NOT depend on the sauce you use, right? I mean, if I used an amazing, incredible sauce, would I have given these tenders a perfect score? I dunno. So strip these tenders of the sauce you use, and they're pretty average. They're a healthy, low-calorie choice at BWW's, but are rather boring and DO need some sauce to make them work. I'd definitely reccommend these if you want to eat healthy at Buffalo Wild Wing's, but otherwise there really is no point in ordering these
I'd give Buffalo Wild Wing's Naked Tenders a 5/10.

What is YOUR favorite BWW's Sauce? Post yours down in the comments section below!

Till' then, this has been RiRi ri-porting!

1 comment:

  1. You’re wrong, the naked tenders are 0 carbs. It’s plain chicken....once you add sauces and sides then that adds carbs. Even a couple of the dry rubs are only 1 carb. You can look at nutrition on their website.

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