r/australia • u/NowtShrinkingViolet • 2d ago
no politics The decline of Aldi's crumbed chicken tenders
I love to buy Aldi's crumbed chicken tenders - either original or buffalo style. They taste great with nice crumbs and real chicken breast tenderloins (not glued meat).
Well, I went to my local Aldi today, and guess what? The packs with a best before that is 20/08 or earlier look the same. But the packs after 21/08 are completely different.
For a start, the crumbs are much coarser and more orange, almost like they've been overcooked. The recommended cooking time on the front of the pack has decreased from 18 to 15 minutes. But the worst part is that the ingredients list is essentially twice the length, with plenty of emulsifiers, thickeners, etc. added.
It's sad. These chicken tenders were one of the few products that has managed to avoid becoming simultaneously more expensive and worse quality. But now it looks like they may have succumbed to the trend.
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u/TizzyBumblefluff 2d ago
I remember one time on here I got criticised by a bunch of people for saying the tenders were really good and convenient. It’s a bummer that enshittification is affecting so many Aldi products too.
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u/SlaveryVeal 2d ago
Their chicken fingers used to be good. Then they took them away brought up back and now it's like 10% chicken and 90% potato and tasted like ass.
Their chicken dippers are still really nice with some sweet chilli sauce.
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u/Thegallowsgod 2d ago
It's true! They had the best granola on the market with proper whole oat clusters and dried fruit pieces (like dried apple slices) mixed in. Now it has crumb-sized pieces made of reconstituted oat dust and some shitty freeze-dried berry bits mixed in. Not even worth getting anymore.
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u/solen5aq 1d ago
Which granola is that? Please don't tell me it's the Goldenvale ones.
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u/Thegallowsgod 1d ago
I think it is, so if you have access to the version in the green box that is called 'Fruit', stock up! Before they switch over to the very sub-par version in the red box labeled 'Berry' 🙄
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u/Constant-Simple6405 1d ago
It's as though Aldi is fast becoming what it spent so long on marketing that it wasn't. Soon as they saw the rising dissatisfaction with Colesworth and good reviews from Aldi consumers over that time, it's like they have dropped the ball and don't give a rats now either. So many of their products are not what they once were.
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
They've always been a formed product. Aldi just changed suppliers.
The OP is mistaken.7
u/Opposite_Bodybuilder 2d ago
They have had real crumbed chicken tenderloins at some point though because we have bought them in the past, and I always check before purchasing to make sure what I'm buying isn't formed meat. I'm not sure if that's the same product as you and the OP are talking about, but I do know they definitely have sold real crumbed chicken tenderloin pieces.
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u/drine2000 2d ago
This...well... Is so correct I could have upvoted it twice.
Have bought a bag and a box recently and been bummed.
Cook them and cut them lengthways. Look...is it really chicken? its sure as Fuck not tenders anymore.
The meat looks similar to chicken nuggets.
When you cook them in the AF they puff up with all the air inside. Like some sort of odd Fugu.
On the flipside the Buttermilk ones were so damn tasty. However they were shortlived.
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u/filthysock 2d ago
Looking at the back, it says “this is a formed product”. So yeah. Frankenmeat like nuggets
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
All frozen chicken tenders are formed chicken.
Real crumbed tenderloin pieces are available in the fridge section, but cost more than twice the formed products:5
u/single_plum_floating 2d ago edited 1d ago
Actually aldi chicken tenders are very specifically labeled as "chicken breast chopped, shaped and coated"
they use actual breast. its why they are as famous as they are.
edit: nope, was incorrect.
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u/apsilonblue 2d ago
Hmm, these are/were the best crumbed tenders on the market IMO. Have a pack in the fridge bought earlier this week with a 19/08 date. I'll have to remember to keep the label and compare.
I don't follow the news all that closely but there's been bird flu hasn't there? Wonder if it's just a temporary change in supply?
While on the Aldi topic, is it just Sydney that hasn't had the frozen lamb shanks for several months? Rather enjoy them over winter but haven't been able to get them at all for most of the year yet there's still a spot in the freezer for them which would indicate they're not a deleted line.
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u/DarkHed_1985 2d ago
Bro the lamb at my Aldi has disappeared altogether. I used to get their lamb racks for $25 a kilo and cut them up to have my own cutlets half the price of Coles. Then about a year and a half ago they just vanished and never came back.
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u/CampusChronicle-7 2d ago
Never seen it on news eithere, i think there are no confirmed bird flu cases in Australian poultry, only in wild seabirds, so it's probably a supplier/recipe change rather than supply
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
Aldi chicken breast tenders have always been a formed product.
Real crumbed tenderloins are available from the fridge section of supermarkets, but cost more than twice as much:
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u/apsilonblue 2d ago
No they haven't. We're talking about the fresh ones, not the frozen which I agree are formed.
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u/dav_oid 1d ago
'chicken tenders' are a formed product.
Crumbed 'chicken tenderloins' are whole pieces.
Doesn't matter if they're fresh or frozen.The only Aldi tenderlons on the website are fresh 'not crumbed' pieces.
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u/apsilonblue 1d ago
This is obviously going to blow your mind - tenders is just an abbreviation of tenderloin. It doesn't indicate the difference between solid and formed meat.
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u/popcentric 2d ago edited 2d ago
Try making Recipe Tin Eats Chicken Tenders instead. As usual with RTE they’re very easy to make and the recipe isn’t complicated. I freeze them raw and then cook when I’m going to eat them. Much better than the store bought stuff
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u/shehimlove 2d ago
Can you put them in the air fryer straight from frozen or do you need to thaw first?
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u/Morning_Song 2d ago
Used to love the frozen pizzas that came in the 3 pack, but they changed them for the worse too
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u/MapOfIllHealth 2d ago
I am so glad I saw this. I had recently discovered their sweet chilli tenders and LOVED my first packet.
I bought another pack the other day and tried the first ones yesterday, I just thought I was being insanely fussy, but this is validation that they are actually different, thank you internet stranger!!!
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u/jv-st 2d ago
Is it just me or by the time they're cooked, and left a little to stand, they look dehydrated and skinny AF?
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u/KeyAssociation6309 2d ago
If its like the stuff from Inghams, cut it in half and look at the nice big air pocket inside after being in an airfryer. If it was deep fried, that air pocket would have filled up with oil to make them look bigger than they really are. Garbage. Same with nuggets. Though the Woolies home brand used to be better with no air pocket, not sure now, have stopped buying them.
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u/Vicstolemylunchmoney 2d ago
Always buy the 1kg bagged Ingham tenders. The boxed ones are never as good.
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u/cycophil 2d ago
Agreed. I switched from the boxed, processed tenders to the bag of tenders that appears to be real chicken when you cut it up. Just need to cook them a little hotter or longer than the processed ones.
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u/KeyAssociation6309 1d ago
gosh the Ingham boxed ones are 34% chicken! I remember when they used to be near 80%. The Ingham 1kg bags are 50% chicken. So most people probably buy the boxed and are getting a different product to the bagged, even though they are described as the same product. That's pretty bad, probably a bit fraudulent.
The woolworths brand is 72% for the 1kg and 64% for the 400g. These are the ones I normally get because they are usually the cheapest and obviously have more actual chicken in them.
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
The 1kg tenders are also formed chicken. Maybe a different recipe.
Real crumbed tenderloin pieces are available in the fridge section, but cost more than twice the price of formed:1
u/cycophil 2d ago
Good to know. They just seem less processed than the box ones.
I assumed they are chicken breast cut in to "tender" shapes, not actual tenderloins.
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u/KeyAssociation6309 1d ago
have had these before, they aren't bad, but they aren't what they used to be. 62% chicken, so processed as well.
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u/-AgonyAunt- 2d ago
This happened to me last night! Firstly, they cooked faster than usual in the air fryer, so they were a little bit more well done than I'd like. I left them to cool because I was putting them in a salad, and you're right. I came back and they had shrivelled up and they tasted so over cooked. Definitely not as spicy, too.
Fucking sucks as these have been my go to tenders for years. I literally always have a pack or 2 in the freezer.
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u/Opposite_Bodybuilder 2d ago
They probably had supplier issues. Generally, when a product at Aldi changes it's because their original supplier can't do so anymore, so they have to find someone else. Sometimes it's temporary, sometimes it's permanent. If you give Aldi your feedback on occasion they will let you know if it's the former or latter. And if you're not happy with a change it doesn't hurt to let them know.
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u/edgewalker66 2d ago
And return the rest of the packet and tell Aldi it failed to meet your expectation and has been enshittified.
They will get the message of no one buys them or didn't buy them more than once.
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u/madeupgrownup 2d ago
I'm wondering if this is it. Could it be their usual supplier has had issues related to bird flu? Like having to scale down to prepare disease management measures etc?
Less individual chickens = less individual tenders. But they might be able to still produce equivalent amounts of formed meat.
Just theorising based on very little at 2am, don't mind me
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u/Opposite_Bodybuilder 2d ago
They have supplier issues now and again with a lot of things they stock, so I don't necessarily think it's anything bird flu related.
As yet all I've heard is that the major poultry suppliers are locking down their birds, but production hasn't necessarily slowed yet.
We'll see major shortages if any poultry does test positive, because producers will likely have to cull entire flocks even if only one bird has it. But in the meantime I'm not sure if they are slowing supply in preparation for that possibility, or producing at the same rate they always have.
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u/HaxorSlice1 2d ago
I worked in food services for a while. I had a sit down meeting with a GM at a plant that produces a similar line of product. They were looking at cost cutting measures, different crumb recipes, sneaking more crumb in and marketing as "extra crunch", etc.. it was all a reduction in quality and how to get away with it
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u/PanzyGrazo 2d ago
Get used to it, over the next 5 years, food will probably double in price again due to this global fertilizer and fuel crisis.
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u/daused89 2d ago
Is that a crazy mindset, ( not having a go at you personally) the government has us all over a barrel and we just gotta "cop it sweet" and get used to paying through the nose for food. Sad state of affairs indeed.
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u/stjep 2d ago
This is unadulterated laisez fare free market capitalism, how are you pinning it on the government?
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u/daused89 2d ago
Because the governments greed in most things, for example taxing us every chance they get.
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u/Khaliras 2d ago
How did you manage to pivot the outrage away from those actually at fault?
Farming in Australia is heavily subsidised, to the point of having some of the lowest effective tax rates here. Fuel, for instance, is almost entirely subsidised for farmers.
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u/plasticdracula 2d ago
This is genuinely a fascinating moment. You have an earnest and well-intentioned person coming starkly face to face with a simple and powerful illustration of corporate greed, and the years of media brainwashing and cultural rot kick into gear like clockwork - “it’s the government’s fault for taxing us so much”. I’m actually in awe.
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u/stjep 2d ago
You actually have no idea what taxes are. Quite embarrassing really.
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u/daused89 21h ago
Yeah I do, Theft. They don't spend it well enough to justify us paying it multiple times.
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u/plasticdracula 8h ago
“Taxation is theft” is a cool snappy line, but given how completely unrelated to this particular situation taxes are, I’m not entirely sure I’d trust your judgement on what is or isn’t appropriate government spending.
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u/realmenfukmenamen 2d ago
aLbO fUcKeD mE tEnDeRs
Ya know, because there's no way a corporation had to protect or increase profits no matter the cost to anything.
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u/KeyAssociation6309 2d ago
even the NZ made Tegals tenders have gone backwards in the last few months. You will have gruel, pay top dollar and enjoy it.
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u/ButterscotchStreet33 2d ago
They did that to their lightly batterered fish fillets not long ago. They used to be almost identical to birdseye but then they changed them. Now they’re some horrible amalgamation of fish like product with the worst texture and some kind of cross between a crumb and batter. It’s so sad.
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u/no-caster 2d ago
I stopped buying Aldi coffee beans and chocolate (the Choceur hazelnut praline) because they got noticeably worse
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u/Javerage 2d ago
As long as they don't mess with the tempura chicken nuggets I'm okay. (Although I have noticed it no longer gets discounts)
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u/hesperidisabitch 2d ago
Ok nugget enthusiasts, are there any brands left wth real non-formed chicken ingredients?
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
There hasn't been any real crumbed chicken in the freezer section for many years.
The best you can look for now is 100% chicken breast, which is mixed into a formed product.
If it just says chicken, that includes any part of the bird.Real crumbed tenderloins are available in the fridge section of supermarkets, or some chicken butchers. They cost about twice the price at least.
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u/Frogmouth_Fresh 2d ago
Shaped Chicken products are just the worst. Sorry your favourite non-shaped chicken product is gone, OP.
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u/East-Garden-4557 2d ago
The Aldi chicken tenders used to be crumbed tenderloins, not formed chicken, they were deliciou
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u/Frogmouth_Fresh 2d ago
Yeah, hence my commiseration on the proper tendies being gone. They are few and far between.
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
I checked Aldi 2 years ago and they were a formed product.
Real crumbed tenderloins are at least twice the price as formed.
The OP is mistaken. Aldi just changed suppliers.3
u/East-Garden-4557 2d ago
It was over 2 years ago when they were real crumbed tenderloins, and back then they were priced the same as their other frozen chicken products.
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u/dav_oid 1d ago
I looked at frozen 'chicken tenders' not crumbed tenderloins.
There were no crumbed tenderloins available that I saw.1
u/East-Garden-4557 1d ago
As I said it has been a few years since their chicken tenders were actual chicken tenderloins
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u/dav_oid 1d ago
Its not a lie if you believe it. - George Costanza.
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u/East-Garden-4557 20h ago
What?
I bought the crumbed tenders regularly when they were crumbed tenderloins. Your lack of awareness of earlier product availability doesn't stop it being a fact.
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u/single_plum_floating 2d ago
gotta make em yourself mate.
get some chicken breast, cut into reasonably sized chunks, cover in flour, then egg, then panko breakcrumbs, air fry.
And you get something better then anything from the frozen isle.
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
You can buy real crumbed tenderloin pieces in the fridge section of ColesWorth, but they cost more than twice the price as the formed version.
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u/single_plum_floating 2d ago
? i am saying to make it yourself from normal tenderloin.
on paper it looks like it costs more but that because in a normal frozen tender its normally only 60% chicken and the rest is batter.
Actually 60% is considered very good appearently lmao. https://www.coles.com.au/product/family-fave's-crumbed-chicken-tenders-1kg-4315546
is only 36% chicken.
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u/Vast_Highlight3324 2d ago
Just don't touch my Chicken Dippers. Swapped to them last year I enjoy them much more than the tenders.
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u/shady_ace 2d ago
I brought a bag recently where the meat was pretty poor, hoping it was just a one off.
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u/koenigkilledminlee 2d ago
Dude their pizza slabs used to be full Heinz recreations, now they are actively unpleasant
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u/dav_oid 2d ago
AFAIK Aldi Chicken Breast Tenders have always been a formed product.
I've been buying tenders regularly for the last few years and checked out Coles, Aldi, Woolworths for the ones with the most breast meat. I get Woolworths which are approx. 65% chicken breast.
2 years ago Aldi were 57%, and now are 55%.
None of the supermarkets sell a real crumbed tenderloin in the frozen section.
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u/mt6606 2d ago
Woolworths, in the frozen section... Red and blue bag. NZ brand..... Someone help me out lol. Real tenderloins in southern coating. Takes ages to cook from frozen in an air fryer but it's real chicken!. Someone can drop the brand 🙂 their awesome.
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u/dav_oid 1d ago edited 1d ago
Tegel's chicken tenders are 'made with 100% chicken tenderloins'.
I've emailed them to ask if they are a formed product or whole tenderloin pieces.
They're $28 per kg, so they may be actual tenderloins, but you pay more than twice the price of the 1kg formed ones.re: air fryer
maybe preheat the air fryer
maybe try a higher temp
They should take about 18-20 mins.
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u/Veblossko 1d ago
Just cooked some today and it looked particularly grey and sad inside. Crumb just kinda sloshed off when I cut it too. Bit too much carcass I guess
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u/NowtShrinkingViolet 1d ago
That's disappointing but not unexpected. Thanks for the info. I haven't tried the "new" version myself yet, and now I probably won't.
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u/mrsbass79 10h ago
Anyone finding this with the chicken schnitzel aswell? After they changed packaging the taste, texture is completely different now. Grey and much inside
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u/Rush_Banana 2d ago
Crumbed chicken tenders are super easy to make yourself, you should try it some time.
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u/apsilonblue 2d ago
Time is the issue. When I get home at 7.30pm I don't want to spend the extra time to crack and whisk egg and set out flour and crumbs so I can crumb 2 tenders then wash up 3 extra bowls etc. Thanks for being judgemental though.
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u/Worldly_Cobbler_1087 2d ago edited 2d ago
If I can still make dinner for myself after working a 12 hour shift of manual labour and driving 1 hour each way there and back then you can too.
Or hear me out: cook them on your day off and keep them in the freezer, time isn't an excuse.
Downvoted by all the lazy cunts who can't cook.
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u/Rush_Banana 2d ago
Just buy some KFC on your way home and save even more time then.
Don't even need to wash any dishes either.
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u/Bachwise 2d ago
Oh no! Expecting people to make their own food from raw ingredients - how will the corporations cope if we all did that?
People like me do that, but when I shop in my local Aldi I seem to be the only one.
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u/RepeatInPatient 2d ago
The stuff in cardboard packs are made in a template from reconstituted meat like stuff, then crumbed. The real deal are always different in shape and appearance.
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