Gardein Meatless Seven Grain Crispy Tenders Review

What did everyone do for Memorial Day? We mostly did house projects and had the Beyond Meat burgers on the grill with some roasted veggies!

Like the Gardein Classic Meatless Meatballs, we bought a big bag of the Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders from BJs! Even though the name implies that they get crispy, I don’t really agree. These tenders stay on the softer side because the outside breading falls off very easily. Despite these tenders not getting as crispy as I would like and the outside falling off, the Company did make the texture seem similar to real meat chicken tenders. To me they taste pretty bland though. As someone had said about the LightLife hot dogs tasting like a cheap hot dog, these crispy tenders taste like cheap tenders. 😂 I had the Gardein Crispy Tenders before trying the Quorn nuggets and will definitely be sticking to the Quorn nuggets and buffalo dippers more.

Nutrition Facts

The serving size for the Gardein Crispy Tenders is two tenders. The calories seem a bit high for just two tenders but when you think of it in comparison to real meat chicken tenders, they’re about the same depending on which brand you look at. There’s no cholesterol though, and they really aren’t high in anything else besides protein which is great! I also do enjoy the fact that the breading on the outside is from grains like quinoa and oats.

Cooking

As with most meatless options, I find the best way to cook them is in the oven. They do get slightly crispy, but I would like them a lot crispier. I have tried to cook them in the oven longer but that’s when the outside definitely slides off more. I will add that they don’t have cooking instructions for the microwave other than if you don’t have as much time you can cook them a little in the microwave before putting them in the oven which is nice. I have totally been that person to still cook them just in the microwave and definitely don’t recommend it. 😂

You can see that the ends did get crispy but the breading comes off of the centers quite easily which leaves them not as crispy overall.

Stores

I have found the Gardein Seven Grain Crispy Tenders at Giant and BJs in our area. As with the Gardein Meatless Meatballs, Giant sells the smaller bag if you just want to try them out or have a few on-hand. BJs sells the larger bag.

If you’re looking for cheap tenders to replace real meat tenders, give these a try and see what you think! I overall prefer the Quorn nuggets though because they have more flavor and get crispier! 😋