Fast food junkies will tell you that some of the most popular items at the drive-through were actually invented by franchisees. The Big Mac and Egg McMuffin, for instance, both originally came from store owners in the McDonald's chain.
Now Rocky Mount-based Boddie-Noell Enterprises is hoping that the Hardee's new Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders will join that list.
The tenders, which are dipped in buttermilk, breaded and fried fresh in restaurants, began in the kitchens of the Texas Steakhouse & Saloon chain, which is owned by Boddie-Noell. Boddie-Noell is also the largest single Hardee's franchisee, operating 337 Hardee's in four states, including all of the Triangle's.
The Texas Steakhouse & Saloon has been serving the hand-made tenders since the 1990s, said Mike Boddie, president of the Restaurant Division of Boddie-Noell.
"We just kept talking about how good a seller it was," he said. "Hardee's has had a frozen breaded chicken tender. ... My father came to us and said the tenders sell so well on Texas Steakhouse, why don't we put them in our Hardee's?"
The Texas Steakhouse tenders are extra-large portions, so Boddie-Noell had to refine its recipe to work with smaller tenders more appropriate for a fast-food setting, Boddie said. In October, at a meeting with executives for Hardee's parent company CKE Restaurants, they pitched their idea.
"We threw a curve at them with what we wanted to do, but when they tasted the product, there's no comparison," he said.
By Christmas, they were testing the new product in stores, and now it is being rolled out nationwide with a national advertising campaign to match. The new chicken tenders will be in all Hardee's stores by the end of the month.
It's not the first time Boddie-Noell chefs have influenced the national Hardee's menu.
The company was also responsible for starting the chain's switch to made-from-scratch biscuits, which are now a cornerstone in Hardee's stores and advertising nationwide.
Boddie-Noell doesn't get any financial benefits for creating a recipe, but Mike Boddie said that helping to improve the products at all Hardee's helps his bottom line.
"As Hardee's goes, Boddie-Noell goes," he said. "It was a good product and we brought it to them."
