The Ultimate Ranking Of Texas Roadhouse Chicken Dinners

You may already be familiar with Texas Roadhouse, considering it's the most popular casual dining restaurant chain in America. Most people know about (and have tried) the range of delicious Texas Roadhouse steaks, which are well-known for being cut by an in-house butcher for maximum freshness and the highest cut quality. But, what you may not realize is that Texas Roadhouse has a full range of menu options outside of their steak offerings. Among these additional options are six unique chicken dinners.

Although I regularly frequent Texas Roadhouse, I have to confess that I've never taken the opportunity to try one of their chicken dinners. Instead, I generally stick to their steaks or occasionally deviate by choosing one of their highly-ranked burgers and sandwiches. Obviously, this was an issue that deserved rectification — and, thankfully, I was given the opportunity to try not one, but all six Texas Roadhouse chicken dinners and report back my findings for you here by ranking them from worst to best. To do this, I primarily relied on more than 15 years of food industry experience and ranked each item based on taste. You can find a full explanation of my methodology at the end of this article.

Now, are you ready to discover the most delicious Texas Roadhouse chicken dinner? You'd be sorely amiss to not try our top pick on your next visit. Let's get into it.

The Country Fried Chicken features a white meat chicken breast that's been coated in batter and fried. This is then topped with your choice of brown or cream gravy. I chose the cream gravy for my dish because it's the most traditional option to top Country Fried Chicken with. And, while I'm usually a fan of this dish generally, I found Texas Roadhouse's rendition to be disappointing.

For starters, the chicken was slightly over seasoned. However, it wasn't enough to ruin the experience for me as the breading was flavorful and the chicken was moist. Unfortunately, when paired with the overly thick, somewhat lumpy, and weirdly sweet gravy, I was met with a negative experience all the way around. This was disappointing since I expected the gravy to be delicious based on my experiences with the other option (the brown gravy). I had my meal with mac and cheese and steak fries for my sides, which were both quite good, although the steak fries were just a little dry.

Despite being an avid lover of Country Fried Chicken, I wouldn't purchase this again nor would I eat it if offered to me by someone else. I can't recommend it in any good faith, and suggest you choose a higher ranking chicken dish instead.

The Portobello Mushroom Chicken starts with a chicken breast that's then covered in a special mushroom sauce, jack cheese, and parmesan cheese. Since I'm a big fan of mushrooms (and Portobellos are one of my favorites), the meal looked delicious to me. Unfortunately, this was another dish that left me sorely disappointed.

The chicken itself was good. It was nicely flavored and had a moist texture that was honestly perfect. Unfortunately, the special mushroom sauce was a little too salty, to the point that it had me reaching for my drink. Then, I felt like the Jack cheese and mushroom sauce flavor profiles clashed rather than complemented, which made it feel like this dish was attempting to do too much. While I appreciate a complex profile, this Portobello Mushroom Chicken surpassed that and veered into overcomplicated territory. I chose a baked potato and corn for my sides — the corn was delicious, but the baked potato was even saltier than the mushroom sauce, which was disappointing.

Although I had high hopes for this dish initially, I wouldn't purchase this again and likely wouldn't eat it if offered to me by someone else. I suggest skipping this in favor of better ranking chicken dishes or, alternatively, opting for your favorite Texas Roadhouse steak instead.

At this part of the ranking, we go from chicken dishes that are bad to those that are okay. The Herb Crusted Chicken starts with the same boneless, skinless chicken breast that most of these Texas Roadhouse chicken dinners begin with. This one is marinated, heavily coated in aromatic seasonings, and served with a caramelized lemon that imparts its own flavor into the meat. While I wasn't left wowed after eating this, I also wasn't really disappointed, either.

The taste of this chicken was very citrusy from the lemon, which I enjoyed. When this was combined with the chosen seasoning profile, it tasted very similar to how my family cooked fish when I was growing up. Although that's not exactly the flavor profile I was expecting, it actually worked quite well. My issue with the Herb Crusted Chicken is that the meat itself was just a little dry, which negated a bit from the overall experience. I ordered this with seasoned rice and green beans for my sides. While the green beans were delicious, the seasoned rice had a weird texture that left me unable to finish my serving.

While I wouldn't order the Herb Crusted Chicken on a future visit to Texas Roadhouse, I would probably eat this again if it were served to me by someone else. While I don't recommend the dish generally, I think avid lovers of citrusy chicken dishes will probably like this.

The Grilled BBQ Chicken is exactly what it sounds like — a boneless, skinless chicken breast that's been thickly coated in Texas Roadhouse's signature BBQ sauce. One thing I do really like here is that this dish is one of those listed on the chain's gluten-friendly suggestions menu. Those who have to eat a gluten-free diet will know that many BBQ sauces contain gluten, whereas this one does not.

Texas Roadhouse BBQ sauce is a little sweet and tangy, with smoky undertones. While it isn't my favorite sauce, it wasn't bad, either. The chicken was cooked well but tasted a little unseasoned on its own without the addition of the sauce. Overall, I have no serious complaints about the Grilled BBQ Chicken, but I still found it to be a fairly mediocre dish with no seriously noteworthy traits. I chose mashed potatoes and the Texas red chili as my sides, both of which were fine. I think in the future, however, I might replace the chili with green beans or corn, as it turned out to be a slightly too acidic meal overall.

I might order the Grilled BBQ Chicken again if I was specifically craving BBQ, and would definitely eat it if served to me by someone else. Fans of BBQ chicken will probably like it just fine, but I'd suggest tempering your expectations to basic satisfaction rather than amazement.

The Smothered Chicken is a versatile dish that begins with chicken topped with sautéed mushrooms and onions. From there, you have the choice of three toppings — brown gravy, cream gravy, or jack cheese. For my dish, I chose the jack cheese because I thought it would best compliment the sautéed aromatics. Thankfully, I was right, and found myself thoroughly enjoying this Smothered Chicken dish.

The chicken breast here was moist and flavorful, which I was thankful for after several of them were dry during my taste test. The mushrooms and onions had a lot of flavor and were perfectly cooked to be soft without veering into mushiness. Plus, there was a generous helping of both piled atop. Although I would have liked to see a little more cheese, this is a personal preference and doesn't necessarily take away from the dish. Each layer of flavor complemented the others well, resulting in a complex profile that retained its balance. For my sides, I ordered a sweet potato and corn, which were both fantastic and worked well with the starring chicken dish.

I would definitely order this again and eat it if it were served to me by someone else. I highly suggest trying this specific Smothered Chicken option, but can't endorse opting for one of the gravies instead of the cheese since I didn't try those.

Chicken Critters are Texas Roadhouse's answer to chicken strips — strips of chicken coated in breading and fried until crispy. You can choose between a variety of sauces, which include BBQ, honey mustard, hot sauce, mild sauce, or ranch. I chose BBQ sauce based on my own personal preferences and was happy to note the restaurant provides a generous amount.

Chicken strips are a comfort item of mine, and these were done beautifully. The breading was flavorful, and the breading to chicken ratio was perfect. The meat itself was tender and moist. The easiest way to describe this dish is that, while this is a simple, common food, it was done with uncommonly excellent execution. I received steak fries with mine, which is always a perfect pairing, and I enjoyed the combination despite a little bit of dryness in the fries. I also had a Caesar salad (not pictured), which was mediocre but edible.

I will definitely be eating these Chicken Critters again, and truly can't praise them enough. I highly suggest you try them for yourself. Once you do, you'll be left with no doubts as to why they were the top ranked Texas Roadhouse chicken dinner.

I chose Texas Roadhouse chicken dinners based on their availability to me at my local chain in Vineland, New Jersey. All six menu items available to me at the time of this ranking were included. I ranked each item according to taste, with supporting factors like smell or texture playing a role when they were very noteworthy, either for better or for worse. Each dish was tasted exactly as-is with no alterations to ensure the fairest and most accurate ranking.

To make my determination, I predominantly relied on my more than 15 years of experience working in the food industry, during which time I made my fair share of various chicken dinners. My previous experience with the Texas Roadhouse chain and with creating rankings for Daily Meal also gave me helpful knowledge and context for my ranking. This includes previous Daily Meal taste tests revolving around the chain, like the one where I ranked every Texas Roadhouse appetizer. Although personal preference played a role in this ranking, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.