You’d think after blind taste testing 62 different dipping sauces across a 40-piece order of chicken McNuggets that I’d be tired of fast food. But nope, I’m still here! Sure, I never want to touch another high-fructose-pumped dipping sauce in the immediate future, but I still ride hard for the drive-thru food. But around nugget 37 of that endeavor, I got to thinking. Does McDonald’s make the best chicken nugget in the fast food universe? After so many nuggets and dipping sauces, I really wasn’t sure anymore.
So in an effort to investigate, I decided to put the mighty McNugget to the blind taste test by pitting it against five other fast food classics. Since I was immediately burned out on McNuggets and I wanted to give them a fair shot, I took a one-week break from all things fast food and all things fried. For the last week, I’ve been eating salads, a whole lot of hummus, grilled meat, and rice bowls and now after a full seven days, I’m ready to dive back into the fast food pool!
So I grabbed nuggets from some of the biggest fast food chains, donned my trusty blindfold, and got to tasting!
Part 1: Chicken Nugget Tasting Methodology
Nuggets cool down at a faster rate than cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches. If you’ve followed our blind taste tests this year, you’ll know that I’ve been obsessed with making sure I can try all the food as hot as possible in order to come to the fairest conclusion. So for this blind taste test, I hit up three fast food chains in close proximity and sent my girlfriend to hit up another three so we could meet up back at home at roughly the same time without the food suffering the dreaded cooldown. For six different chains and seven different chicken nuggets, I think we did a pretty good job, each of the seven nugget orders was warm to hot.
Here is our tasting class:
- Burger King — Chicken Nuggets
- Carl’s Jr — Chicken Stars
- Chick-fil-a — Chicken Nuggets
- Jack in the Box — Chicken Nuggets
- McDonald’s — Chicken McNuggets
- Wendy’s — Chicken Nuggets
- Wendy’s — Spicy Chicken Nuggets
Since a few of these nuggets could be instantly identified, I donned my blindfold and had my girlfriend bring me a plate of nuggets at random (all photos were taken by her). For the most part, I had no idea which nuggets I was eating, though the chicken stars and spicy nuggets were admittedly easy to pick out. Here were the results.
Part 2: The Chicken Nugget Tasting
Taste 1:
Tasting Notes:
Wendy’s Spicy Nuggets! I know these are the spicy nugs because they are noticeably spicy. After a single bite, my palate was ignited with a strong cayenne pepper kick. It’s a really pleasing experience and for some reason, I find it more enjoyable with the blindfold. After the initial kick, the flavor finishes with a prominent black pepper flavor. The nugget is crispy and has a great mouthfeel, a real winner.
Taste 2:
Tasting Notes:
This one is strangely flavorless. Did the spicy nuggets burn my taste buds off? I took a few sips of water and ate another nugget but still nothing. I like the texture a lot, the breading is very light, airy, and crispy as if the chicken was dredged in cornstarch. Unfortunately, that crispy outer is the only good thing about this nugget. The chicken itself is strangely spongey and kind of wet. Despite not tasting like much, the wet meat really grosses me out.
Taste 3:
Tasting Notes:
A bit buttery and very tender, but the outer coating seems soggy to me. That’s not a time issue, these nuggets are still hot, but there is no crisp here. The flavor is fine, but it kind of feels like wet styrofoam in my mouth.
Taste 4:
Tasting Notes:
This one is strangely dusty, I feel like little granules of breading are separating from the nugget. My hand was dusty with crumbs after this one, and the texture was a bit dry but I like the flavor. It’s black pepper forward and the chicken is tender and very easy to chew threw, it almost melts in the mouth.
Taste 5:
Tasting Notes:
Significantly denser than any of the other nuggets I’ve had so far, but still tender. I’m getting a much meatier bite here and there are little tendrils of fried breading that give off a satisfying snap, but it’s not a consistent experience. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing or not. On crispiness, it’s middling, but flavor-wise it’s in a whole other class. I’m tasting onion and garlic powder, pepper, something earthy, and the slightest hint of peanut. Really delicious.
Taste: 6
Tasting Notes:
Oh, these are the chicken stars. I can tell as soon as I picked one up. These are kind of strange, they have a bright buttery flavor and a great heavy breading that provides a lot of texture, but it’s impossible to eat these without being just a little grossed out. I know most nuggets are a blend of chicken meat, but no other nugget makes it more obvious than this one. Still, I kind of like them. I have a weird relationship with this one.
Taste 7:
Tasting Notes:
Another starchy, airy, and crispy batter. There is a certain flatness to this nugget, it has flavor but it desperately calls for sauce. I can’t believe I’m saying that. The dominant flavor here is salt and cheap chicken with a hint of white pepper. It tastes like what you expect a nugget to taste like, it’s not bad by any means, but it does make you wish you could just eat a chicken tender instead.
Part 3: The Chicken Nugget Ranking
7. Jack in the Box Chicken Nuggets — Taste 2
The Chicken Nugget:
Jack in the Box has had an issue with its chicken for a while. The brand has been mixing things up and changing its recipes and unfortunately, not for the better. I’m not sure what the worst thing about this nugget was, the fact that it was essentially flavorless, or the weird wet texture. Whatever it was, it made this nugget far and above the worst.
The Bottom Line:
If you want a nugget that is all texture (wet) no flavor, go to Jack in the Box.
Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.
6. Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets — Taste 3
The Chicken Nugget:
It’s weird to me that Wendy’s offers two very different nugget experiences, spicy and boring. Why would anyone choose boring? I’m not saying that spicy food is always better, but when you’re dealing with chicken nuggets you’re dealing with cheap processed meat, and spice makes all the difference! In addition to the boring flavor, this nugget came across as too soggy. Maybe I got a bad batch, but that sounds more like Wendy’s problem, not mine.
The Bottom Line:
A fine-tasting but ultimately boring chicken nugget with a soggy coating.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
5. Burger King Chicken Nuggets — Taste 4
The Chicken Nugget:
Look at Burger King landing in the middle of the list! I’m always dunking on this brand, so I’m proud of it for not coming in last place. These were the strange dusty nuggets. Weird texture aside, I really like the black pepper-forward flavor. They were also surprisingly tender, almost melting in the mouth. Okay, this is the nicest I’ve ever been to Burger King so I’m just going to end it here before I say something really crazy and give my editor the idea to make me taste-test the whole menu.
The Bottom Line:
Burger King’s nuggets are dusty but delicious. Okay maybe not delicious, but very good.
Find your nearest Burger King here.
4. Carl’s Jr Chicken Stars — Taste 6
The Chicken Nugget:
Yeah, I know, it’s weird to rank Chicken Stars this highly but what can I say, I like the flavor! I can just imagine these bright-tasting heavily battered nuggets dunked in BBQ sauce and if any chicken nugget can bring me back to the idea of using dipping sauces, I can’t complain. While the star shape is disturbing, the crunchy texture makes it all worth it.
The Bottom Line:
Chicken Stars are weird, but fun. You can bite off each leg of the star one by one and turn the nugget into a shape that feels less weird to consume. Who doesn’t love food you can play with?
Find your nearest Carl’s Jr. here.
3. McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets — Taste 7
The Chicken Nugget:
The ‘ol classic, the McNugget has a really nice airy texture and an interesting blend of seasonings that tastes unlike anything else in the fast food universe. On crispiness alone, this one deserves the third-place spot, although it is a bit bland. It’s light and flavorless in a good way, like a canvas for dipping sauces. I used this nugget in the 62-sauce test for a reason, it’s just a natural pair for dipping and retains its crispiness for the longest amount of time.
The Bottom Line:
A good chicken nugget with a great texture.
Find your nearest McDonald’s here.
2. Wendy’s Spicy Nuggets — Taste 1
The Chicken Nugget:
I really liked this one, it was a great way to start the tasting and packed so much flavor thanks to the blend of cayenne and black pepper. It also has the crispiness you want. The breading is thick but still snappy. And while the meat tastes very cheap, it’s tender and the spice is strong enough to distract from the texture. If we didn’t have our number one choice in the lineup, this would’ve taken the top spot easily.
The best part of Wendy’s Spicy Nuggets is that they actually deliver on the heat. This isn’t a gentle kick of spice, it’s pretty intense, and we love Wendy’s for going bold.
The Bottom Line:
If you can’t handle spice, you can’t handle these nuggets. A whole lot of flavor in a small package, the only chicken nugget that doesn’t need to be dipped to enhance the experience.
Find your nearest Wendy’s here.
1. Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets — Taste 5
The Chicken Nugget:
I kind of saw this one coming and the blindfold confirmed it, Chick-fil-A’s chicken nuggets, which are made from actual whole chunks of chicken, are in another class. This is real, unprocessed chicken. It’s tender, juicy, and imperfect in the way actual chicken is. Sure, you don’t get a consistent crunch across this nugget, or a consistent shape, but you get so much more flavor here than in any other nugget.
The chicken is marinaded, giving this nugget a depth of flavor that the others just can’t compete with. And that’s just talking about the meat, the breading contains more seasoning than everything else, with notes of garlic, onion powder, and black pepper. If Chick-fil-A made a spicy nugget, it would’ve absolutely dominated this menu and beat out Wendy’s.
I don’t like to give Chick-fil-A praise. But credit where credit is due, this is some damn good chicken.
The Bottom Line:
Easily the best chicken nugget in this taste test.
Find your nearest Chick-fil-A here.