I Tried 8 Popular Fast Food Chicken Nuggets—These Are the Ones I’ll Order Again and Again

These days, fast-food chicken struts its stuff in many forms: fried, grilled, baked, or rotisserie cooked; bone-in or boneless; spicy or mild; patties, cold cuts, shredded, wings, tenders, strips, or even—thanks to White Castle—chicken rings. Burger King will even give you a side of chicken fries to go with your Whopper. But for my money, the format of fowl best suited to the drive-thru is the classic chicken nugget.

Part of that is nostalgia. Who doesn’t have memories of sitting in the backseat, many of us still strapped into the child safety seat, when mom or dad passed back a golden nug or two for us to munch on?

Chicken nuggets were also the original quick-chicken format. Scientist Robert C. Baker purportedly invented nuggets in the 1960s from leftover parts of the bird, ground up and encased in breading to make the meat easy to freeze and fry, while being affordable for the masses. The nug became iconic in the early 1980s when fast-food sovereign McDonalds developed its Chicken McNuggets as an easy and mass-producible alternative to red meat.

Nuggets are also the most fun way to eat fast food. You can eat them with a fistful of fries, pop them in your mouth, or dunk them in sauce. Because they’re dunkable, you can take a homogenous six-piece box and experience each nug with a different spin, from ranch to honey mustard to sweet-and-sour (C’mon Mickey D’s! Bring back your Habanero Ranch!)

And now that Taco Bell has brought back (for a limited time) its outside-the-bun take on the bite-sized treat, I figured it’s time to all the most popular fast food chicken nuggets head to head to find out which one really reigns supreme.

How I Tested the Chicken Nuggets

No fancy, highfalutin methodology here. I just tore into the bag as soon as it was handed to me and started popping nugs. I grabbed some signature sauces to try (and you’ll see I recommend one dipper to accompany each nugget), but this was a contest of the morsel itself.

I noted the outside of each offering, the seasoning, the crispiness, and the consistency in size. Then I looked for tender, juicy, and resilient white meat inside. And of course, I wanted a good breading-to-chicken ratio to keep all things in balance.

On that note, here is my own eight-piece ranking of fast food chicken nuggets, including the one I’ll keep coming to the drive-thru for.

The Best Fast Food Chicken Nuggets, Ranked

8th Place: Sonic Premium Chicken Bites

These bites are more akin to popcorn chicken than true nuggets. That means they were wildly inconsistent, with some pieces being fatty and/or meaty while others were little more than balls of deep-fried, peppery breading. When there was meat, it was a little dry.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Jalapeño Ranch

7th Place: Burger King Nuggets

Thin and flimsy, these nugs were well-seasoned with salt, but they were almost all breading with little to no meat inside. (But at only $2.99 for an eight-piece, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.) This one is for the kids who just eat the skin off their fried chicken.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Zesty Sauce

6th Place: Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets

These nuggets looked amazing: uniform in size with crispy breading, and thick meat inside. The problem? Virtually no seasoning on the outside and not much flavor within. On the bright side: They’re a perfect blank canvas for a good dipping sauce.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Ghost Pepper Ranch

5th Place: Shake Shack Chicken Bites

I’ll admit to being a little surprised here—and disappointed. Normally a prestige eatery that pushes upwards on the definition of fast food, Shake Shack came in with plump, well-breaded, but ultimately dry bites of chicken. At $8 per 10-piece, I’d expected a little more.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Shack Sauce

4th Place: McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets

These may or may not be the exact same McNuggets from your childhood (McDonald’s tweaked the recipe in 2000). But more importantly, they FEEL like the original McNuggets of our youth. Nostalgia aside, they were reliably crispy, meaty, and savory. And yes, they do come in four distinct shapes: the Bow Tie, the Ball, the Bell, and the Boot. Walmart sells a McDonald’s copycat nugget if you want to get more Boot for your buck.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Sweet and Sour

3rd Place: Taco Bell Crispy Chicken Nuggets

Leave it to Taco Bell to bring the thunder with its entry into the nugget world. These nugs hit different: The breading of crushed tortilla chips adds a unique crunch and zest, and the chicken itself is tender with a nice, subtle kick of spice. It’s a fittingly unique entry from a taco joint.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Bell Sauce

2nd Place: Chick-fil-A Nuggets

The place that claims to have invented the chicken sandwich predictably placed strong with its nuggets. Gently breaded and delicately seasoned, these pressure-cooked bites of boneless chicken breast are always juicy and delectable—and endlessly poppable. If you don’t live near a Chick-fil-A, you can check your local Walmart for John Soules Foods’ nuggets, which are nearly identical.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Sweet & Spicy Sriracha

1st Place Winner: KFC Kentucky Fried Chicken Nuggets

The Colonel applies his legendary original-recipe blend of herbs and spices to the breading of these delectable bites, hitting your palate with seasoning at first bite. And the 100-percent white meat inside is reliably juicy. I could eat a bucket of these nugs.

Go-to Dipping Sauce: Zesty-peppery Comeback Sauce