You don’t have to be a kid to appreciate the simple joys of a chicken nugget. Whether Mom swung by the Mickey D’s drive-thru on the way home after school, or they came from the freezer aisle, nuggets can be tiny little breaded bunches of happiness. Is it the nostalgia that draws us in? The taste? The coating? It’s probably not for the health benefits. Made with processed white chicken and rib meat and often deep-fried, nuggs certainly aren’t the best option for daily intake. Still, there’s nothing quite like picking up a pack of McNuggets with their tempura batter after a night out at the bar or just for an afternoon snack.
Whatever the draw is, chicken nuggets have us in their grips, even when they aren’t exactly the best. According to customer reviews, some fast food chains have been dropping the ball on their nuggets over the last few years, whether it’s because they’ve changed the recipe or the nuggets entirely.
We took a deeper look at what customers (and some restaurant industry folks) have been saying on social media and Reddit, and deemed seven chain restaurants with the lowest-quality chicken nuggets.
Read more: 10 Fast Food Chicken Sandwiches, Ranked
Jack In The Box Chicken Nuggets
box of jack in the box nuggets – Jack in the Box/Facebook
Jack in the Box is known for having a little bit of everything on their menu — where else could you get both egg rolls and tacos? However, its nuggets are not exactly considered the best ones out there. In fact, in Chowhound’s ranking of chicken nuggets and bites, Jack in the Box came in dead last. The reviewer noted that the nuggets looked disappointing, were soggy rather than crispy, and tasted like a “vague memory” of chicken.
In an online video, Joshua Weissman, who works in the food industry, claims he tried every fast-food chicken nugget in the U.S. that he could. He rated Jack in the Box’s nuggets as just mediocre, with nothing good or bad of note, and ranked them in the middle of his list of best to worst. Good Mythical Morning surveyed items from five different fast food chains; when it came to Jack in the Box, the audience put its nuggets in second-to-last, ranking it only higher than Burger King. Don’t worry, those are on the list too.
Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets
a box of nuggets on its side – Deutschlandreform/Shutterstock
Yet another fast food mainstay, Wendy’s has had nuggets on the menu for a while, though it’s unclear exactly when they came out. According to the Wendy’s menu, their chicken nuggets contain all white meat, are “breaded to crispy perfection,” and are offered in three sizes: four, six, or ten pieces. The ingredients list includes salt, garlic powder, and other spices.
Unfortunately, the seasonings don’t seem to help with the taste. The consensus on Reddit is that after Wendy’s changed its recipe some time ago, the flavor and quality dropped, with commenters deeming them as a poor imitation of nuggets, rubbery, and no longer a favorite. Some went as far as to say that Wendy’s nuggets are now the worst ones out there.
Burger King Nuggets
bag of burger king nuggets – James Andrews1/Shutterstock
While the Burger King website may call their nuggets “Titanic in taste,” it seems customers are not exactly in agreement. A recent Reddit poll asking for the worst chicken nuggets had Burger King nominated several times. Even if they were deemed better than other brands by commenters, they still conceded that they weren’t good.
But what about them isn’t great? Another Reddit thread dove into it, saying they were overly processed and worse than grocery store nuggets. Others who also commented on their distaste referred to them as bland, dry, and cheap. Which is interesting, considering they’re seasoned with salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. The only positive thing that most people had to say about the nuggets was the price.
In our ranking of every Burger King menu item, nuggets were toward the bottom of the list, with the reviewer commenting on the inconsistency in the texture from one nugget to another. They also said that it felt like Burger King didn’t really care about its own chicken nuggets.
Carl’s Jr Chicken Stars
chicken stars with side of fries – The Image Party/Shutterstock
Carl’s Jr is a fast food chain that is primarily known for its charbroiled burgers, not its chicken stars — and it shows. A Chowhound reviewer once said that the Carl’s Jr chicken stars didn’t taste much like chicken and were roughly the same as low-quality store-bought nuggets — and there was no saving them, even with sauce. Accordingly, they fell into last place on our ranking of 11 Carl’s Jr menu items.
Not to mention, they’re pretty high in calories, even for chicken nuggets. The six-piece and nine-piece combos are going to run you anywhere from 410 to 1410 calories. This is higher than Jack in the Box’s eight-piece combo (410-1370 calories) and McDonald’s 20-piece McNuggets (830 calories).
Looking at their markup on Foodeducate, they received a C+, notably because they contain fully hydrogenated oils and are highly processed. While fully hydrogenated oils don’t contain trans fat, they do have more saturated fats, which can potentially raise the levels of cholesterol in the blood.
Sonic Premium Chicken Bites
box of sonic chicken bites – Alex Springer/Chowhound
We here at Chowhound have talked about Sonic’s Premium Chicken Bites before. They were ranked second-to-last on our ranking of fast-food chicken nuggets and tenders, and they were also on our list of Sonic menu items to avoid. So, it’s no wonder they made this list of the lowest-quality chain nuggets. To be fair, Sonic isn’t exactly known for having the best chicken products anyway.
According to the Sonic menu, the bites are white-meat chicken lightly coated in a seasoned breading. Commenters on a Reddit thread complained about the texture, saying they often got gristle or chewy pieces, and that it was overly processed and tasted fake. Some called them bland, while others said they had a questionable flavor. Overall, they really were not impressed with the chicken bites, which are a relatively new menu item. In terms of nutrition, a small serving falls right at the recommended amount of saturated fats at 10 percent per day.
KFC Saucy Nuggets
ad for kfc saucy nuggets – KFC
It feels a bit strange to include a menu item from KFC on this list, seeing as they are known for, well, fried chicken. But here we are. KFC’s nuggets were launched in 2023, which, for the most part, had positive reviews at the time. In April 2024, they launched saucy nuggets, which have been, well, “saucy,” but not in a good way. They’ve actually been hit or miss, depending on the flavor.
Overall, customers on Reddit have complained about the quality and portion sizes, saying you don’t get what you pay for, and they aren’t worth the price. Others focused on the Korean BBQ flavor, complaining that the flavor was good but the texture was off, and some commented that it didn’t taste like Korean BBQ at all — they compared it to General Tso’s sauce and regular BBQ.
BrickEats, a food YouTuber, tested all five flavors and complimented the size. However, he was mixed on the flavors. Korean BBQ was okay, but he wasn’t a fan of Nashville Hot, comparing it to eating tree bark.
McDonald’s McNuggets
mcnuggets set with fries and a drink – SrideeStudio/Shutterstock
Yes, we know this one is almost akin to blasphemy. The McNugget has been around since the 1980s, and since its inception, it’s been a hot menu item at the fast food chain. Everyone at some point has likely loved their McNuggets and has a favorite sauce. We even put them second on our list of chicken nuggets, ranked from unhealthiest to healthiest. However, even heroes sometimes fall from grace.
On Reddit, the common complaints are that they’re barely seasoned, have a weird aftertaste, don’t taste like chicken, and use bad-quality meat. A handful of Reddit commenters surmised that McNuggets are really only good in the early hours of the morning, when you need a snack on the way home from a night of drinking and clubbing. To be fair, they may be right. That’s when the nostalgia kicks in hardest.
In terms of nutrition, well, McNuggets actually aren’t as bad as others on this list. They’ve consistently improved their recipe since the 80s, although they’re still kind of high in sodium, which is something you may want to consider.
Methodology
line of four chicken nuggets – Sungmin/Getty Images
How did we conclude that these seven nuggets from fast food chains have the lowest quality? First of all, we turned to the internet to see what people were saying. We checked out Reddit, YouTube, and other social media outlets, and also reviewed news articles. We also looked at nutritional information about the nuggets and included that.
But we also needed to have some kind of criteria to decide what was deemed as “low quality.” We paid particular attention to what people were saying about the flavor — if it had any seasoning or was bland, or if there was anything strange or off-putting about it. We also looked at what people were saying about the texture. When it comes to good chicken nuggets, you want something that has a crispy exterior with juicy, tender meat. We noted down when people complained about the breading being too thick or too soft, or if any were deemed dry or rubbery.
Most of all, there had to be generally accepted opinions coming from more than just a few people. We also looked at who was doing some of the reviews. Yes, the average consumer was considered, but reviews by people from the food industry held a bit more weight.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
