I tried Taco Bell’s new Crispy Chicken Nuggets

I’ve always been a fan of Taco Bell ever since I was a kid. Although it’s not my favorite restaurant ever, I still like their mindset of innovating new menu items and coming up with unique combinations and collaborations to introduce novel fast food to the world. Even though I don’t drink alcohol, one of my favorite late-night activities on the Las Vegas Strip is to walk to the Taco Bell Cantina just to order some regular food and a Mountain Dew Baja Blast and sit upstairs near the subwoofers while people-watching and enjoying the music.

When Taco Bell announced they made Crispy Chicken Nuggets with three new dipping sauces, I had to try them. Due to hereditary health reasons, I have to minimize my intake of saturated fats from red meat, which naturally means my diet contains a lot of fish and birds. Because of that, I was looking forward to sampling Taco Bell’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets to see if they were good enough to be added to my regular fast food chicken rotation.

Each five pieces comes with one dipping sauce included, so I purchased fifteen Crispy Chicken Nuggets. The 5-Piece Crispy Chicken Nuggets entrée was US$3.99. The 10-Piece Crispy Chicken Nuggets entrée was US$7.49, and I upgraded it to a Combo for US$2.50 more to get Seasoned Fries and MTN DEW® Baja Blast™ Zero Sugar. With the nuggets, I received one each of Hidden Valley™ Fire Ranch Sauce, Bell Sauce, and Jalapeño Honey Mustard Sauce. (Note that these prices could be localized for Las Vegas and may be different in your region.)

The first thing I noticed was that the breading was very crispy and these nuggets resembled popcorn chicken more than chicken nuggets. When I split them open, I saw that the meat quality seemed notably better than regular chicken nuggets you’d find at other fast food restaurants. Visually, they look like cut-up chicken strips rather than nuggets with blended chicken.

Sizing per nugget seemed to be a hit-or-miss, as some were very large while others were pretty small. However, when considering the total average, I think they’re larger than what you’d expect from an average chicken nugget from other fast food restaurants. There were some tiny pieces that were mostly breading, but after taking inventory, I noticed that those did not count towards the 15 chicken nuggets.

When testing the sauces, I followed a certain methodology. I dipped the chicken nuggets into each sauce, then after each taste test, I ate unsauced fries and drank some Mountain Dew as a palate cleanser. I repeated this cycle with multiple different ordering permutations as to fully minimize the possibility of a previous flavor affecting a current flavor. I also dipped fries into each sauce, then after each of those taste tests, I ate unsauced chicken nuggets and drank some Mountain Dew before further testing additional permutations.

Bell Sauce is basically just chipotle sauce, but with an extra kick of herbs and spices. This was most like a generic sauce I’d expect from a Mexican-inspired American fast food restaurant.

Jalapeño Honey Mustard Sauce was special in that it was stronger on the mustard flavor and weaker on the honey flavor, which is usually the opposite of what I see with other fast food restaurants’ honey mustard sauces. Although I wouldn’t consider it to be spicy, it still definitely had some heat to it. This is one of the most unique-tasting fast food sauces I’ve seen, and this sauce has a recognizably distinct identity to it. Out of the three sauces, this was my favorite.

Hidden Valley™ Fire Ranch Sauce had an underlying flavor profile of the type of ranch you put on salads—which I guess is expected, because it’s co-branded with Hidden Valley. This is notable because I’ve found that most other fast food ranches are more so standalone sauces, as opposed to resembling ranch dressing. Out of the three sauces, this was the most difficult to form an opinion on, and was probably the most uninteresting sauce—which is not necessarily a bad thing, because it would be good for people who might want something simple, straightforward, and familiar.

After finishing all 15 chicken nuggets, the thing that stood out to me was that they were much saltier than pretty much any other chicken nugget I’ve had from any other fast food restaurant. Dipping the nuggets in sauce sometimes helped mask the saltiness, presumably because the sauce added additional flavors that could be enhanced by the salt, but when eating them plain, I feel like they could’ve gotten away with using about half the salt and still be comparable in saltiness to other fast food chicken nuggets.

Overall, my impression of Taco Bell’s new Crispy Chicken Nuggets is that they’re not bad. I don’t think I would go out of my way to go to Taco Bell specifically to order these chicken nuggets, but I wouldn’t be opposed to throwing in a five-piece entrée with the Jalapeño Honey Mustard Sauce along with my regular order of tacos if I’m already there and I’m extra hungry that day.

 

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