Taco Bell Tries Its Hand at Chicken Nuggets
A first of its kind for the fast food chain, the crunchy bites come with three sauces. Here’s what they taste like.
Photo courtesy of Taco Bell
Taco Bell is where you go for things like burritos and nachos, chalupas and Crunchwraps, and of course tacos. But when the craving for chicken nuggets hits, you probably hit a different spot. Taco Bell wants to change that. This week, the fast food chain is set to launch its take on chicken nuggets, and in typical Taco Bell fashion, they’re kind of all about the sauce.
Taco Bell’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets, which will be available starting December 19 for a limited time at participating locations nationwide, following successful test runs in Minneapolis and Houston, are described by the brand as “tender all-white meat chicken bites, marinated in zesty jalapeño buttermilk flavor and breaded with a blend of breadcrumbs and crunchy tortilla chips to deliver the ideal balance of flavor and crisp.”
The new nuggets will be accompanied by three dipping sauces that emerged from experimenting with more than 100 different sauce variations, Taco Bell says. That’s a big commitment to sauce.
I got a chance to taste the nuggets and dipping sauces in advance. The first thing I noticed was that the nuggets were rounder and perhaps a bit more diminutive than some other fast food nuggets. They definitely fit the description of “bites,” although some were bigger than others. The crispy exterior, too, seemed variegated, with flecks of toasty brown (the tortilla bits?) adding texture to the golden coating.
The nuggets were crunchy as promised. Eaten on their own, without the sauce, there wasn’t much heat from the jalapeño – maybe just a little at the end.
And while Taco Bell promised these nuggets would “disrupt” my “classic chicken nugget habits” (whatever those might be), they mostly just tasted like nuggets. That is, until I dipped them in sauce.
Photo courtesy of Taco Bell
The sauces were a game changer. The new Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce, which blends Taco Bell’s signature Fire Sauce with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing in the brands’ first collaboration, provided the heat I was craving. The Jalapeño Honey Mustard sauce brought a sweet, subtle heat to the nugget experience; it’ll be just the thing for honey mustard fans.
But my favorite was Taco Bell’s new Bell Sauce, featuring “subtle chili notes and crafted with tomatoes, red chiles, and garlic,” according to the brand. It was sweetly smoky, creamy and tangy and definitely next-leveled my nuggets.
“Reinventing an American classic with a Taco Bell twist is a responsibility we don’t take lightly,” says Taylor Montgomery, Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer, in a statement. “But in a world dominated by chicken cravings, it was time to show the world how Taco Bell does chicken nuggets – unexpected and undeniably bold.”
Montgomery says he hopes the new menu item will “test people’s devotion to their favorite nuggets.”
Starting Thursday, when they make their debut, the new Crispy Chicken Nuggets can be ordered in several contexts. You can get them à la carte: A five-piece order with one dipping sauce is priced at $3.99 and a 10-piece order with two dipping sauces at $6.99. Or you could go for a combo deal, which comes with regular Nacho Fries, nacho cheese sauce and a large fountain drink. Those start at $5.99 for a five-piece combo with one dipping sauce and $8.99 for a 10-piece combo with two dipping sauces.
Or you can go for broke with a Crispy Chicken Nugget Deluxe Meal, which includes a five-piece nugget order, one dipping sauce, a Crunchy Taco, a Beef Chalupa, regular Nacho Fries and a medium fountain drink — all for $10.49.
Definitely nacho usual nuggets.
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