11 Best Fast Food Chicken Nuggets Ranked in 2025

There are few more hotly-contested topics in the world of fast food than that of the best fast food chicken nuggets. However, while the best fast food chicken nuggets look similar, in terms of taste, they couldn’t be farther apart.

And, with chicken restaurants becoming highly popular in the dining sector, as reported by The Food Institute, many fast food chains are looking to add more chicken products, including nuggets, to their menus. This means that the number of nuggets to choose from will increase, making the task of identifying the best fast food chicken nuggets even more challenging. 

You’ll also find that there are lots of varying opinions on which chain should wear the crown of serving the best fast food chicken nuggets. Now that we think of it, this makes creating this guide a bold undertaking in itself! 

But undertake it we shall. We’ll focus on crucial factors like the texture of the chicken inside, the crispiness of the coating, and the seasoning (delicate or otherwise) that tempts tasters back to order another box, all to help you discover what we deem to be the best fast food chicken nuggets on the market. 

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• The 11 Best Fast Food Nuggets Ranked
• Who Has the Best Chicken Nuggets?
• How We Ranked the Best Chicken Nuggets at Fast Food Restaurants

The 11 Best Fast Food Nuggets Ranked

11. Jack in the Box

This eleventh-place entry on our guide to the best fast food chicken nuggets falls a little more into the chicken tenders category, but we felt they deserved a spot anyway.

While they lack the crispiness that their crumbly-coated appearance would suggest, they work perfectly for those who love to pair nuggets with a dipping sauce. However, those who don’t enjoy drenching their order of fast food chicken nuggets in sauce will likely want to go somewhere else to curb their cravings. 

10. Carl’s Jr.

Carl’s Jr. is another well-known chain that delivers fast food chicken nuggets, which are good but not great. As you may know, they also come in the shape of stars, which is nice if you’re feeling nostalgic.

Unfortunately, there are no gold stars for flavor. And this lackluster taste is simply not going to cut it in a contest for the best fast food chicken nuggets. The meat inside is also a little overly processed, even for a nugget. 

All things considered, if your kids (or your inner child) are looking for some fun, then they will just about do the job. Just make sure you get some dips to go with them or pair them with a unique dish from the Carl’s Jr. secret menu for a more interesting and flavorful meal. 

9. Burger King

If you’re hoping to avoid the unhealthiest fast food chains, then Burger King may well be on your pass list, but don’t write it off just yet. At least, don’t write it off if you’re looking for some of the best fast food chicken nuggets.

Don’t get us wrong — they’re not as good as many others in this guide. But that’s more a testament to the others’ quality than a lack of it on Burger King’s behalf. In fact, some go as far as saying that Burger King’s nuggets are better than McDonald’s. Of course, this is really a matter of taste. 

But when you consider the tasty but not-too-salty seasoning and satisfying crunch that coats these golden delicacies, it’s easy to see why they’re considered some of the best fast food chicken nuggets.

They are a little on the thin side, which is perhaps the only complaint to be had. But they’re far from dry, represent incredible value for money, and when ordered as a four-piece, are one of the healthiest items at Burger King. In other words, they might be in ninth place, but they’re still some of the best fast food chicken nuggets you can get.  

8. Wendy’s

Anybody who has tried the spicy nugget nachos from the Wendy’s secret menu will probably be nodding sagely at this point. But even without any fancy or indulgent additions, Wendy’s comes in a respectable eighth place on this guide to fast food chicken nuggets ranked.

Why, you ask? Well, according to some, they blow some of their strongest competitors (namely, Burger King and McDonald’s) clean out of the water. As you’ll see, we still rank McDonald’s nuggets slightly higher than we do Wendy’s, as do several fellow reviewers. However, we can see why others would disagree. 

Wendy’s nuggets are meaty on the inside and crispy on the outside, and somehow have a slight peppery kick. In other words, as fast food restaurant chicken nuggets go, they’re up there with the best of them. 

7. Popeyes

Home to some of the best fast food chicken tenders and fried chicken, it’s not surprising that Popeyes also has some of the best fast food chicken nuggets.

Order these and you’ll get a nice crispy, crumbly texture from the coating, and while the seasoning isn’t the most punchy on this guide, you probably won’t notice, especially if you pair them with one of the many dipping sauces available. 

The only reason we’ve ranked these fast food chicken nuggets in seventh place is that a few others on the market offer a slightly better flavor profile and balance of coating to meat.  

6. Shake Shack

Taking sixth place almost exclusively for their crispy plumpness, Shake Shack’s entry in this guide is deserving of a place among the best fast food chicken nuggets, but with one caveat. You should order them with a side of Shack Sauce.

The reason is that they sometimes come out of the fryer on the dry side. This is a shame, but if you treat them as a vessel for the chain’s lip-smacking signature sauce, you’ll probably agree that, as fast food restaurant chicken nuggets go, they’re tough to beat. 

5. Taco Bell 

Some of the best fast food chicken nuggets come from Taco Bell? We know. We were as surprised as you. Praised for “hitting differently” with moist, tender chicken and a crunchy, zesty coating, why it took Taco Bell so long to enter the race for best fast food chicken nuggets is hard to guess.

Perhaps the chefs at the chain’s test kitchen were holding off until they’d perfected the Taco Bell chicken nugget recipe. If so, all we can say is that it was worth the wait. 

4. McDonald’s

When you first opened this guide to the best fast food chicken nuggets, there’s a chance that you assumed McDonald’s would be top of the list. They’re not, but they’re not far off.

Whether you’re trying to keep costs down by ordering the cheapest McDonald’s items or need something on the side of your meal to serve as a vessel for your favorite McDonald’s sauces, there are few better items to order off the menu than McNuggets. 

They are also incredibly nostalgic, having remained deliciously close to the nuggets we all remember craving when we were kids. Sure, the recipe isn’t exactly the same. And that’s probably a good thing. But they remain one of the most popular McDonald’s items, and are absolutely some of the best fast food chicken nuggets you’re likely to try. 

3. Sonic

We couldn’t create a guide to the best fast food chicken nuggets and not include Sonic. Whether bought as a side to accompany your Sonic secret menu order or as a standalone snack, it’s hard not to want more of these tasty morsels.

Some feel these fast food nuggets are more akin to popcorn chicken than regular chicken nuggets (which can be a pro or a con depending on who you ask). 

No matter how you feel about that description, order these and you’ll get nuggets with a super crispy and peppery coating that are as delicious on their own as with dipping sauce. 

2. KFC

If you’re craving a taste of the Colonel’s secret recipe but need to keep your portion size in check, then you’re in luck. Not only are nuggets one of the healthiest items at KFC, but they’re also some of the very best fast food chicken nuggets on this list.

As you’d expect, you get a crispy coating featuring the chain’s signature secret blend of herbs and spices, but that’s not all. You also get tender, moist, 100-percent white chicken meat. In other words, your only regret when you try one is that you have one less nugget to eat.  

1. Chick-fil-A

It will come as no surprise to many of you that this iconic chicken fast food chain tops our guide to the best fast food chicken nuggets. Blending flavor, texture and quality in equal measure to produce a moist, punchy bite with every piece, we can’t think of a more deserving winner. 

They hit a sweet spot between flavor, texture and quality, in a way that its competitors simply struggle to match. The chicken feels fresh, too, rather than overly processed, and as for the seasoning, it delivers just the right amount of flavor without being overwhelming. 

Add to this a serving size that’s far from paltry, and really, it’s no wonder Chick-fil-A earns the crown for best fast food chicken nuggets.

While not one of the absolute healthiest fast food chains, Chick-fil-A does also serve healthier grilled chicken nuggets alongside the standard version. These coating-free and grilled, not fried nuggets allow you to enjoy tasty, well-seasoned chicken without the guilt that comes with the coating.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for some guilty pleasure, you can also grab coated chicken nuggets as part of a loaded chicken waffle fries order from the Chick-fil-A secret menu. Whatever you go for, you’ll quickly taste for yourself exactly why we have crowned these as the best fast food chicken nuggets. 

Who Has the Best Chicken Nuggets?

It would seem the chain behind the best fast food chicken nuggets is Chick-fil-A, and truthfully, it’s not much of a shock. With a menu built around chicken, the chain has refined its nuggets into something that goes beyond simple fast food. Of course, taste is always subjective, but in this case, it’s not just one opinion — it’s the consensus of fast food fans around the country. 

How We Ranked the Best Chicken Nuggets at Fast Food Restaurants

To rank the best chicken nuggets at fast food restaurants, we first had to draw on our own experience of the nation’s favorite fast food restaurants. This, we figured, would give us a good idea of which is likely — and unlikely — to top our list of fast food chicken nuggets ranked.

Of course, this information alone would make for a very biased account, which is why we then headed over to platforms like Google and Reddit, as well as articles written by like-minded foodies, where the discourse on a topic as hot as food is rarely reserved. Here, we were able to gain a clearer picture of what food fans really feel are the best fast food chicken nuggets.

The result, we believe, is a fair account of what we, and the nation, believe are the best fast food chicken nuggets. And if the above-ranked list surprised you, then ditto! But don’t let it worry you. If you’re anything like us, you’ll see it as the perfect excuse to go out and try some more of the country’s best fast food chicken nuggets. 

On our quest to discern the best fast food chicken nuggets, what we’ve learned is that every chain does things differently. And that’s a good thing. Wouldn’t it be a shame if they all tasted exactly the same?

We’ve also discovered that, while foodies around the country certainly favor certain chains over others, that’s not to say that those lower on this list are bad. 

Far from it. Don’t forget: while some may not have topped the list, they are still featured on this guide to the best fast food chicken nuggets, so they’ve got to at least be worth a try. Our recommendation? Get out there, try each one for yourself, and decide for yourself who has the best chicken nuggets.

For even more ways to explore your favorite foods, check out other experiences happening on Cozymeal.