Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets: The Nugget That Bites Back

Trader Joe's Spicy Chicken Nuggets
Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets

Let’s be honest, there’s a time and place for sophisticated dining, and then there are those moments when you just want to unleash your inner 12 year old and demolish a plate of chicken nuggets. But Trader Joe’s, never content with just playing it safe, has decided to add some heat to the equation. Enter their Spicy Chicken Nuggets: a crispy, fiery, fingerfood experience that promises to spice up your fast food game. Are they a fast food dupe? A worthy contender in the ever expanding nugget wars? Or just an excuse to keep a glass of milk within arm’s reach? Let’s find out!

Trader Joe's Spicy Chicken Nuggets back
Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets back

About Chicken Nuggets

If you are anything like the normal American kid, you probably ate more than your fair share of chicken nuggets growing up. I know I did! Although, I loved my cheeseburgers, I did split my eating habits between nuggets and burgers. When we had kids, I fed them a lot of nuggets. That was their go to food when we went to McDonalds. By the way, the gold standard for chicken nuggets is McDonalds and all others will be compared by this! I don’t know how McDonalds does it, but their nuggets are sublime. I still eat them whenever I get the chance.

When we had little kids, I bought so many bags of those Trader Joe’s frozen nuggets (sadly discontinued a long time ago) and it was just a staple around here and my kids continued to eat them well into high school because it was easy for them to make in the toaster oven.

Trader Joe’s has a nice big sign on the front of the packaging stating that these nuggets have “No Antibiotics Ever. No Hormones. All Vegetarian Feed. Free Range” which I guess is all well and good, but they are still deep fried chicken nuggets, not the healthiest food in the world, but now spicy!

The first ingredient on the list on the back is “Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast with Rib Meat” which is good because a lot of chicken nuggets are made with whatever ground up chicken parts they can find. Nice to see that they just use breast meat, although I wouldn’t be opposed to thigh meat…

I have reviewed other chicken nuggets from Trader Joe’s over the years and I generally liked them. My favorite “nuggets” from Trader Joe’s is the Chicken Karaage. They are the best IMHO.

Trader Joe's Spicy Chicken Nuggets before cooking
Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets before cooking

How To Make Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets

Trader Joe’s gives us three methods to make nuggets: Oven, Microwave and Air Fryer.

Frankly, I would never make them in a microwave. They would never get crispy on the outside. Unless you have a screaming child that wants to get fed immediately (I’ve been there so I know!). I wouldn’t use the microwave. I think the best method to get them crispy is to use an Air Fryer and I would use an oven if I didn’t have that option. So, I opted for the air fryer for this review.

In the pictures above, I see that this package is supposed 12 ounces of nuggets and I count 17 in the package. Each nugget is about 42 calories for a total of 722ish calories in a package. Probably too many for a normal person meal. My 16 year old kid could eat these and a bunch of ranch dressing and some french fries without batting an eye.

So, I followed the air fryer directions and I could smell the wonderful spicy aromas coming out of the air fryer while they cooked. I couldn’t wait!

Trader Joe's Spicy Chicken Nuggets cooked
Trader Joe’s Spicy Chicken Nuggets cooked

Tasting Notes

Alright, let’s cut to the chase: Trader Joe’s spicy chicken nuggets didn’t exactly blow my mind, but they also didn’t make me question my life choices. They have their strengths and weaknesses, kind of like that one friend who always volunteers to drive but can’t parallel park.

The good news? These nuggets bring the heat! Not “call the fire department” hot, but enough spice to make you reach for a cooling dip (ranch is my personal choice—because what doesn’t ranch fix?). The breading even looked promising, speckled with little black flecks of pepper like it just got back from a tanning bed.

The not-so-good news? The texture was a bit… well, questionable. The outside never quite reached that crispy, golden nirvana I was hoping for more like a firm handshake than a satisfying crunch. Maybe a few extra minutes in the air fryer could’ve helped, but then I risked turning the inside into something resembling a packing peanut. Speaking of the inside, the chicken was oddly spongy, like it had been spending too much time with a yoga instructor and forgot how to be meat.

So, should you throw a bag of these in your cart? For $3.99, sure why not? They won’t change your life, but they also won’t ruin your day. If you’re after pure spice and don’t mind a little textural weirdness, these might be worth a shot. If you’re a nugget purist, though, stick to your tried-and-true favorites.

That said, these nuggets make great kid food, because, let’s be real, kids will eat anything shaped like a nugget as long as it’s dunkable. As for me? I wouldn’t go out of my way to get them again, but if they were sitting on a party table, I’d probably grab a couple. I mean, free nuggets are free nuggets, right?

At the end of the day, I am going to give them a rating of about 7/10 Stars!

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