Dollar Menu Challenge: The Nuggets

After yesterdays debacle... citing extreme confusion with the new menu arrangement at Burger King; I had hoped BK would redeem themselves.

In today's test, I put head-to-head the 4 Piece McNuggets versus the 4 Piece BK Chicken Tenders.

BK, sometime earlier this year, changed their recipe and shaping for the Chicken Tenders. Where they used to be in cute little 3-pronged crown shapes, crossed with simulated "grill" marks; they now take on a more traditional nugget shape akin to how McDonalds shape their nuggets.

I'm sure this was to move away from the blatant artificial look and feel of the nuggets, and give it a more natural "fillet" look. This would somehow increase buyer potential who shy away from processed food. Well, it's still processed food, unfortunately. But we never go to a fast food restaurant for day-fresh garden pickings or skillful butchers choice cuts of meat.

My first pain, is that in this instance, McDonalds is more expensive than Burger King for the final retail cost of the McNuggets. But both end up having the same caloric content.

McDs McNuggets-------------BK Tenders

$1.29+tax                                $1.00+tax

190kCal                                   190kCal

10g Protein                             10g Protein

12g Fat                                     11g Fat

11g Carbs                                 10g Carbs

400mg Sodium                       310mg Sodium

With that being said, the clear winner, by a very slim margin, is Burger King. 1 gram less fat, 1 gram less carbs, and 90mg less sodium. Must be the lack of breading on the BK Tenders, which I'll get to in a minute. BK also gets the Value point as well! 2-0.

First off, the packaging. McDonalds has an amazing packaging experience with their signature flip-top box. On the bottom, they even include Nutritional facts, an excellent move after the documentary by Morgan Spurlock; "Super Size Me", where he displayed McDonalds didn't have their locations keep nutritional information in stock and readily available. Most boxed and bagged items at McDonalds, now keeps at least minimal nutritional information on their packaging, if not blatantly putting all information on there, as you can see on the box in the image above.

Burger King, has a more Classic and Retro approach; and package it in a fry bag. This is the same bag for their small fry, so no nutritional information is given, as would provide a conflict of interest, for the bag at least.

McD's wins the packaging round, no brainer. We're 2-1 now, in favor of BK.

 

You can see the similar design that BK (right) took. Very similar shape now, instead of the old crown shape. But you can also see that McD's McNugget (Left) is bulkier. This is due to the thick and crunchy breading on the outside of the nugget.

As to differ the results, I took a bite out of BK's Tender first. Oh my god. It's wonderful! Thank you BK! The breading was crunchy, but not way too crunchy. It had a nice texture, and flavor to boot! It was unfortunately a little cold, due to the open top of the Fry Bag. But that's forgivable as I did take a while to get back home with these things.

 Amazing, BK! You did well today! And for the value, it's awesome! Might be a 3-1 before you know it!

But I had to try those oh-so-flavorful McNuggets. First bite, HOT! The nuggets were still as hot as when I got them! They tasted like the same McNuggets I ate when I was 4 years old and had them for the first time. Again, +1 for consistency on McDonalds part. Excellent. The breading was thick, much crunchier than BK's, and was just generally excellent. Overall, McDonalds won the Taste Test. So now, we're 2-2.

These both came with Sauce! McDonalds has now changed over from their usual large "Honey Mustard" packaging, to a smaller "Hot Mustard" packaging. This significantly changed the flavor of the McDonalds honey mustard, so that it was extremely indistinguishable from the BK honey mustard.

I couldn't give an accurate test on either of these, since they both tasted incredible! A tie.

Both ended up with a match in quality as well.

One last test I did was strip the breading completely off of the nuggets.

Left is McD's, right is BK. I had to take a little more chicken off of the BK's top and bottom to get the thin breading off. I didn't have much flake to work with like the McNugget. Both pieces of chicken appear to be bleached white meat. I say this because of the fact that even real fillets of white meat, browns much more during frying. It's processed. Both are, undoubtedly. The chicken was roughly the same size and weight. McDonalds has visibly more spices, as the bits of pepper are infused with the chicken.

I decided to eat each one plainly. The BK Nugget, without it's external breading and spices, tasted very plain and generic. The McDonalds nugget was very flavorful and savory, even without the breading. This wasn't a test, so no points are awarded to either. Just a comparison.

So we have a tie! Both ended up having their high points, low points, and incomparable points. Good job BK! Now you just have to make up for your mess with the Double cheeseburger.

-Joe the (Stuffed) Foodie

:D