Chicken nuggets, you know them, you love them, but do you know which ones are truly the best? We went out and tested five of the most popular locations where you can get nuggets. Wawa, Chick-fil-a, Wendys, McDonalds, and Burger King were all put to the test as we calculated the best nugget. 

Through a careful process the nuggets were broken down and tested by four categories. The categories consisted of a 1-5 scale for breading, as well as chicken, and category for price per nugget. As well as a category labeled “chicken?”, this section was a 0-2-4 scale, 0 meaning that no, we do not believe that is chicken, 2 being, ehh possibly chicken, and 4 being, yes that is real chicken. 

The first one to the test was Wawa’s “chicken bites” the breading of this nugget was labeled at a 4, it was a good crispy texture and almost had a bit of a spicy kick to it. The chicken was a 3, not the greatest, but not the worst. These nuggets seemed to be similar to those that you get in the frozen section of a grocery store. It was a solid 4 in the “chicken?” category, there was no question that this was true and trustworthy chicken. After that we tasted Burger King, the breading was limp, and yellow not much of a crunch which led to our lowest breading score of 1, the chicken surely did not make up for the breading landing them another score of 1. It was no question that this nugget earned our only 0 for the “chicken?” category. Next up was the very popular Chick-fil-a nuggets. The breading came in second overall at a 4.5 with the crunchy pieces and delicious flavor, the chicken ranked highest at a 5 and landed a 4 on the “chicken?” scale. This nugget was memorable and definitely one that you can walk away from feeling quite satisfied. 

With only two choices left the next to be tasted was McDonalds. The breading was crispier than that of Burger King’s landing it a 2 on the scale, and the chicken was also slightly more encouraging resulting in another 2, the “chicken?” category was somewhat of a toss up but ultimately we decided on a 2 that yes this could in fact possibly be chicken. Lastly, was Wendy’s. Wendy’s came in ready to fight, with the top spot in the breading category they landed a 5, followed by a 4 in the chicken category and another 4 in the “chicken?” category. 

After all of the nuggets were tasted the rankings stood at Chick-fil-a in first place with a 13.5, Wendy’s in close second with a 13, followed by Wawa in third with an 11, and McDonald’s at a 6 for fourth place, and last place being Burger King with a score of 2. But, price per nugget still needed to accompany the score. The nugget prices varied from 79 cents all the way down to 13 cents, and they did in fact change the ultimate order and winner of the best chicken nuggets. In fifth place was McDonalds at 79.2 cents per nugget, and an overall score of 7.57, they ruined themselves with a high price. In fourth place was Burger King with the cheapest nugget at just 13.5 cents and a score of 14.81, following that in third was Wawa totalling to 57.8 cents per nugget with an overall score of 19.03. Chick-fil-a was moved to fourth place with a score of 25.57 due to its 52.8 cent price, and winning the best overall nugget was Wendy’s by a landslide at 40.37 overall with a cost of 32.2 cents per nugget. 

These meals are a great reminder of childhood or just a fun outing, and can cause lots of joy in just a simple form of chicken. The nugget debate could still be argued due to changes by restaurants or personal nugget preferences, but overall this popular food seems to have a few clear winners and a few clear losers. So next time you are about to stop for a quick bite think about all that goes into the nugget and which one is carefully crafted to get you the most bang for your buck.