McDonald’s new Spicy Chicken McNuggets are everything you love about the classic nuggs with a bit of spice.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was feeling a little off Thursday morning. There wasn’t a specific reason, but I was definitely in the hell zone, a state of mind that’s become the status quo in the life of quarantine. I was in a bad mood, and there’s too many awful things happening in the world right now to pick just one reason as to why.
So I decided I’d take my lunch break to test out the newly released spicy McNuggets from McDonald’s. It was a good reason to get out of my house where I’ve been diligently quarantining since late February, and also I have a not-so-secret soft spot for fried food, especially nuggets and tendies.
After a speedy transaction at the drive-thu (I’m talking 3-minutes, tops) I parked my car in the parking lot and decided to eat the nuggets while they were in their best state possible. I find that McDonald’s, like most fast food has a super short shelf life. Every precious minute your food sits in the bag it’s essentially steaming, turning your fried nuggets and fries into a soft and mushy meal.
Image: Brian Koerber
Image: Brian Koerber/Mashable
Nostalgia quickly poured over me as I opened the familiar bag and was greeted with a box of nuggs. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they looked nearly identical to the original, but were instead a weird shade of reddish orange. I threw the first one back and was happy to hear a “crunch” as I bit into the tempura coating. These new nuggets reminded me exactly of the original McNuggets, but are obviously packed with a little bit of heat.
How much heat? Eh. Not much heat at all. I was honestly a little underwhelmed with the spice level, but the cayenne and chili pepper coating was still tasty. The amount of crunch I got was impressive.
Now, for those who want even more heat, McD’s created the new Mighty Hot Sauce, which is a vinegar-based sauce that tastes like hot trash. Sorry, it is just NOT a good hot sauce. There are plenty of good hot sauces out there, but I was happy that I asked for ranch to dip as well, because the new sauce was a nugget ruiner. It overpowered the good that was the spicy nugget.
The Mighty Hot Sauce
Image: Brian Koerber/mashable
I really try my best to keep my fast food consumption to a minimum. But the magic that happens when you cram 10 nuggets and a bunch of fries down your gullet was exactly what I needed to pull myself out of Thursday’s Hell Zone, if only for a brief moment.
I felt a little better leaving the McDonald’s parking lot than when I entered. Maybe that was just the large fry sitting in my cup holder waiting to be eaten on the drive home.
The Bottom Line
McDonald’s Spicy Chicken McNuggets are good! They have all the best qualities of the original with a small added kick. Would I order them again? Probably. But McDonald’s is only releasing them “for a limited time at participating restaurants,” so it’s unclear if I’ll even have another opportunity. I’d also be totally fine with dipping the original nuggets into some buffalo sauce or an actually good hot sauce.