Burger King wants its nuggets to reign supreme.
After striking gold with its revamped Whopper, Burger King is turning its attention to chicken nuggets – a menu item that customers have lambasted as being too dry and flavorless.
Starting next Tuesday, new-and-improved chicken nuggets will be landing on Burger King menus, along with a revamped sauce lineup including honey mustard, buffalo, sweet & sour and a limited-time “special savory sauce.”
The new nuggets will set you back around $1.99 for a quartet to $7.49 for a 20-piece.
“We take guest feedback seriously, and when we received thousands of texts, calls, and comments telling us our nuggets needed a total overhaul, we listened,” Amy Alarcon, head chef at Burger King US and Canada, said in a statement.
An in-depth analysis ensued, the exec recounted.
“Our culinary team evaluated every element of the experience, from the chicken and breading to the sauces that bring it all together,” Alarcon boasted.
She went on to say the fast food chain got “real guests – including some of our toughest critics, kids” to scarf the new nuggets until Burger King got the recipe just right.
It’s part of a multiyear turnaround strategy that has already started to pay off for Burger King, after it revamped its Whopper with a “premium” bun, “better-tasting mayo” and a box container instead of a paper wrapper, to keep the burger from getting soggy.
In the previous quarter, Burger King saw its US same-store sales surge 8.5% – outpacing McDonald’s, which saw just 0.8% growth, by the largest margin in more than a decade.
It also zoomed past Wendy’s to become the country’s second-biggest burger chain, effectively winning the burger battle that took off after the pandemic as cash-strapped customers have remained hesitant to spend at the drive-thru.
To kick off its turnaround efforts, Burger King in February launched a listening initiative, sharing a phone number that customers could use to call or text feedback.
In the spring, the burger slinger re-launched crown-shaped chicken nuggets in an effort to appeal to customer nostalgia.
Critics online were quick to bash the returned item, saying it had the same shape it did in years past but a terrible new recipe – with one Facebook user calling it “artificial mush meat.”
The recipe misfired so badly that thousands of customers took the time to hit the hotline to whine about the “rubbery,” “dry” and “disappointing” product.
Burger King President Tom Curtis told The Post in June that the nuggets are the one menu item he won’t be indulging in anytime soon.
“We can do better, and we will. I want a meatier, crispier nugget and sauces that make my taste buds dance. The team is on it,” Curtis said at the time.
The fast-food industry has been leaning into chicken-based menu items as customers search for cheaper options, while beef prices are surging amid historic cattle shortages. American shoppers have also been prioritizing healthier alternatives to red meat.
Taco Bell recently launched its own chicken nuggets, McDonald’s released new chicken tenders and KFC opened spinoff Saucy restaurants that focus on chicken tenders and a sweeping range of dipping sauces.
Burger King’s new chicken nuggets could help the chain draw in more families and increase check size, since small orders of nuggets are an easy add-on to other menu items.
As part of its turnaround strategy, Burger King has also implemented a new “Whopper Guarantee,” remaking burgers and offering a free sandwich on the next order for dissatisfied customers, and “Your Way Champions,” a new managerial role focused on the customer experience.
Burger King was founded in 1951 and has over 19,000 locations across more than 120 countries and US territories, the vast majority of which are owned and operated by independent franchisees.