Arby’s adds chicken nuggets to their menu with a premium label. Let’s see if they live up to the name.
Arby’s describes the Premium Nuggets like this:
Arby’s new Premium Chicken Nuggets feature bite-sized pieces of white meat chicken with a crispy-fried, seasoned breading.
While the rest of the world is focused on unveiling and revamping their chicken sandwich offerings, Arby’s is taking a minimalistic approach by offering new Premium Nuggets.
Arby’s isn’t the typical fast food offering, because the usual route for most eateries is to start off with nuggets, then branch out to chicken strips and sandwiches. Both of those products are old hat for Arby’s though. So now here come the nuggets, which are typically marketed for kids and kids at heart.
Honestly, there isn’t much fanfare for these nuggets, and the description that Arby’s is offering isn’t exactly detailed or polished with the usual pizzazz of a product launch. It feels like Arby’s assigned this promotion to the new summer interns and they were too afraid to make a mistake.
For small combo price of $6.99, you get 9 nuggets, a small crinkle cut or curly fries, a small drink, and a choice of nugget sauce. The nugget sauces being offered are generic as can be, with Ranch, Buffalo, BBQ, and Honey Mustard being the four options. I honestly would have preferred Arby’s to feature their amazing Horsey or Arby’s sauce here as a differentiator. But conservative is the name of the game with this offering.
Pulling the nuggets out, Arby’s has these packaged in the same containers that fries come in. Nine nuggets is such an imprecise number to offer as a serving. Odd numbers are rarely offered in nugget allotments by rivals and with the number ten being so close, it’s definitely a bizarre choice.
After pouring out all of the nuggets, you can see they vary in size, shape, overall appearance. They definitely don’t have the uniform boot and circle look that McNuggets provide and are more like a mini chicken strip.
Cutting in the white meat that was promised is pervasive throughout, although a few of the smaller nuggets suffered from the more breading than meat calamity that can occur with over the top and crispy coatings.
Taste wise the Premium Nuggets were solid. They certainly aren’t bland but definitely don’t have the zest and pow of Chick Fil A breading. The Ranch dipping sauce was very solid but certainly nothing moving the needle too far. I got some signature Horsey and Arby’s sauces on the side, and these definitely were more exciting options.
You may also notice that Arby’s gave me ten nuggets. Not sure if the Arby’s employee loading my nuggs was fighting the man, and gave me ten as a form of protest, or whether counting is just overrated, but regardless it was funny nonetheless.
Arby’s Premium Nuggets were simply just nuggets. I certainly don’t think they live up to the Premium name, but they were solid enough to recommend getting them if you’re in the mood for nuggs.
Arby’s Premium Nuggets: 5/10