Bottom Line: The Nashville Hot KFC Saucy Nuggets deliver some tasty chicken morsels as you would expect from that chain, but they could use more heat.
Last year, KFC added its all-white-meat chicken nuggets to the menu, and those have proven to be a big seller for the chain thus far. So how do they get even more people to the drive thru? Saucing up those nuggets seems like an option and that is exactly what they are doing. Starting this month, the chicken slinger has introduced five sauces that they will be drenching their nuggets in: Honey Sriracha, Korean BBQ, Sticky Chicky Sweet ‘n Sour, Georgia Gold, and Nashville Hot.
I went for the Nashville Hot which promised to be the hottest of the sauces, and following is the official description of that: “Smoky, spicy and crispy, with an even ratio of flavor and smokiness to heat that brings balance – it brings the heat for fans of spice.” An order of ten sauced nuggets goes for $5.99 in my area, and they also offer a combo with a side and a drink for $9.99.
The breading for these nuggets appears to be KFC’s original recipe or some variation of that, and that is fine because I prefer that over extra crispy. They are not much bigger than the popcorn chicken pieces the chain used to sell, but still plump enough with a decent breading-to-meat ratio. For the Nashville Hot, there is more salt than tang to the sauce, but that is followed by a nice peppery kick. There is also a slight bit of sweetness which delivers a nice finish to each bite. Then you taste those eleven herbs and spices from the breading and the flavors blend together quite well. The sauce is somewhat oily, but not to the point of being greasy. There is no crunch to these nuggets (even though the description above refers to them as “crispy”), but that is expected with the amount of sauce poured on them. And there is no dipping sauce on the side, but they don’t really need it. (Though some bleu cheese might have been a nice pairing.)
After the first few bites, these nuggets did not appear to have much heat. But it sneaks up on you. It still does not quite get to Medium on my scale, but it does have a kick. I would have enjoyed these more if the heat was amped up, though, and I ended up spritzing on some habanero sauce (Marie Sharp’s) to give them more burn. I enjoyed them well enough and I am curious to try the Honey Sriracha flavor, but ultimately they did not measure up on the heat as is typical of the chain restaurants.
Nutrition-wise, the full ten-piece order of Nashville Hot Nuggets totals up to 570 calories (they don’t give the breakdown beyond that). The other varieties each have their own calorie counts: Honey Sriracha (420), Korean BBQ (430), Sticky Chicky Sweet ‘n Sour (420), Georgia Gold (580). If you go with the mashed potatoes (110 cals) or the sweet corn (70 cals) as your side, then you are not doing too bad for the drive thru, just be sure to get a diet drink or unsweet iced tea.
These are not being tagged as limited-time-only items and the nuggets have been around for over a year so far. But very few things are permanent in the drive thru, so if they sound tempting, I suggest giving them a try. You just may need to bring along some of your own hot sauce if you want the nuggets to deliver much in the way of burn.