by Bottom Line: The Nashville Hot Popcorn Chicken and Mozzarella Sticks from Jack in the Box will satisfy your munchies with a nice kick of heat.
As I’ve said before on this site, Jack in the Box knows how to kick things up, and you can generally find items on the menu that offer some real heat beyond the Spicy Chicken Sandwich (which itself is always a solid choice). Whether it’s their spicy popcorn chicken, their kicked-up tenders, or their spicy tiny tacos (all limited-time items on the rotation), there’s usually something to grab if you want fast food with a little burn. And just recently, they added their Nashville Hot lineup, which includes the following:
Nashville Hot Popcorn Chicken: Made with 100% all-white meat chicken, the new Nashville Hot Popcorn Chicken is coated in Jack’s signature sweet-and-spicy Nashville Hot seasoning.
Nashville Hot Mozzarella Sticks: Jack’s popular Mozzarella Sticks are getting a fiery new makeover. The classic melty mozzarella cheese inside now comes wrapped in a crispy, golden coating seasoned with Nashville Hot flavor.
So I decided to pay Jack a visit and sample both of these offering, and here’s what I thought of them:
Popcorn Chicken: There’s a sweetness and peppery kick that both hit right away when you bite into these chicken pieces. They’re small (about two bites each), but still rather hefty and have a good meat-to-crust ratio. The chicken is tender and not greasy at all, and this does evoke that Nashville Hot taste to a degree (as good as you might expect from the drive-thru). I’ve always liked Jack’s popcorn chicken—especially the spicy version—and this is an upgrade that I hope sticks around. They serve them with Ranch, but I’m not a fan of that condiment, and it’s not a particularly good pairing here. Instead, I asked for the Good Good Sauce, which has some sweetness, smokiness, and a bit of a mustard kick. That went quite well with the popcorn chicken, though honestly, they don’t even need a dipping sauce.
As for the heat, these go beyond Medium on my scale and left my mouth tingling for a while. I actually found them quite addicting, and my plan to save half the order for the next day was dashed after I scarfed down the entire box! These deliver good heat and flavor and count as a real win for the drive-thru.
Mozzarella Sticks: These don’t seem to have as much of the Nashville Hot seasoning, and the mildness of the cheese counters the kick from the spices. They have a good crust that’s not too thick and offers some crunch, and the cheese inside is nice and chewy. I also paired these with the Good Good Sauce, as they seemed to need a dipping partner—and that worked well, amping up the heat just a bit more.
The Mozzarella Sticks approached Medium on my scale, and I think they’d be better with more of the seasoning. But they still worked nicely as a side, and I like the fact that this is a non-chicken item getting the spicy treatment (the restaurant industry seems to have a hard time getting past poultry when it comes to adding heat).
The box of Nashville Hot Popcorn Chicken totals up to 690 calories, which is getting on the high side (they don’t provide a full nutritional breakdown since it’s a limited-time item). A six-piece order of the Nashville Hot Mozzarella Sticks is 620 calories (490 for a four-piece), but I only ate half of that—so I’m doing okay, right? Wrong. I was still at about a thousand calories total, so I’ll need to extend my time on the treadmill for a few days.
The small box of popcorn chicken goes for $5.49 in my area, or $8.89 for a combo with fries and a drink—which isn’t bad for a filling fast food meal these days. The Mozzarella Sticks are $3.50 for a four-piece and $4.50 for a six-piece. These are, of course, on loan from Limited-Time-Only-Ville and will vanish from the menu at some point. But hopefully, Jack will get them into the rotation so they return on a regular basis. In the meantime, I recommend a trip to the drive-thru—especially for the popcorn chicken—to satisfy your munchies with a kick of heat by way of Nashville.
