Review: McDonald’s Spicy Chicken McNuggets and Mighty Hot Sauce

McDonald’s has brought back their Spicy Chicken McNuggets and Mighty Hot Sauce, and even though I am no fan of McNuggets I decided to give them a try. Mostly I was interested in the Mighty Hot Sauce, though that failed first time around because they were out. I was persistent, though, and did manage to get some of that on a second visit.

Here are the descriptions provided for both on the McDonald’s website:

Spicy Chicken McNuggets: Breaded with a sizzling tempura coating made with both cayenne and chili peppers, Spicy Chicken McNuggets pack plenty of flavor and spice into each bite.

Mighty Hot Sauce: Our new Mighty Hot Sauce dialed up the spice last Fall, boasting a powerful blend of crushed red pepper and cayenne peppers, all balanced with savory garlic and a hint of sweetness. This is both McDonald’s hottest available dipping sauce and our first new sauce since 2017.

For the McNuggets, the breading is not quite crispy, but it has a nice firmness and texture to it. It is more of a batter coating as opposed to the Hot and Spicy McChicken which seems to have breadcrumbs or something that gives it a bit more crunch. The chicken inside is somewhat spongy but actually much tastier than I remembered. It is much closer to an actual piece of chicken meat than you might expect from something that is ground up and processed. And it is not nearly as greasy as McNuggets I have had in the past. I was rather pleasantly surprised with these.

There is not much heat as you would expect from a McDonald’s offering, but like the Hot and Spicy McChicken, these McNuggets have a slight of kick. Since they were out of the Mighty Hot Sauce on my first visit, I subbed the Hot Buffalo Sauce. That actually worked well with the nuggets, though it added mostly tang and not much heat. An even better combination was dipping the McNuggets into Yellowbird Ghost Pepper condiment which paired well with them and kicked up the heat as you would expect.

Since I ended up liking the McNuggets enough the first time around, I found myself driving thru a second time about a week later to see if I could get that Mighty Hot Sauce, and I was quite glad I did. Not only did they have it this time around, my request for an extra resulted in six containers of the delightfully spicy sauce. That’s what I call service!

This sauce has a nice sweetness and tang to it with a bit of an Asian zing as well. I would put it somewhere between sweet and spicy and a good Buffalo sauce. But most importantly, it has a good kick to it. It’s nothing that would send chiliheads running in fear, but this is definitely the spiciest sauce I remember getting from Micky D’s. It has some burn and it lingers and the average mortal may want to dip with caution when pairing their McNuggets with this sauce. I would put this around medium on the heat sacle which is good for a drive thru joint.  I also ordered a Spicy McChicken sandwich (you can read my previous review of that here) and put some of the Might Hot Sauce on it and that really kicked up the heat of that one. (Fries go pretty good with it as well).

I’ve been down on McDonald’s McNuggets for quite a while, but the spicy version certainly works good and I would get these again. Keep in mind that these are fast food chicken nuggets, so I am not saying they are better than the more premium poultry you get at places like Wingstop or Buffalo Wild Wings, but they are perfectly fine for the drive thru. And that Mighty Hot Sauce kicks them up to the next level. Sadly, both with head back to limited-time-only-ville before too long (why do these companies play these games?), so get yours now. They are worth trying out while still on the menu.

Tale of the Tape:

Spicy Chicken McNuggets:

Serving Size: 6 Pieces
Calories: 250
Fat: 16g (3g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 14g
Carbs: 12g
Sodium: 540mg

Might Hot Sauce:

Serving Size: 1 Package
Calories: 25
Fat: 0g (0g Sat/0g Trans)
Protein: 0g
Carbs: 6g
Sodium: n/a