Review: Taco Bell Crispy Chicken Nuggets - The Dipping Sauces Steal The Show

For its first three decades of existence, beef was primarily the only protein that filled Taco Bell's menu items. As the chain grew in the '80s, so did its offerings, and chicken started clucking around to see if it would click. In the past decade, Taco Bell has really upped its chicken game, introducing a new Cantina Chicken line, as well as experimenting with a chicken sandwich, naked chicken chalupa, and chicken strips. The success of 2021's Crispy Chicken Sandwich Taco eventually led to its latest innovation — Crispy Chicken Nuggets.

Sister chain KFC was tinkering with its own chicken nuggets in 2022, and a year later, Taco Bell gave it a go itself. The Minneapolis market served as the first testing ground for Crispy Chicken Nuggets, followed by Houston by spring of 2024. In December of that year, the Crispy Chicken Nuggets were released nationwide for all to try, but not everyone did as the supply couldn't match the demand and the nuggs sold out.

At the second annual Live Más Live event in March, the Nuggets return to Taco Bell was confirmed. Starting April 24, everyone gets a second chance to see if they're a game changer, or perhaps if it's game over. The Takeout took time out to see where the truth lies. Let's go dipping.

Recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

Taco Bell's Crispy Chicken Nuggets are the chain's first foray into chicken nuggets. The chain tested over 50 recipes and flavors in its test kitchen, and worked out the kinks in taste markets, before finalizing the product. The biggest are made with all-white meat chicken, which is marinated in zesty jalapeño buttermilk, and then encrusted with a tortilla-crumb coating.

In a statement, Taco Bell's Chief Marketing Officer, Taylor Montgomery said, "We're a taco place doing chicken our own way and like all our best moments, it's a little unexpected – because we've never been about following the rules." He added, "We know we're not the usual name in crispy chicken, but our nuggets speak for themselves — they're bold, different, and unmistakably Taco Bell."

What nugget is complete without a side dipping sauce? Again, the Taco Bell test kitchen worked up over 100 different sauces before settling on three to pair: Bell Sauce, Jalapeño Honey Mustard, and a collaborative one — Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce. When initially released in December of 2024, CC Ciafone, Marketing Director at Hidden Valley Ranch noted, "Ranch and chicken nuggets are an iconic pairing, so it just made sense to create a ranch perfectly designed for Taco Bell's unique twist on nuggets."

While the previous run of Taco Bell's Crispy Nuggets was offered for a very short period of time, this next batch is here for a longer limited time stay. Nuggets are the first step, but don't get attached just yet as Taco Bell is exploring more crispy chicken creations this year to see how the category will take shape long-term.

Starting April 24, The Crispy Chicken Nuggets are available to purchase at participating nationwide locations anytime Taco Bell is open, including breakfast, while supplies last. They can be ordered at the front register, kiosk, or drive-thru where available. They can also be ordered in advance on Taco Bell's website or handy app for dine-in, pick-up or delivery, where available. Note that this is currently a U.S.-only new product. 

The Crispy Chicken Nuggets can either be ordered à la carte or as a combo. The à la carte options start with a five-piece order that includes one dipping sauce, and there is also a 10-piece which comes with two sauces. They sell respectively for the suggested retail price of $3.99 and $6.99. The combo meals feature the same two size orders, but include a regular Nacho Fries, nacho cheese sauce, and a large fountain drink for $5.99 and $8.99 respectively. Extra sauces can be purchased at $.25 a pop. Price may vary per location, and will be higher via delivery. At my Manhattan location, the à la carte nuggets sold for $5.49 and $7.99, with extra sauces for $.35 each.

Taco Bell's Chicken Crispy Nuggets is made up of boneless, skinless chicken breast chunks with rib meat, tortilla chips, and contains 2% or less of such ingredients as extractives of paprika, extractives of turmeric, garlic powder, jalapeño pepper, natural flavors, onion powder, sugar, and tapioca.

A 5-piece order of Taco Bell's Chicken Crispy Nuggets nets an eater 310 calories, 15 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 860 milligrams of sodium, 9 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of dietary fiber, 34 grams of protein, 10 milligrams of calcium, and 420 milligrams of potassium. The nuggets contain the common food allergens of gluten and wheat.

In a pair pretty purple cardboard boxes lay my first in-store experience with Taco Bell's Crispy Chicken Nuggets. I popped open each top and was surprised at the lack of uniformity in size and color. There's a lot of everything here, from small orbs, to more oblong large pieces. The colors weren't all the same, either. I'm not sure if that's par for the course, but some had an orange-brown look to their skin, while others had an unattractive, and odd brown coloring. All the nuggets had a wonderful smell, like breaded fried chicken, with a hint of corn from the tortilla.

The crust itself looks like it has flakes of oatmeal, is firm, not easily broken. It has a dusty, sandy feel to them. I took a quick bite of just the skin, which had a nice thick crunchiness to it. Breaking into the crust, the meat within is stark white, and juicy, without an abundance of actual juice. It was really tender and soft to chew on. When the two divergent textures of the skin and meat meet, it makes for a lovely bite. It adds up to a solid chicken nugget, especially one with a unique crust. However, these nuggets didn't seem to have a signature taste due to the lack of flavoring. After multiple nuggets, my mouth couldn't discern anything all that salty, peppery, or even seasoned. This make-up sets these nuggets up a perfect blank canvas that is ready to be enveloped in a dipping sauce.

After tasting the Crispy Chicken Nuggets by their lonesome, it was time to see how they played well with the three signature sauces made for this new venture: Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce, Bell Sauce, and Jalapeño Honey Mustard. One thing that I liked right off the bat about them is that they were stored in a cooler, which already separated it from most of its competitors' sauces.

Hidden Valley Fire Ranch Sauce is a pairing of the classic ranch sauce with Taco Bell's own Fire one. This one looks like the red and orange seasonings of Cool Ranch Doritos swimming in a sea of mayo. Its taste leaned more ranch than fire, where it kicks off with a milky creaminess, and then takes a bit of spice kick at the end. Nothing potent, but a nice overall sauce that plays both cool and hot in a solid level way with the nuggets.

The Bell Sauce looks like thousand island dressing, with similar looking seasoning flakes that the Ranch sauce contained. It's made up of tomatoes, red chiles, and garlic. This was a winner from the start. Real zesty, and full of flavor. This sauce is a really good pair for the tabula rasa-like nugget, which needs some pepping up.

Honey mustard is one of the more varied of the world's dipping sauces, where the level of sweetness or pungency can make or break its taste. The one Taco Bell hands in, Jalapeño Honey Mustard, is one of the best I've ever had. This one starts off with a real lovely honied taste, and the real magic kicks in when the jalapeño punch follows through in the end. The heat here is more comely than spicy, which makes for perhaps the perfect dipping sauce for these nuggets.

Chicken nuggets just don't sound like they belong on Taco Bell's menu, but people love nuggets, especially the kiddos, so it's not a surprise they're on the menu. Now that they're here, with the goal for them to stick around for a long time, they are indeed a welcome addition. These nuggets are certainly good, but nothing exactly earth shattering. Yes, the skin packs an excellent crunch with a unique tortilla taste, but the nuggets themselves seem like they can't exactly stand alone. In comparison, McDonald's standard-bearing McNuggets are great as is, and the accompanying sauces are a mere bonus.

Luckily, the trio of sauces Taco Bell offers up are not only here to save the day, but steal the show. The Hidden Valley Fire Ranch sauce is a cool customer with just the right amount of flame broiling of the mouth. The Bell Sauce packs a lot of flavor, and its zest makes it one of the best. However, the one sauce to rule them all is the Jalapeño Honey Mustard. In my mouth's strong opinion, the nuggets matched up best with this sauce that runs sweet, and follows-through with neat heat that seals its awesomeness. It not only worked magic without my mouth, but also perked up my forehead, with a bit of sweat for this effort of happy eating.

Crispy Chicken Nuggets look primed for a long Tack Bell run. The nuggets are a blank canvas to truly enjoy these new sauces. I look forward to the next batch of dipping sauces to come, and to produce yum.

While I had previously, albeit briefly, tried Taco Bell's Crispy Chicken Nuggets at the jam packed Live Más Live event that took place in March of 2025, this new taste test was conducted with a blank slate on the first day of their nationwide release. I headed into a Taco Bell location in Manhattan, during breakfast hours no less, to try the Crispy Chicken nuggets. I ordered them using Taco Bell's in-store kiosk, and to ensure they were tried at their freshest, I ate them on site. They were tried as is, as well as with the suggested paired dipping sauces being offered.

This chew and review was culled from my own personal views and tastes, and based on the following criteria: flavor, texture, smell, temperature, value, uniqueness, Taco Bell-ness, overall lovability, and the likelihood I'd want to order them again. The quick answer is... I would be happy to order them again, but I'm also interested in ordering just the sauces and trying them with McNuggets.