8 Chain Chicken Nuggets, Ranked From Unhealthiest To Healthiest

Ever since the 1980s, when McDonald's first introduced the McNugget, Americans have loved bite-sized, breaded chicken pieces. Initially, McDonald's only served four sauces with their nuggets. Not long after that, Burger King launched their own chicken tenders on the Burger King menu. Today, most chain restaurants have some version of a chicken nugget. Many chains also offer spicy nuggets, and there are dozens of different dipping sauces. 

While chicken nuggets are the ultimate snack, perfect with fries and made for dipping, they aren't all created equal. We took a look at some of the most popular fast food chains that serve chicken nuggets and rated them, not based on taste, but on nutrition only. Nuggets aren't health food by anyone's standards. They are typically breaded and fried. Some are made with 100% white breast meat, but many have other chicken parts mixed in. This, plus the breading, seasoning, and oil used, all make a difference in calorie count, fat, and amount of cholesterol. Skip to the bottom for more details on the methodology of our rankings.

Whataburger offers a form of chicken nuggets, which they call WhataWings. While chicken wings usually come from the drumette or wingette and the tip of the chicken, boneless wings are chunks of breast meat that are breaded and fried, just like chicken nuggets. Unfortunately, WhataWings comes in last place in terms of nutrition on our list.  Though we've tried to keep serving sizes the same for comparison (using the smallest serving available for comparison), the WhataWings are only served as a nine-piece option. A plain nine-piece WhataWing serving contains 540 calories, 27 grams of fat (with 4 grams of saturated fat), and 1,170 milligrams of sodium. And that's a plain version without the sauce variations, such as Buffalo and Honey Butter, which add more calories.

Even if we take a look at the amount of calories per wing, Whataburger would still be last on the list in terms of calorie content. At 540 calories total, each wing is 60 calories. Even a four-piece serving of these wings would bring us to 240 calories, which ties for total calories with the next entry on our list, Sonic's small serving of chicken bites. On the positive side, Whataburger wings provide a lot of protein: 45 grams for the 9-piece serving.

Instead of nuggets, Sonic offers chicken bites, which are breaded and deep-fried pieces of chicken breast. Unlike most fast food chains, Sonic sells its chicken bites in small, medium, or large, rather than by number of pieces. Sonic describes its bites as "tender and juicy white-meat chicken lightly coated in a seasoned breading." Taking a look at the nutritional content of Sonic's small serving shows that the calorie content is 240 calories. Additionally, the small serving contains 12 grams of fat (with 2 grams of saturated fat) and 900 milligrams of sodium. The amount of sodium is the second highest on our list, second only to Whataburger's 9-piece serving at 1,170 milligrams.

Though Sonic's chicken bites will give you 13 grams of protein (which is close to the recommended 15 to 30 grams per meal, based on expert guidelines), you are also getting a big dose of sodium in your meal. And if you consider adding dipping sauce, fries, and a soda, you're on your way to a rather unhealthy meal.

Although Jack in the Box is mainly known for its burgers and tacos, like most fast food joints, it also serves breaded chicken nuggets. However, chicken nuggets have only been on the menu since 2012. Today, Jack in the Box offers a four-piece serving of chicken nuggets. The four pieces contain 190 calories, 13 grams of fat (with 2 grams of saturated fat), and 480 milligrams of sodium. In terms of calories, that's about 48 calories per piece. Although 190 calories isn't a lot for a fast food meal, there are other chain options with healthier options. 

Additionally, the calories, fat, and sodium begin to add up when you add fries and a soda to your meal. A four-piece chicken nugget meal served with small French fries now brings you up to 490 calories, 27 grams of fat, and 1,020 milligrams of sodium. For reference, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day for an optimal diet.

Burger King, known for its customizable hamburgers, has been serving chicken nuggets since 1985. The fast food joint launched chicken "tenders" in the '80s to compete with McDonald's popular chicken nuggets. At the time, Burger King's message was that it offered real white chicken breast meat, as opposed to McDonald's ground and processed chicken. Today, Burger King no longer has tenders on its menu, but does offer chicken nuggets. It also serves chicken fries, which are ground chicken shaped and breaded into a French fry shape.

Burger King's chicken nuggets are very close in calories, fat, and sodium to Jack in the Box. However, Burger King's four-piece chicken nuggets have slightly less fat and slightly more sodium. Burger King nuggets come in three sizes: 4-piece, 8-piece, and 16-piece. The four-piece chicken nugget at Burger King has 190 calories, 12 grams of fat (with 2.5 saturated), and 490 milligrams of sodium. The amount of protein is 9 grams. This is less than half the amount of protein that dietitians recommend you should get at each meal (between 15 and 30 grams).

KFC stopped selling chicken nuggets in the late 1990s. They made a comeback in test markets in 2022. They were such a success, KFC introduced them nationwide in 2023. According to the press release, KFC's chicken nuggets are "made with 100 percent white meat and hand-breaded with KFC's unique Original Recipe of 11 herbs and spices that made the fried chicken chain famous." But how healthy are they? Let's take a look. 

You can get your nuggets plain or saucy at KFC. They come in five-piece servings, all the way up to 40 pieces, if you're feeding a crowd. We took a look at the nutritional content for the plain, five-piece option. KFC's chicken nuggets are 35 calories each. A five-piece serving contains 175 calories, 7.5 grams of fat, and 700 milligrams of sodium. You are also getting 15 grams of protein with five pieces. While that is a decent amount of protein, another health benefit of KFC's nuggets is that they have zero saturated fat.

Wendy's offers plain or spicy chicken nuggets. Note that the spicy nuggets contain a few more calories than the plain ones. A four-piece chicken nugget meal from Wendy's will run you 170 calories, 11 grams of fat (with 2.5 grams of saturated fat), and 360 milligrams of sodium. As you may notice, the sodium content is quite a bit lower than many others on our list. Depending on what else you order with your Wendy's chicken nuggets, you may be able to keep your sodium levels within the aforementioned daily recommendations from the American Heart Association.

If you'd like to keep your meal healthy, try ordering a baked potato as a side rather than French fries. Although the potato is only as healthy as the toppings you add, you'll save yourself from the added sodium and fat of the fries. A potato with sour cream and chives contains an additional 300 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and 55 milligrams of sodium. A whole potato also offers many more health benefits than when it's processed and deep-fried.

McDonald's didn't invent the chicken nugget; that happened in 1963 when Robert C. Baker, an agricultural scientist at Cornell University, developed them in a lab. However, McDonald's is responsible for making the bite-sized and breaded chicken pieces the popular phenomenon they are today. McDonald's Chicken McNuggets launched in test markets across the nation in 1981. By 1983, they were served nationwide. They may have started America's chicken nugget craze, but how healthy (or unhealthy) are McDonald's Chicken McNuggets? As it turns out, they may not be as unhealthy as you might think. 

A four-piece serving of McDonald's McNuggets contains 170 calories, 10 grams of fat (with 1.5 grams of saturated fat), and 340 milligrams of sodium. It also provides nine grams of protein. Although it's nearly the same amount of calories as KFC's five-piece serving, the amount of sodium is less than half. A four-piece McNugget's nutritional content is very similar to Wendy's four-piece nuggets, although with slightly lower fat and cholesterol.

Finally, we come to Chick-fil-A. Its five-piece nugget meal has lower calories and fat than any of the other serving sizes on the list, although the sodium levels are less than desirable. A five-piece Chick-fil-A nugget meal contains 160 calories and seven grams of fat (with 1.5 grams of saturated fat). Unfortunately, the sodium is on the high side compared to many of our other entries at 760 milligrams, although nowhere near the worst of the list.

According to the website, Chick-fil-A's nuggets are made with "bite-sized pieces of boneless chicken breast, seasoned to perfection, freshly breaded, and pressure cooked in 100% refined peanut oil." Perhaps it's using chicken breast that gives Chick-fil-A's nuggets such a high protein content. The five-piece chicken nugget serving contains 17 grams of protein. The only entry on our list that's higher is Whataburger's nine-piece nugget meal, although the Whataburger nuggets also come with a lot more calories, fat, and sodium.

When compiling our list, we chose fast food chain restaurants that serve chicken nuggets, chicken bites, or boneless chicken wings that are very similar to nuggets. For our purposes, we didn't include chicken tenders. To try to keep our comparisons as equal as possible, we chose the smallest serving at each restaurant to compare. Most of these were four- or five-piece nugget meals. We used calorie count, with fat content second, to rate the chains. However, keep in mind that some of the nuggets with fewer calories add a whopping amount of sodium.