Which Chicken Nuggets and Strips Have the Most Fat

Fast food chicken nuggets are typically made by breading strips or chunks of white meat and rib meat chicken then frying the pieces in vegetable oil.

Ingredients used in making this popular side dish varies by restaurant. Accordingly, so does the composition of nutrients and total calories per serving. On average, dietary fat makes up about half of the total calories.

We reviewed 8 highly popular offerings of fried chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, and chicken bites from leading fast food restaurants across the nation.

Review our proprietary nutritional value comparison tables and find out which chicken side dish contains the highest amount of dietary fat.

Chicken Dishes in Our Study

To avoid any bias in the numbers, we selected chicken dishes at random prior to executing any analysis or comparison of the nutritional content.

Here is the list of menu items we included for review in this unique nutritional study, listed alphabetically:

Total Calories per Serving

Our first comparison is a review of the total calories per serving.

Because serving sizes vary across each of these meals, we can do a quick analysis of the total calories per piece. Keep in mind that the net weight of a single serving differs. A serving of McDonald’s McNuggets is not equal in weight to one serving of Popeyes chicken tenders.

One serving of the Chicken Strips from Jack in the Box has the highest total calories (780). Five chicken tenders from Popeyes is comparable at 770 total calories.

The Chick-n-Strips from Chick-fil-A and the Steak ‘n Shake Chicken Fingers have the least number of total calories per serving. That said, the serving size contains the fewest pieces of chicken (three).

As you can see from the table above, a serving of chicken nuggets has fewer total calories compared to the larger chicken fingers and chicken tenders.

• The Chicken Nugget dishes have an average of 382 calories per serving
• The Chicken Tenders dishes have an average of 686 calories per serving

Calories Per Piece

Given that the serving size ranges from three pieces of chicken to ten pieces of chicken, we reviewed calories per piece.

McDonald’s famous Chicken McNuggets have about 41 calories per nugget. At the high end of the range are the chicken pieces from Jack in the Box and Popeyes, which deliver approximately 155 calories per piece.

Calories from Fat

In general, these dishes are fairly similar. However, the ingredients and process of cooking and preparing the side dishes differs. To that end, nutritional values differ.

Here is the list of calories from dietary fat as well as the estimate of fat as a percentage of total calories. As you can see from the table, dietary fat makes up about half of the total calories, on average.

• In Popeyes Chicken Tenders, about 38% of the total calories are derived from dietary fat
• By comparison, Wendy’s Spicy Nuggets derive about 60% of total calories from fat

Nutritional Comparison: Fast Food Chicken Nuggets

Here is another more detailed table of summary nutritional information. It includes additional menu items that are not in our comparative study.

Use the small arrows in the top row to sort by restaurant, calories, fat, carbs, or protein. If you’re viewing the table on a smaller screen, click the green + icon to expand the row and display more data.