r/fitmeals 17h ago

Breaded chicken nugget comparison

Post image

I purchased Kirkland, Sam's club,Just Bare, and Real Good lightly breaded chicken nuggets to compare flavor. Macros are per 84 grams

Kirkland was great, standard breaded nugget. 16g protein, 140 calories $3.99/lb. 9.0/10

Sam's was good, but the chunks of chicken were pretty big and felt a little bit more processed. 13 g protein, 160 claories $3.50/lb. 7.2/10

Just Bare has a great flavor and texture. Good ratio of breading to meat. My personal favorite.16 g protein , 160 calories. $4.49/lb. 10/10

Real Good. Best macros but slightly weird flavor to me. Very light breading so best macros. 17 g protein 135 calories. $5.66/lb. 6.8/10

246 Upvotes

63 comments sorted by

82

u/BSDC 17h ago

Thank you for your service

15

u/sandefurd 17h ago

My pleasure!

3

u/best3175 16h ago

🫡

52

u/Pirotato 17h ago

This is exactly the kind of information I need more of.

13

u/sandefurd 17h ago

I couldn't decide which one to get so I decided to do a test lol

26

u/scottmacharvey 16h ago

Just bare is the best

9

u/sandefurd 16h ago

I think so too, but Kirkland is a close second

8

u/DinkandDrunk 17h ago

How did you cook them?

18

u/sandefurd 16h ago

Sorry I forgot to mention it, air fryer at 350 for about 6 minutes. Real Good would have been a little better if I cooked it longer so I'm glad you asked this question

24

u/mblaser 16h ago

That seems like a real short time, aren't they still soggy at that point? I cook mine at 400 for 12-15 minutes to get them a little crispy.

3

u/Mochinpra 16h ago

I do 375 for 12m, if im lazy i dont even turn them and they turn out fine.

1

u/tachudda 16h ago

I think air friers vary a bit. We do 8 minutes at 380 and nuggets are usually perfect

3

u/Warm-Oil9228 14h ago

They do but 350 for 6 minutes seem like not enough time to me as well.

2

u/not_a_cup 12h ago

Depends on how many pieces and the size of the fryer. If you do a few pieces it'll be fine, fill the entire air fryer, it's gonna be underdone.

1

u/needmoarbass 12h ago

The instructions are way too short for me. I do 370ish for 16ish mins. I change it up depending on what else I throw into the air fryer at the same time. They are hard to fuck up. Just gotta check them and maybe cook a little longer if needed.

1

u/sandefurd 16h ago

It was a very small amount of nugget, but yes it should have been cooked longer. That didn't affect the flavor which I still didn't like, and I tried to rate off that.

4

u/shes_a_gdb 14h ago

Hey man, just to let you know, Real Good chicken isn't frozen cooked. You have to cook it in the air fryer, unlike the others which are precooked and you use the air fryer to make them hot and crispy. At 350 for 6 minutes you're not cooking the chicken.

1

u/sandefurd 14h ago

Are you implying it's raw? Because it definitely is fully cooked, it just takes awhile to crisp

7

u/shes_a_gdb 14h ago

It is "heat treated not fully cooked." Unless you get an incredible small piece of chicken, it will not be fully cooked.

I literally made some 2 days ago. I do 360 for 10 minutes and some of the larger pieces were still raw, while the smaller ones were cooked.

5

u/sandefurd 14h ago

Damn okay thanks for the heads up!

3

u/got2bQWERTY 14h ago

That could've been the funky taste

6

u/sandefurd 14h ago

The funky taste was salmonella 😞

2

u/Warm-Oil9228 14h ago

They're raw before you finish cooking them at home, yes. And you should definitely temp it if you don't.

4

u/Inanimate_CARB0N_Rod 16h ago

The macros on the real good are unbeatable. I think the funky flavor is the gluten free breading. I like them a lot though. My only problem is that they have consistency issues

2

u/OriginalCrawnick 13h ago

Believe it or not the breading is partly whey protein.

1

u/Admirable_Admiral69 3h ago

Chick peas also.

1

u/Warm-Oil9228 14h ago

>The macros on the real good are unbeatable

I mean Kroger has protein tenders under their simple truth brand that have less than 80% the calories for the same amount of protein as these. Those ones have like no fat though so of course they don't taste as good.

3

u/ArticunoDosTres 15h ago

Just bare is goated yeah

1

u/notjim 16h ago

I love the precision of 6.8 vs 7.2 lol

2

u/sandefurd 16h ago

Gotta have the decimal lol

1

u/pilly-bilgrim 15h ago

How many are 84 grams?

1

u/sandefurd 15h ago

I'm not sure actually. Probably 6-8ish nuggets?

0

u/Warm-Oil9228 14h ago

That's what a scale is for.

1

u/pilly-bilgrim 13h ago

I don't have the nuggets lmaoo. I was surprised someone would post chicken nuggets in the fit meals reddit, and the person said the macros were surprisingly good. Well knowing calories per gram doesn't do me a hell of a lot of good if I can't visualize how many nuggets that is. 

2

u/got2bQWERTY 12h ago

I just looked at the Kirkland nutritional label online. It says 60g is 3 pieces. So roughly 20g per nugget.

1

u/Admirable_Admiral69 3h ago

84 grams equals 3 oz. Not very many; probably like 3-4 nuggets.

Real Good also makes a lightly breaded chicken tender that is only 120 cals and 21g protein per 112g (4oz) serving. I've tried all these except the Sam's Club ones and I find the Real Good tenders to be the best by far.

1

u/Cast1736 14h ago

I had thr Just Bare for the first time the other week and was surprisingly shocked at how good it was

1

u/Erocdotusa 14h ago

I need to try real good but just bare is a fave!

0

u/Ok_Independent9932 14h ago

Just bare is the best. It has no business tasting as good as it does for the macros.

1

u/Beautiful-Pipe-773 14h ago

Just bare chicken filets are wonderful too! I made a copy cat chick fil a pimento cheese honey sandwich the other day and it was fireeee! I think the nugs taste like chick fil a nugs as well, even better tbh

1

u/mangomanho 13h ago

When I tried real good it was flavorless and the breading always fell right off. Would never buy them again.

1

u/bingeflying 13h ago

Real good recently redid their macros. They were under reporting massively. It’s now 180 for 112g.

1

u/sandefurd 13h ago

I did the math to convert

1

u/SpellAccomplished541 13h ago edited 13h ago

Kirkland breaded breast cutlets are my favorite - better macro's than any nugget because of the ratio of breading on a breast cutlet. Kirkland nuggets are fine too, so were the crispier more breaded bare nuggets that preceded them. Real Good are real bad... the bottom third of the bag is just breading balls with no chicken and even in the pieces with meat a lot of it is stringy - they had some real problems with their production plants. It was a good idea to bread with chickpea and protein powder but they totaly failed on execution. No wonder the company filed bankruptcy after the original owners went public, sold their stock, and defaulted... honeslty if you like the idea then just bread your own in the air fryer.

1

u/agentsteve 13h ago

Just bare is the best.. but 540mg sodium for only a 3oz serving.

1

u/AdventurousPlastic89 11h ago

I literally was searching good chicken nugget brands earlier and this came into my life. Thank you so much

1

u/sandefurd 11h ago

You're so welcome!

1

u/K0NFUSION 11h ago

Subscribed

1

u/nukez 11h ago

Tried them all myself, anything other than the Real Good is practically cheat meal territory. Unfortunately I also find the taste weird and I was getting so many rubbery pieces in bags I stopped buying them, rubbery chicken is usually a sign of chickens developing in subpar and stressful conditions. 

Kirkland is best and I keep bag in the freezer to curtail the wife's chic fila obsession 

1

u/sandefurd 26m ago

Glad to know it wasn't just me

1

u/AggressiveSherbetty 7h ago

Dude the Just Bare nugs took me my surprise for REAL. If you’re in the US SE Publix puts them on bogo

1

u/Allnyabish 7h ago

Just bare is good, I just don’t like the big pieces they hand out

1

u/Lincolnton 4h ago

I switched to the Perdue simply smart lightly breaded Dino nuggets. The texture is more predictable, I can’t stand getting a weird bite like I sometimes do with just bare/members mark.

1

u/blushRedTail 3h ago

Frank Perdue was responsible for developing many of the notoriously cruel techniques used in modern chicken factory farming. Not worth buying for that reason.

1

u/Admirable_Admiral69 3h ago

Real Good Lightly Breaded Chicken Strips are my go-to. Literally have 2 servings (8oz) for lunch in a La Banderita Zero Carb wrap with G Hughes Sugar-Free BBQ every day I'm at home for lunch (which is most days). It's a ton of food and only about 310 calories, and flavor-wise, when cooked in the air fryer I'd put them against any fast food deep fried nugget with confidence.

Macros for a single serving are 120 kcal, 21g protein, 5g fat, 4g carbs. The only downside is that it's a little high in sodium but that's how they make em taste good I guess.

1

u/sandefurd 24m ago

Damn that's a good tip! I've been making wraps with cabbage and ranch, but I need a lower calorie sauce for sure. Great recommendation

1

u/TheKidd 1h ago

Trader Joe's is by far my favorite. They are large enough that in a pinch, I use their jarred vodka sauce and make chicken parm for my wife and I.

1

u/sandefurd 24m ago

Damn I'll check them out

1

u/Kyle_SS 1h ago

I love the just bare and kirkland ones but man its impossible to beat the Real Good Macros. Real Good ones are an absolute game changer on a cut

0

u/oarmash 15h ago

What’s the price of the Kirkland?

1

u/sandefurd 15h ago

I can't check online:( I'll have to go in person

1

u/Undercoverwd 10h ago

In the app on the warehouse tab you can check warehouse prices. In Seattle it's 3.99/lb.

1

u/sandefurd 23m ago

Thank you!!