McDonald's Caviar McNuggets Bring Some Class To A Kiddy Classic

If you've aimlessly scrolled through food videos on social media in the past year or so, you'll probably have come across a few involving people putting caviar on fried chicken, including items like Chicken McNuggets. McDonald's has clearly caught wind of this, and as part of a cheeky promotion, the company's releasing a free caviar kit just in time for Valentine's Day. You'll be able to try and get your hands on one on February 10 by going to McNuggetCaviar.com, but be warned, supplies are limited and are sure to run out almost immediately.

The idea is simple: You take a McNugget, swipe some crème fraîche on it, dress that with a hefty plop of luxurious caviar, and enjoy. This activity is clearly a take on mashing up "highbrow" and "lowbrow" cuisine, but the real question is, is putting caviar on a Chicken McNugget as good as social media makes it out to be? McDonald's sent me a preview kit to try for myself, so I geared up to see what the fuss was about.

In terms of methodology, I simply used the caviar with the accoutrements sent in the kit, which was crème fraîche, along with the utensils McDonald's sent for the caviar service. And for the purpose of the review, I used the caviar strictly with Chicken McNuggets, because it's called McNugget Caviar for a reason. (Though I'm sure McDonald's newer McCrispy Strips would have been a fitting base too.)

I purchased the McNuggets from our local McDonald's a few blocks away, using the gift card McDonald's provided with the kit. I did temper the caviar's and crème fraîche's temperature just a bit by allowing it to warm for a few minutes at room temp, but made sure to use it shortly after I opened it, to ensure the caviar would be at its peak when I performed my taste test. I didn't measure portions of either crème fraîche or caviar to find an ideal amount; I just went with my instincts, having had experience with all three of these ingredients in the past.

The McDonald's caviar kit comes packed in a tiny cooler with reusable ice packs in it. Within, you'll find a tub of crème fraîche, a 1-ounce tin of Baerii sturgeon (aka Siberian sturgeon) caviar, a caviar key (you'll use this to pop off the lid), and a mother of pearl spoon to serve the caviar with. There's also a $25 gift card which will allow you to pop into your local McDonald's and load up on all-white meat Chicken McNuggets.

The caviar comes from a company called Paramount Caviar, which is based in New York. Granted, a 1-ounce jar of caviar might not seem like a ton, but it's definitely enough to gild the lily, and this stuff isn't some bottom-shelf variety either. If you purchased the same size jar directly from the purveyor, it would cost you $85 — so if you're lucky to get your hands on a kit, just know McDonald's isn't cutting any corners with cheap roe masquerading as the fancy kind.

Setting up your perfect bite is easy. Like I mentioned earlier, all you need to do is put a bit of crème fraîche on your McNugget along with a little pile of caviar using the mother of pearl spoon. You generally want to avoid using metal utensils with caviar, as a metal spoon can potentially impart a metallic flavor to the cured fish roe. People also have fun using potato chips as the main vessel for their caviar too, as kind of a mega-elevated chip-and-dip sort of treatment. But that's really it — there's no edible gold leaf or exorbitantly priced shaved truffles necessary (unless you're filthy rich).

Since this is meant to be a bit over the top, might as well go heavy with the caviar, too. Whether or not caviar is your thing depends on the person — you'll hear many descriptions regarding its flavor, from nutty to buttery, but caviar's primary flavor characteristic is that it's satisfyingly salty. It also bursts as you eat it, which means the experience keeps blossoming the more you chew.

But is caviar on a Chicken McNugget any good? As much as it pains me to say, the answer is yes. It's delicious. The first thing you get is the gentle briny pop from the fish eggs, which grows slowly, then the crème fraîche tempers that saltiness. Afterwards you're left with the familiar childhood taste of that processed McNugget, which might elicit a few different emotions from you, like nostalgia, or maybe a touch of strange class-ridden guilt.

But what I won't deny is that it's fun, because it feels almost sacrilegious to do this. I wouldn't exactly recommend you drop about $100 of your own, unless you have money sitting around in a coffee tin that you've been itching to light on fire. But it's definitely worth trying to get your hands on a McDonald's caviar kit, even knowing that the clicking competition to get there is going to be fierce. Putting caviar on a McNugget is something you'll be glad you tried at least once in your life, even if it's just for a story to tell your friends and family later.