Chick-Fil-A Nuggets Vs Costco Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks: Which Is Better?

Welcome to Dupe Detective, a new column where I'll be reviewing a name brand food product's competitor product to find out how well it compares to, or even beats, the original.

A Costco membership grants access to all sorts of at-home approximations of foods typically only available at restaurants. The brand behind Kirkland Signature Egg Bites, for example, has produced foods for Starbucks, resulting in an egg bite pretty dang close to Starbucks' own. A version of the Costco Chicken Bake is likewise available in the freezer aisle, ranking among some frozen Costco foods that turn out perfectly in the air fryer. Also on that list are Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks — and while they aren't quite as intrinsically linked to a restaurant item, there are plenty of fans of the product who compare it favorably to Chick-fil-A's chicken nuggets.

I picked up a bag of the Kirkland Signature Chicken Breast Chunks as well as an order of nuggets from Chick-fil-A to find out for myself whether or not Costco's at-home dupe can actually go toe-to-toe with its fast food competition. Ahead are my thoughts on both items, before my pick for whether Costco's chicken chunks or Chick-fil-A's nuggets are superior.

I prepared my Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks in the oven, lacking an at-home air fryer, and hoping to avoid the sogginess that typically affects microwaved nuggets. As it turned out, they mostly came out of the oven in great condition, crispy on the outside and meaty — but not excessively firm — on the inside. The meat of just one or two bites, however, was weirdly chewy. The crispiness of their breading was simple, meanwhile, closer to a thin layer of flour than a full-on batter. That was neither a good thing or a bad thing, but a distinction nevertheless.

Compared to Chick-fil-A's nuggets, the flavor of my Costco nuggets was mild, perceptibly lower in salt content and largely defined by a general sort of bread flavor, courtesy of their outer layer. I tried a few Kirkland Signature nuggets in Chick-fil-A sauce, a sauce so popular it's actually sold at Costco stores, and the relative simplicity of the nuggets served as a solid canvas for the sauce's tangy sweetness. Un-sauced, I eventually picked up a slight black pepper spice that complicated their otherwise straightforward flavor. All in all, for a grocery store product, I found that my Kirkland Signature nuggets did a commendable job holding their own against their restaurant competition.

In the grand scheme of fast food, I'd consider the standard Chick-fil-A sandwich — a chicken sandwich so popular it may well be the gold standard — to be relatively mild, lacking the bombastic flavor of, say, a Crunchwrap Supreme or Animal Style Fries. My Chick-fil-A nuggets, however, were surprisingly on the bolder side, amply salted and bolstered by a rich, seasoned breading.

Texturally, my Chick-fil-A nuggets were lightly crunchy, more than my Costco nuggets but still mildly so overall. The chicken inside was firm and easy to chew without veering into overcooked, stringy territory. Whereas my Costco nuggets felt more like a blank canvas for the Chick-fil-A sauce I used for dipping, the Chick-fil-A nuggets did a great job counterbalancing the sauce's distinct flavors. 

Chick-fil-A sauce is effectively made of barbecue sauce, mayo, and mustard, each component ended up amplified when paired with the rich, salty chicken. My only major complaint about my Chick-fil-A nuggets is that they were smaller than I was expecting, an order of 12 falling short of an entree portion by my estimation.

Costco's Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks were good enough to put up a legitimate fight against the Chick-fil-A nuggets they're effectively emulating, despite coming from a grocery store's freezer aisle and not a restaurant. It's safe to say that they're a capable at-home dupe, then, their convenience perhaps compensating somewhat for a slightly inferior flavor. For the best chicken breast chunk-style chicken nugget, however, there's no beating the original at Chick-fil-A.

My Chick-fil-A's nuggets were saltier, richer, and more amply spiced, effectively just turning up a few flavor sliders relative to Costco's product. Altogether, the bolder nuggets were more satisfying, both on their own and dipped in Chick-fil-A sauce. For what it's worth, I also got zero bites of slightly weird chicken from Chick-fil-A, while I ended up with a couple in my Costco batch. So, even if the differences between the two weren't all that nuanced, Chick-fil-A's nuggets were tastier, ultimately beating their Costco competition.

At my local Costco in the suburbs of Las Vegas, a four-pound bag of Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks costs $15.49. At the nearest Chick-fil-A, a 12-piece order of nuggets, which comes with three sauces, totals $8.12 — they're certainly not the cheapest fast food chicken nuggets.

Nutritionally, a three-ounce serving of Costco nuggets totals 140 calories, 5 grams of fat, 1 gram of which is saturated fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 530 milligrams of sodium, 9 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar, and 16 grams of protein. Meanwhile, a 113-gram serving — approximately four ounces — of Chick-fil-A nuggets equals 250 calories, 11 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of which are saturated fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 1210 milligrams of sodium, 11 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar, and 27 grams of protein. Reflecting their bolder flavor, then, and even accounting for differences in serving size, Chick-fil-A's nuggets are higher in pretty much every meaningful category, from sodium to protein.

First, I picked up my bag of Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks during a routine Costco trip, a few days ahead of when I planned on trying them. Then, on that day, I ordered 12 nuggets from the Chick-fil-A drive thru. I tried a few of them as soon as I brought them home to make sure I had some fresh, while saving some for later to compare directly to Costco's nuggets. Then I prepared about 15 Costco nuggets per the oven instructions on their bag.

With both nuggets available to me, I started by trying the fresh Costco nuggets, before switching back to the Chick-fil-A nuggets to better analyze their differences. I recorded my thoughts as I went. Of each kind of nugget, I had about seven or eight plain, and the rest dipped in Chick-fil-A sauce. My assessments are based entirely on this experience, and not any prior thoughts I may have had on the featured products or brands.