Aldi Kirkwood Chicken Fries Vs Burger King: Which Is Better?

Welcome to Dupe Detective, a 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.

Variety is a key pillar of the Burger King brand. In 2022, notably, Burger King introduced a new slogan, updating its classic "have it your way" tagline to a simpler "you rule." Both phrases, of course, evoke the idea that customers can dial in orders to their particular tastes. Contributing to the chain's overall variety are plenty of idiosyncratic foods, like its famous long chicken sandwich, jalapeño cheddar bites, or a seasonal frozen Cotton Candy Cloud, which ranks among the 13 most unique fast food drinks. Perhaps most well-known of all of Burger King's signature menu items are its Chicken Fries, which are effectively chicken nuggets shaped like french fries.

One brand offering an at-home alternative to classic Chicken Fries is Aldi, which packages a frozen dupe under its Kirkwood brand. I picked up a bag of Kirkwood chicken fries from my local Aldi, before grabbing their name-brand inspiration from the nearest Burger King. Ahead are rundowns of both items, before my thoughts on whether or not Aldi's frozen chicken fries are better than the Burger King menu item that inspired them.

My favorite thing about Aldi's Kirkwood Chicken Fries was their breading. Thick breadcrumbs on the outside gave each Aldi Chicken Fry a pronounced crispiness. That quality contrasted with a softer breading on Burger King's Chicken Fries. However, superior texture aside, my Aldi Chicken Fries' breading came up short compared to their Burger King inspiration in a couple of meaningful ways — namely, it was underseasoned, tasting like toasted bread and little else, while lacking the ability to adhere to the chicken it surrounded, resulting in a bit of looseness.

The chicken itself was of a somewhat high level of quality for a frozen, at-home product, without the sorts of excessively tough bites that can be found in cheaper chicken nuggets. That ended up factoring into my comparison of Costco's Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks to Chick-fil-A nuggets, and it was a non-factor this time around. Nevertheless, comparing them to Burger King Chicken Fries, the Aldi chicken was just the slightest bit tougher. Overall, my Aldi Chicken Fries were super solid, lacking major flaws, which is especially notable for a pre-cooked, frozen food product. It was only when I compared them explicitly to Burger King that I noticed certain metrics in which they came up short.

Something that stood out to me about my Burger King Chicken Fries was the extent to which they legitimately split the difference between chicken nuggets and french fries. While the chicken nugget comparison is pretty self-evident, I found that a contrast between a thin layer of outer crispiness and inner pillowy softness that's typically found in a french fry was replicated by my Chicken Fries' breading. Bold spices in that breading likened them even more specifically to a seasoned fry, like the fries that are seasoned with a signature spice blend at Wingstop. Beyond just resembling french fries, the ample seasoning in the breading as well as the contrast between crispy and soft textures were qualities I particularly enjoyed.

At first, I thought I liked the Burger King Chicken Fries better plain than dipped in sauce, because the sauces I tried masked their natural spice blend. My last handful of fries, however, I dipped anyway, and I ended up realizing that Burger King's Chicken Fries were better for dipping than Aldi's. Whereas the latter brought little to the table other than a crispy texture, the seasoning in my Burger King Chicken Fries started to emerge once the flavor of the sauce I dipped it in wore off, resulting in a better, more interesting flavor experience overall.

In my analyses of each product, it might seem like Burger King's Chicken Fries ran circles around Aldi's, because of how Burger King came out on top in almost every direct comparison between the two products. But that's not the case — when I first tried both kinds of Chicken Fries, I found them so close to one another in quality that I had to really dig into the minutiae that separated them. It was only through that closer analysis that I started to realize what I liked more about the Burger King Chicken Fries.

Of course, the single biggest difference between Burger King and Aldi Chicken Fries is that the former is prepared in a restaurant and the latter is frozen for at-home preparation. Naturally, it's pretty rare for a grocery store product to genuinely contend with something from a restaurant, though I did find Walmart's Marketside Orange Chicken better than Panda Express, so it's possible. Aldi has even performed well in prior head-to-heads, with its Berryhill Hazelnut Spread besting Nutella, for example. But up against Burger King's signature Chicken Fries, which were better seasoned and texturally superior, Aldi's Kirkwood Chicken Fries dupe fell just a bit short. Nevertheless, Aldi performed commendably against difficult competition.

At my local Aldi, in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas, a bag of Kirkwood Chicken Fries is $4.95. Each bag contains an estimated 56 Chicken Fries, based on its serving size. At a nearby Burger King, an order of 12 Chicken Fries — which comes with two dipping sauces — goes for $4.99 before tax.

Nutritionally, a serving of eight Aldi Kirkwood Chicken Fries totals 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of which is saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 580 milligrams of sodium, 13 grams of carbs, 1 gram of sugar, and 10 grams of protein. An equivalent serving of eight Burger King Chicken Fries equals 220 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of which is saturated fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 680 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbs, and 13 grams of protein. So, while Aldi's Chicken Fries are handily the better deal, each product offers its own nutritional advantages.

First, I picked up a bag of Kirkwood Chicken Fries from my local Aldi in the Las Vegas-adjacent Henderson, Nevada and stored it in my freezer for later. Then, the following day, I purchased an order of 12 Chicken Fries in the drive-thru of my nearest Burger King. I asked for Sweet & Sour and Zesty sauces, and was also given six or seven ketchup packets. I tried both kinds of Chicken Fries plain as well as in all three dipping sauces.

While I normally like to taste a dupe product before its name-brand equivalent, I ate some of my Burger King Chicken Fries first, while they were fresh, as my oven was preheating. I had just three or four, leaving the majority for later to compare directly to Aldi, even though they would be at room temperature. Eventually, I tried three or four Aldi Chicken Fries shortly after they came out of the oven. After noting down my initial thoughts on each product, I continued to eat the rest of each batch of Chicken Fries, alternating between the two and recording anything else I noticed about them. All of my analyses are based entirely on this experience, and not any past thoughts I may have had on the featured brands or products.