Review: Country Pride - Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets

Country Pride's Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets feature ground chicken breast nuggets that have been marinated, formed, tempura-battered, breaded, par-fried, and frozen. Country Pride is the value brand for Pilgrim's Pride, which makes various fresh and prepared poultry products and is one of the largest chicken producers in the US and Mexico.

A 28-oz bag was $8.99 on sale (regularly $9.99).

From what I can tell these are the same as Pilgrim's Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets (the bags are very similar to the point of using the same picture--I think they use different names for different regions of the US), which are very similar to McDonald's Chicken McNuggets according to a former McDonald's corporate chef.

There are instructions on the bag for air-frying, deep-frying, and baking the nuggets. The bag also warns against cooking these in the microwave or toaster oven. While they are par-fried to set the batter outside, the chicken nuggets are raw inside so you might want to have a meat thermometer handy to ensure it's cooked through. I cooked these in the air fryer for convenience (at 375F for 12 minutes--times may vary for different air fryers).

Out of the air fryer, the Country Pride's Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets were hot and crispy with a relatively smooth shell that still sported some fine breading. The texture was similar to Chicken McNuggets but wasn't as crackly (part of that might be due to the air-frying vs. deep-frying). There was a mild seasoned flavor to it.

Inside, the meat was plump and moist but not juicy. It was lightly seasoned but not as salty as a Chicken McNugget. The nuggets were generally larger and thicker than a Chicken McNugge, which made for meatier bites.

Overall, I'd say Country Pride Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets are very similar to McDonald's Chicken McNuggets and capture 90% of the Chicken McNugget experience. As a fan of Chicken McNuggets, I enjoyed them very much and would definitely pick them up again. An added benefit to these is you'll never get a batch that's been sitting in the warmer for too long (as long as you don't forget them in the air fryer or oven anyway).

Nutritional Info - Country Pride Tempura Chicken Breast Nuggets
Serving Size - 4 oz (112g)
Calories - 300
Fat - 19g (Saturated Fat - 4.5g)
Sodium - 500mg
Carbs - 19g (Sugar - less than 1g)
Protein - 13g