Its a rapidly growing space thatjustcaught my attention.
They seem to be competing against the classic chicken nuggets and strips my family loves and find nostalgic.
Are these plant-based versions actually any good?
Simply Recipes / Wanda Abraham
We needed to find out, so we set off on a taste test.
My family is a chicken nugget family and my kidsages six and eightare expert nugget eaters.
I wasnt picky and had no real qualifiers other than being able to find it in a store freezer.
Simply Recipes / Nick Evans
This is what the vast majority of the packaging instructions called for.
Some ended up needing little more time than what the instructions said, like the larger Beyond brand tenders.
Ultimately, I went for visual cues: the nuggets had to be nicely browned and crispy.
Simply Recipes / Nick Evans
I served the nuggets with honey and ketchuptheir favoritesfor dipping.
My son preferred the Alpha Plant-Based Original Chickn Nuggets.
He was the only one in the group that liked this brandI found it a bit chewy.
Of note: he didnt elaborate much onwhyhe liked these other than saying, It tastes the best!
and then going back for more.
If a kid will eat it and go back for more, thats enough evidence that theyre worth it.
My daughter preferred the Beyond Plant-Based Breaded Tenders, which she dipped mostly in honey.
These were the largest in size of the eight we taste tested.
Nostalgia, afterall, is hard to compete with.
My wife liked the MorningStar Farms Veggitizers Veggie Popcorn Chikn best.
It has a wonderfully crispy texture and a nice ratio of breading to chicken.
These were the tiniest of the nuggets we tested and got very crispy.
You almost couldnt taste the filling at all, reminding me of a crunchy chip!
I dipped them in BBQ saucethey were so good!
My wife and I didntloveany of the brands.
None were terrible, but also none of them really stood out to us as outstanding.
