Burger King’s next menu improvement: chicken nuggets

It is also updating its sauces and adding a new Special Savory Sauce. Burger King’s latest menu upgrade is going after a key market the company has long desired: families. The Miami-based fast-food chain on Tuesday said that it is upgrading its BK Chicken Nuggets, making them with 100% white meat chicken and giving them a crispier, golden breading and a flavorful marinade designed to provide a juicier bite.

The nuggets are also getting the “jewel box” treatment, with upgraded packaging designed to provide customers a better experience, particularly when they’re eating in the car. And Burger King is updating its dipping sauce lineup to give customers a better pairing for the nuggets.

“It’s not a game of like, 'is there any meat actually in this?'” Amy Alarcon, head chef for Burger King, said in an interview. “You know it’s 100% white-meat chicken. [We] added more structural integrity so that does hold up and it keeps that crunch.” The updated sauce lineup includes a Special Savory Sauce, a new limited-time sauce that combines creamy, tangy, and lightly spicy flavors with barbecue seasoning, ketchup, garlic, onion, and black pepper.

Burger King is also offering improved honey mustard and sweet and sour sauces, along with a Buffalo sauce, featuring a classic cayenne pepper sauce with butter, garlic, and heat. The chain upgraded its Whopper earlier this year, which has helped boost sales.

The company is planning to upgrade several more menu items, and made the decision to focus on the nuggets after customers called them “rubbery,” “dry,” and “disappointing.” Burger King got those comments when it took calls from customers this year.

Those calls have now totaled 100,000, and are giving the company ideas on everything from service improvement strategies to product improvements. “We started this whole listening pipeline with Tom,” Alarcon said. “That’s where we decided to pour gasoline on this project and get it moved forward quickly.”

One trick that Burger King had to perfect with the nuggets: ensure they stay crunchy, even for delivery. “It’s one thing to have it crunchy right out of the fryer,” Alarcon said. “But how many of us are literally standing over the fryer waiting for the food to come out?

It’s got to be able to land all the way through the points from where a team member is packaging your order to the time they get to eat it.” The improved nuggets also help with the company’s crucial family demographic. Burger King has been working to target more families for years, but has finally had some traction this year, thanks to last year’s Spongebob movie promotion and then this year’s Whopper improvement.

So, when the company wrestled with the choice between a lightly sweet breading and a more tempura-style coating, Burger King opted for the one preferred by 9- to 11-year-olds, given their importance to the family demographic. “We talked to a lot of people,” Alarcon said. “But the sweet spot, the 9- to 11-year-olds, they were the key decision-makers in this one, and this is the one they wanted. They loved it.”