What are the best chicken nuggets from the perspectives of taste and ethics? I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but since Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget just came out on Netflix I figure it’s a good time to put this together. I’m not sure if this film will have quite the impact on chicken sales that Babe did on pork, but I expect it to create a spike in plant-based chicken nugget sales.

Well, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that virtually any plant-based chicken nugget is better than the animal-based version. While it might be possible to make one that scores worse for social and environmental impact than chicken, I haven’t come across any.

Of the products that I’ve evaluated, Simulate Nuggs received the lowest score for ethics – 3/5 Green Stars.

I may have been a bit harsh with this score – you can read about it in this post on Simulate Nuggs. But, even still, 3/5 Green Stars is still considerably higher than the score for a chicken-based nugget.

For similar reasons to the score for Simulate, I also scored Impossible Foods 3/5 Green Stars. This was actually in a review of the Impossible Burger 2.0, but I have also tried the Impossible Chicken Nuggets and would score them the same.

I liked the taste and texture of both the Simulate Nuggs and Impossible Chicken Nuggets and also noted that they were the top choices in a Bon Appétit taste test of vegan chicken nuggets. They labeled Nuggs as “the fast-food replica,” on account of a crust that resembled a McDonald’s nugget. They selected Impossible as the winner on account of its “picturesque golden crust, a pleasantly meaty flavor that both vegetarians and non-vegetarians enjoyed, and the most nostalgic feel.”

The “chicken” nuggets that I’ve eaten the greatest quantity of are from Quorn Foods. This is partly because Quorn has been around so long but also because I find them to be the most wholesome option, in a way. Of all the nuggets, they are the easiest on my constitution if I eat more than the serving size – maybe because it’s fungal protein or perhaps because they are quite low in fat. They original Quorn ChiQin Nuggets do contain egg, so they are vegetarian rather than vegan. However, Quorn have been gradually phasing out eggs and have a range of fully vegan products including vegan nuggets (pineapple chipotle flavored).

I previously rated Quorn vegan spicy patties (top right, above) 5/5 Green Stars. I believe that the company has made an important contribution in the field sustainable food and I’m excited about Quorn exploring the possibility of using a cellulosic feedstock to produce their mycoprotein. You can read more in this post on the social and environmental impact of Quorn.

The plant-based chicken nugget that scores highest in my book for taste and texture is the Beyond Chicken Tenders. Like all of the products I’ve featured on Ethical Bargains, I picked up the Beyond Chicken Tenders on sale at the Grocery Outlet. It’s a good way to try out new plant-based foods that suit your palate at low cost.

The Beyond Chicken Tenders have a very meaty and juicy texture while maintaining a crispy coating. They weren’t mentioned in the Bon Appétit guide to plant-based nuggets unfortunately – I’m curious to know how they would have stacked up against the others. I’ve reviewed a few different Beyond Meat products, either here on the GSP or on Ethical Bargains, and several of them (Beyond Burger, Beyond Sausage) have scored 4.5/5 Green Stars. I gave the slightly lower (but still very good) 4/5 Green Stars in my ethical review of Beyond Chicken Tenders.

I should point out that this are just my own opinion on how to score these products. The purpose of the Green Stars Project is to encourage you to include your own score when you write a review anywhere. You can enter the GSP contest to win a subscription to Ethical Consumer magazine. Please comment below if you have thoughts on plant-based nuggets, either from an ethics or taste perspective.