For a limited time only you can get the “ghost pepper” nuggets at Burger King (right in time for Halloween). According to the Burger King website, the nuggets are “made with white meat chicken kicked up with fiery ghost pepper, our Ghost Pepper Chicken Nuggets are the perfect balance between flavor and heat.” The nuggets come in batches of four or eight, costing $1 and $1.49 plus tax, respectively. 

John 

After the miserable Ch’King spicy chicken sandwich, Burger King took a stab at spicy chicken nuggets in an attempt to redeem themselves. Being honest, the first thing that I thought of while staring into this nugget was “what the heck are those lightly-colored dots that are speckled throughout the nugget?” 

Now let’s dive right into our first bite. Definitely a lot crunchier than I would have initially expected from a nugget, I guess they really put heavy emphasis on the “crispy” in spicy crispy chicken huh? Maybe I am getting a bit desensitized from doing all of these spicy food reviews, but I really did not find the nuggets to be all that spicy. Even after shoving three of them into my mouth, I did not really feel the urge to grab some water, though I would be lying if I said I did not feel a little burn on my tongue. They really thought they were being cool by putting “ghost pepper” in the name of the nugget but it was just another disappointment in spice for me. I know this might conflict a little with Sasha’s point of view since she was over in the corner hogging the milkshake. As for how the chicken itself tasted, it’s funny but I don’t really recollect that much about how the chicken tasted, probably because my mouth was too busy dealing with the crunchiness to even think about how the chicken tasted. Or maybe there was just so much seasoning that my mouth couldn’t tell the difference. Who knows.

Overall, I would give these nuggets a six out of 10. While I might try these once in a while if I feel bored and want to spice things up a little bit (pun intended), I will probably just avoid these when going to Burger King. Considering I usually avoid Burger King in general, that probably means that I won’t be seeing these nuggets anytime soon.

Sasha 

I did not have very high expectations for these nuggets. I think the regular Burger King chicken nuggets are quite gross, and usually fast food chains call anything with a gram of pepper “spicy.” The nuggets definitely look underwhelming; they are much smaller than the Wendy’s and McDonald’s nuggets. There was definitely a lot more “crust” than there was actual meat (in fact I didn’t taste the meat at all), they were probably 60 percent crust and 40 percent meat. I don’t know if that is a good thing, considering Burger King meat is sketchy at best. 

These were probably the spiciest fast food nuggets I have had; they didn’t make me cry, but I was definitely reaching for my milkshake very frequently. Of all the fast food nuggets, I would say that these are the spiciest—well done Burger King! The portion of nuggets was definitely small, though for the price you pay for them, you can’t really expect much (John and I shared an eight-piece). Overall, the nuggets weren’t as bad as I expected. Would I buy them again? I would not go out of my way for them, but if I was getting Burger King for some reason, I would probably get them. I would rate them a 6.5 out of 10, but I have to say that they are my least favorite fast food nuggets. Though I do have to mention that when I sent a picture of the nugget to The Hoot’s Opinions Editor Thomas Pickering ’23, he said “it looks poisonous!” 

If you find yourself in a Burger King, I would also recommend checking out the “Chase Hudson Meal.” I have no idea who Chase Hudson is, but that man has taste. For $6 you get a Spicy Ch’King (with no vegetables, but with cheese and savory sauce; you can, however, customize it to make it “normal”), four mozzarella sticks and a chocolate milkshake. It is definitely the perfect meal. I could not have come up with a better one myself. There are two other meals in the “Keep it Real Meals,” but I don’t think they are as exciting as this one. The “Cornell Haynes Jr. Meal” comes with a Whopper with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions, mayo and ketchup, a small fry and a small sprite. The “Larissa Machado Meal” comes with an Impossible whopper with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mustard and ketchup, a small try and a small sprite. (See what I mean? Compared to the other two, the Hudson meal is superior). 

While some of these fast food restaurants are really going all out with trying to come up with new and innovative dishes to impress their customers, we feel that coming up with gimmicky “ghost pepper” nuggets won’t do the trick. Personally, we both feel that Burger King should keep coming up with meals like Chase Hudson’s, a super cheap meal that fills you up and satisfies your guilty cravings!