I tested supermarket chicken nuggets – the budget winner is joint with M&S and over HALF price compared to Birds Eye
But this freezer staple can be incredibly helpful for busy weeknights and many offer up a decent serving of protein to hungry kids.
9
Emma Shafqat, of dietitianwithadifference.co.uk, said: "Chicken nuggets often get a bad reputation, but they can be a convenient and reliable source of protein especially for fussy eaters.
"Look for ones made with chicken breast as the first ingredient and aim for low salt and saturated fat per serving.
"A short, recognisable ingredient list (foods your find in your kitchen cupboards) is a good sign.
"Nuggets can be a quick source of protein when added to wraps or salads for a balanced meal.
"Like any processed food, it's about the quality you choose and what you serve alongside it."
But which nuggets to choose? LYNSEY HOPE investigates:
M&S Breaded Chicken Nuggets (600g)
£4.75, £7.91 per kg
Cook from frozen: 20 minute s
Lynsey says: "Impressive nuggets from M&S, which looked and tasted great. Chicken makes up 53 per cent of the total ingredients and it's all breast meat.
Once cooked, it was tender, while the breadcrumbs were nice and crisp after the recommended 20 minutes in the oven.
"The ingredients list garlic, herb and sage which were subtle but gave these nuggets a tasty flavour.
"The bag is mega expensive, setting you back £7.91 per kg which was even more than Birds Eye. But as they tasted great, I've still given them a reasonable score on value for money.
"If you can afford to spend a bit more on nuggets, I'd recommend these ones."
Taste: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Total: 9/10
Birds Eye Chicken Dippers (697g)
£5.50 for 38, £7.80 per kg
Cook from frozen: 15 minutes
9
Lynsey says: "The branded nuggets have a very distinctive taste and that is down to the batter I think, which is lightly fried.
"Overall chicken make up 50 per cent of the ingredients and again, it's all breast meat. They are pricey but quite moreish and well-filled with meat.
"One of the quickest to cook in the oven, taking just 15 minutes. They were quite similar to McDonald's nuggets in flavour and texture.
"The biggest problem is the price, they cost nearly double most own brands per kilogram and the difference is minimal."
Taste: 4/5
Value: 2/5
Total: 6/10
Sainsbury's Breaded Chicken Nuggets (450g)
£1.49 for 30, £3.31 per kg
Cook from frozen: 15 minutes
Lynsey says: "Very meaty nuggets with British chicken making up 60 per cent of the ingredients - it's not necessarily breast meat though. The ingredients were simple, which I liked, with less rubbish in than other own brands.
"They cooked well in the recommended 15 minutes and the breaded coating came out an appetising colour and had a lovely crunch.
"The nuggets were small but excellent value too, on a par with Aldi when it comes to price per kilogram."
Taste: 3/5
Value: 5/5
Total: 8/10
Asda Battered Chicken Nuggets (670g)
£3, £4.48 per kg
Cook from frozen: 18 minutes
Lynsey says: "Asda's nuggets are made with 100 per cent breast meat and chicken makes up 58 per cent of the ingredients so a decent proportion.
"They took a while to cook, probably closer to 20 minutes than the recommended 18. But once cooked, the batter was nice - they were very similar to McDonald's nuggets with quite a salty taste.
"I also thought that there was quite a lot of air in the batter and they could have done with a bit more meat to fill them out."
Taste: 4/5
Value: 3/5
Total: 7/10
Aldi Roosters Chicken Nuggets in Breadcrumbs (450g)
£1.49 for 30, £3.31 per kg
Cook from frozen: 16-18 minutes
9
Lynsey says: "Excellent value nuggets from Aldi and a decent sized bag. They are one of the meatiest with 60 per cent chicken in the ingredients and it's breast meat too.
"Filling - though the flavour was a little bland, perhaps they need a little more seasoning in the meat."
Taste: 3/5
Value: 4/5
Total: 7/10
Morrisons Battered Chicken Dippers (450g)
£2.30 for 25, £5.11 per kg
Cook from frozen: 16-18 minutes
9
Lynsey says: "Apparently these contain chicken breast but it was a strange texture and a grey mushy colour which was a bit off putting.
"The batter was light and cooked well but it fell off the meat when I was trying to serve them and it all got a bit messy.
"Over priced too. At £5.11 per kilogram they were more expensive than every other own brand, bar M&S. There wasn't 25 in the bag either - only 24."
Taste: 2/5
Value: 2/5
Total: 4/10
Lidl Braemoor Red Hen Breaded Chicken Nuggets (1kg)
£3.25 for 65, £3.25 per kg
Cook from frozen: 14 minutes
9
Lynsey says: " Lidl 's nuggets were great value and this was a supersized family bag which is great for the freezer. The meat is 100 per cent chicken breast, though it's from Poland and not UK.
"They were well-seasoned, filling and flavoursome. This bag is over £2 cheaper than Bird's Eye and you get 27 extra nuggets for your money."
Taste: 4/5
Value: 5/5
Total: 9/10
Tesco Battered Chicken Dippers (450g)
£1.49 for 20, £3.31 per kg
Cook from frozen: 17 minutes
Lynsey says: "These had an usual chemically taste and I wasn't a fan. The meat was very bitty too and I couldn't finish my portion, chucking three out of five in the bin.
"They do contain 53 per cent chicken in the ingredients but it's not breast.
"There weren't 20 in the bag either- I only got 18. Whilst they are good value, I wouldn't buy these again."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Vaping in childhood ‘gateway to cannabis and cigarettes'
Vaping in childhood is a 'gateway' to cannabis and cigarettes, according to a study. Experts found 'consistent evidence' that children who vape are three times more likely to go on to become smokers. They also found links to abuse of substances, including alcohol and cannabis, as well as a higher likelihood of developing asthma and mental health problems. The researchers, from the University of York and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), analysed all the existing available reviews on youth vaping – also known as an umbrella review – which included 56 reviews on 384 studies. Some 21 of these looked at the use of e-cigarettes among young people and later cigarette smoking. The research found vapers were also more likely to smoke more frequently and intensely, and develop breathing problems. Other harmful links to youth vaping included pneumonia, bronchitis, lower total sperm counts, dizziness, headaches and migraines. There was also a link identified between depression and suicidal thoughts among young vapers. It appears to confirm long-held beliefs about the risk of vaping, with US research going as far back as 2017 suggesting vaping acts as a gateway to smoking, after finding teenagers who used e-cigarettes were four times more likely to start using tobacco within a year, according to the University of Michigan. Dr Rebecca Glover, senior author of the study and assistant professor at LSHTM, said: 'Vaping is having a detrimental impact on the health of young people globally and vaping appears to be a gateway to other substances. 'Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that young people globally face a serious range of physical and psychological harms from vaping and are at higher risk of transitioning to smoking.' Writing in the journal Tobacco Control, the authors said the data 'consistently indicated a significant association between e-cigarette use and later cigarette smoking in young people'. They said it was difficult to 'infer causality' from their review, but said the 'repeated strong associations in prospective cohort studies are consistent with a causal relationship'. Dr Su Golder, an associate professor in health science at the University of York, said: 'The consistency in the evidence is striking. Across multiple studies, young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke in the future.' Dr Greg Hartwell, clinical assistant professor at LSHTM, said the transition to smoking 'opens the door to the multitude of harms that conventional cigarettes bring'. 'As the Government's chief medical officer states, marketing vapes to children is always unacceptable, and our review shows exactly why further restrictions on the tobacco industry, who control the vaping market, are so important,' he added. In June, a ban on disposable vapes was introduced, in part to curb their use among young people. The crackdown on the devices, also known as single-use vapes, makes it illegal for any retailer, from corner shops to supermarkets, to sell them. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will seek to further limit the vapes appeal to children, by restricting flavours and marketing strategies. Dr Stephen Burgess, a statistician at the University of Cambridge. who was not involved in the research, said the review looked at observational studies and so 'can say that vaping users are more likely to engage in certain behaviours, but whether vaping is truly a cause of these behaviours is beyond the scope of the data'. 'However, the associations demonstrated are both extensive in scope and strong in magnitude – it is clear that vaping users are at higher risk of many diseases than non-users,' he added.
BBC News
14 minutes ago
- BBC News
Lung cancer screening programme rolled out in Norfolk and Suffolk
A pilot lung cancer screening programme, which the NHS said had helped save lives, was being rolled out to more scheme was first launched for smokers and ex-smokers aged between 55 and 74 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 2022, before being extended to Lowestoft, Suffolk. It will now be available across the whole of Norfolk and people screened out of 8,000 were diagnosed with lung cancer, with 70% discovered at an early and more treatable stage, according to the NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB)."We've already seen a fantastic response... and that's why we're pushing ahead to offer more people the check," said Dr Suzanne Phillips from the board. "We're rolling this out in stages to tens of thousands of people, so it's really important people wait to be contacted about their check and book it in when offered."Lung cancer usually doesn't have many symptoms in its early stages, so that's why it's important we proactively check people who might be at risk of developing it."As part of the project, assessments with a medic are carried out initially, and lung scans are then offered if could attend a launch event between 10:00 BST and 13:00 on Tuesday, 26 August at the TIC mobile unit in Sainsbury's car park on the Hardwick industrial estate in King's Lynn, where free health checks will be offered. Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
15 minutes ago
- BBC News
Bristol NHS merger could create major health organisation
A potential merger between Bristol's hospital trusts could create one of the biggest healthcare organisations in the UK, says its chief Kane, head of both North Bristol NHS Trust and the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) NHS Foundation Trust, says operating as a single organisation will result in "better outcomes" for the 1.5million patients the two trusts merger would reduce the duplication of services and possibly lead to an expansion of services at Southmead Kane said: "I have seen huge appetite from our clinicians to want to come together around what's best for patients." The North Bristol NHS Trust runs sites including Southmead Hospital, while UHBW runs the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), St Michael's, Bristol Children's Hospital, Weston General Hospital and potential partnership between the two trusts would strengthen collaboration across Bristol, North Somerset and South Kane explained she has discovered a wide variation in outcomes for some of the 44 services that are duplicated on both sites, including cardiac care."One of our clinicians talked about the unfairness of getting in an ambulance and being very worried about whether it would turn left or right, because they knew the outcome could be very different," she added. Ms Kane said she hoped the possible merger will create one of the biggest hospital trusts in the UK, second to Manchester which employs more than 28,000 health professionals, and may result in an expansion of services in Southmead."We are setting up a community participation group because whatever we do has to align to need and be acceptable to local people, which we have to do with a finite budget," she Kane said the trusts would be assessing how demand for inpatient services should dictate how different buildings are used, but said she acknowledged people would still like to access services in the city centre. Different waiting lists The trusts are already working closely in specialties including cardiac services - where waiting lists for some minimally-invasive heart procedures are nine months at Southmead, compared with just six weeks at the trusts are using a private company to send mini stick-on heart monitors to patients at home, which they can post back to get a result within just two weeks. University of Bristol student Katherine Barnes has benefitted from the closer working relationship between both hospital trusts. She was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat earlier this year, and is one of the patients who has used a patch monitor. The 21-year-old competitive cyclist said: "I had been having arrhythmias off and on for about 10 years, but it came on really suddenly during one of the biggest races of the season and so I had to pull out. "I received the patch in a recent appointment and I just sent it back to them and they analysed the data for me." The merger is also improving collaborations in research, including a potential cure for the rare kidney disease, IgA of paediatric nephrology at the University Hospitals Bristol, Moin Saleem, is teaming up with clinicians from Southmead to start a world-first study using gene therapy, which uses a virus to introduce genetic material into the IgA cell to cure them of the disease."The significance we hope will be pretty huge because at the moment there is no curative therapy for this disease," said Prof Saleem."If this switches off the disease then those patients will be able to avoid dialyses completely."Richard Betteridge has IgA nephropathy and hopes to go on the trial. The 32-year-old said: "It really does give you that sense of hope that there's something you can do, and you are also contributing to advancing the science around the management of this condition." Following the Government's 10-year plan, announced in July, a network of local health hubs will be created and Ms Kane added this move will allow them to transfer services to community health hubs, creating opportunities for staff to build new relationships and broaden and UHBW is already seeing an extra 70,000 patients a year through two community diagnostic centres in Cribbs Causeway and Weston-super-Mare and the long-term plan is for more patients to be seen and treated closer to home.
