Fast-food outlet Jollibee introduces chicken nuggets for the first time in nearly 50 years
Cult favorite Jollibee is now selling chicken nuggets to complement its Chickenjoy fried chicken and sandwiches. In our early test, gravy seemed to be the dipping sauce of choice.
After nearly a half-century in business, Jollibee has added a fast-food staple it had long gone without: chicken nuggets.
The Filipino-rooted chain, whose lone Philadelphia-area restaurant is at Cottman and Bustleton Avenues in Great Northeast Plaza, introduced the all-white-meat nuggets nationwide last week. They are sold in five-, eight-, 15-, and 30-piece orders, starting at $4.49 for five.
For a company best known for its Chickenjoy fried chicken, Jollibee sees nuggets filling a different niche.
Luis Velasco, senior vice president at Jollibee Group North America, said the company had seen growing demand for nuggets. Rather than competing with the bone-in chicken or its chicken sandwich, which Jollibee introduced in 2021 during the height of the “chicken sandwich wars,” they’re intended as a shareable complement to the fried chicken sandwiches.
Jollibee also sells burgers, fried mango-peach pies, and Filipino spaghetti, a saucy dish whose sweet-and-savory sauce is loaded with ground beef, sliced hot dogs, and melted cheese.
Like the sandwich, the nuggets borrow from the same fried-chicken playbook. They are served with its tender sauce (similar to Cane’s sauce), as well as creamy sriracha, honey mustard, ranch, pineapple BBQ, and chicken gravy, the usual accompaniment to Chickenjoy.
The nuggets drew a steady stream of orders at the Northeast Philadelphia restaurant on Friday.
First impressions: They have plenty of crunchy nubs on the thin coating and a juicy interior. They don’t have the soft, processed texture common among fast-food chains’ nuggets.
“They’re crispy and crunchy and all, but they don’t have the same hard crunch as my Chickenjoy,” said Bing Garcia of Lawndale after taking a first bite.
Paul Santos of Castor Gardens sampled his order with a fork before dunking each piece into a cup of Jollibee’s gravy, the savory sauce with a touch of sweetness.
“I ate my first one plain, and it was fine — maybe a little dry,” Santos said. “You can’t beat their gravy.”
