Chicken and Donuts at McDonald's Was a Mistake I Won't Make Again

Some of our food hacks could be described as brilliant, genius, delicious, even ART if you’re feeling generous.

Nutella Waffle Hack

Others…maybe not so much.

Listen, when you experiment with food as much as we do, you’re bound to run into some less-than-impressive results at least once in a while, right? Unfortunately, I had one of those experiences when I recently tried to re-create one of my favorite Disney World meals at McDonald’s. 😬

So here’s the inspo pic I’m working with:

Chicken & Doughnuts

This is the fried chicken and doughnuts meal at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Kitchen in Disney Springs!

Homecomin’

Fried chicken and doughnuts is actually a weirdly common meal in Disney World (and I’m NOT mad about it). I’ve had similar meals at ABC Commissary and Rosie’s All-American Cafe, and recently Disney announced that the stellar combo is also now available at Hollywood & Vine for breakfast!

Fried Chicken and Doughnuts at ABC Commissary

OK, I know that’s only like four restaurants, so maybe calling this meal “weirdly common” is a bit of an overstatement, but — in the words of the wise Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb (with my own change added into the quote) — “Wow, if I had a nickel for every time [I ate chicken and doughnuts in Disney World], I’d have two nickels – which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”

©Disney

SO, anyways, I have been craving fried chicken and doughnuts for a while now, but — unlike our fabulous DFB reporters — I don’t live close to Disney World. ☹️ I decided to try to hack my own version of this meal at McDonald’s because the McD’s locations near my house have recently been testing a partnership with Krispy Kreme (which you might already know due to my Big Mac donut monstrosity that I posted about earlier this week), which means there are Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Chicken McNuggets at the same restaurant. 😳

For science!

This has to be good. The doughnut Big Mac was weirdly delicious, so nothing can go wrong with a doughnut-chicken combo…right?

Doughnut and Nuggets

Unfortunately, the doughnut chicken nuggets combo was not the epiphany I’d thought it was. Individually, both can be great — nothing wrong with good old Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts and the iconic chicken McNuggets — but I had a problem with both the flavor and texture of this combo.

Not a great combo

The doughnut and nugget weirdly had almost the same texture somehow? The chicken nugget was pretty soft, so the whole bite was just one texture and I almost couldn’t tell the doughnut apart from the nugget.

0 stars

The flavor was also too one-note. Unlike the Big Mac — which had sauce, lettuce, meat, and pickles on it to contrast with the doughnut — the chicken was fairly bland, so the flavor combination was pretty boring. (Sorry to anyone who loves the flavor of McD’s nuggets! I pretty much just use them as vehicles for sauce… .)

Chicken Nuggets

So if you’re looking for fried chicken and doughnuts…maybe McDonald’s is not the place to get it. Both of the elements of this snack are better on their own! I’ll get a 10-piece McNugget with a Krispy Kreme doughnut for dessert any day of the week. But I’m NOT going to be eating them together again anytime soon.

McDonald’s

Stay tuned to DFB to see what weird food hack we try next!

Check out this doughnut x McDonald’s food hack that DID work!

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Would you try McNuggets with doughnuts? Let me know in the comments!