We never knew how much we took Chicken McNuggets for granted, till we couldn’t order it anymore during McDonald’s closure for circuit breaker. There we were at 1am, with a rumbling stomach and a nugget-shaped hole in our heart that no prata could fill. Then came Freezepak — a brand of frozen nuggets sold at supermarkets that recently went viral, as netizens claim it tastes just like McNuggets. It sounds like a good alternative for our fast food withdrawal till McDonald’s reopens; buy a pack, and fry up a batch when our craving strikes.

To find out whether the viral claim is true, and to suss out which frozen nugget brand on the market tastes most like the real McCoy, we ordered nine original flavour nugget brands (including Freezepak) that are sold online to sample and compare, and ranked ’em accordingly.

This list is not exhaustive, though. The nine brands are what we could get fairly easily as regular, non-sponsored, paying consumers — like the folks reading this story. Due to the availability of delivery slots, we purchased from supermarket e-retailers Redmart, FairPrice and Sheng Siong. We tried ordering from Giant too, but the next delivery slot was in two weeks’ time (ain’t nobody got time for that).

When we’re feeling lazy and peckish for McDonald’s, we automatically go for McNuggets. These bite-sized munchkins are less messy to eat than a Big Mac, and not too greasy or jelak. It’s pretty satisfying to dip a piece into the fast food chain’s garlicky chilli sauce or curry sauce, bite into it and feel the crackle of the crispy, slightly craggy and subtly peppery batter, plus tender chicken meat.

Photo: McDonald's

And that’s what we are looking out for when we taste the nine frozen nugget brands we’ve bought undercover. McDonald’s Singapore does not reveal its nugget source and specific cooking method, so we follow the frozen nugget packaging’s standard instructions and deep-fry our nine contenders in canola oil till they turn golden-brown. As McNuggets are deep-fried in oil, we have omitted air-frying to stay faithful to the nugs’ basic recipe.

McDonald’s announced today (May 10) that it’s reopening some of its outlets tomorrow, which means you can buy the OG McNuggets again. But since circuit breaker is ongoing, and we’re guessing there will be McAddicts rushing to order the fast food, it’s always a good idea to try making your own McNuggets at home. You don’t have to jostle with the crowd, and you can tweak the recipe to your liking (like air-frying or baking the nuggets to make ’em a smidgen healthier).

And it’s also much more budget-friendly to cook your own nugs — where a six-piece box of McNuggets starts from $4.80 a la carte, one of the brands we’re featuring costs just $3.45 for a bag of 20 nuggets.

Here’s our list of supermarket frozen nuggets, ranked from worst to best (the one that tastes most like McNuggets).

$3.25 for 400g from FairPrice

This trans fat and preservatives-free halal nugget brand is manufactured by local company Tasty Meat Products, and its packaging features an adorable, if slightly morbid, cartoon chicken chef introducing the pack’s contents.

Its Tasty moniker becomes ironic when we realise the nuggets aren’t very… tasty. Our main bugbear is the puffy, stodgy, floury battered crust that can’t seem to crisp without the risk of overfrying the nugget. The meat is also pretty tasteless and mushy.

$6.15 for 850g from FairPrice

FairPrice’s house brand of nuggets is halal-certified, and made from fairly standard ingredients as the rest of its nugget counterparts: chicken meat, corn and wheat starch, soy protein and flavouring. The raw nug is a scary, lurid yellow.

After deep-frying, the nugget’s crust turns dry and hard, though its batter has more flavour than most of the nine brands we’ve tried. But the meat is spongy and bland.

$3.60 for 500g from Sheng Siong

An unassuming packet with raw nuggets in a pale golden yellow shade.

The tempura crust, which is only slightly crispy, wraps around tender chicken meat that has a disconcertingly oily aftertaste. Definitely not like McNuggets.

$7.65 for 1kg from Redmart

Thai food manufacturer CP produces this large pack of frozen chicken nugs, which is made with “marinated chunks of chicken breast meat”.

This tastes like the kind of fried nugget you get at a standard catered buffet — serviceable enough, but not terribly exciting for the palate. The batter is decently crispy with a peppery whiff (black pepper, nutmeg, celery and garlic powder are listed in its ingredients). The chicken is tender, but has the kind of smooth, soulless texture similar to mock meat.

$3.65 for 500g from Sheng Siong

We got Shing Song from Sheng Siong (no affiliation), and it’s the first time we’ve come across this obscure brand. “Golden Crispy nugget in minutes!” chirps its fairly attractive packaging. The nuggets in this bag are larger than the other eight brands, and uniformly round in shape.

To our surprise, this nugget actually tastes like fried chicken, though the meat is slightly dry and hard so we couldn’t eat it plain. It has to be paired with a runny sauce (like curry) if you’re planning to eat more than one piece. The crust boasts a decent crunch. And you get half a kg of nuggets for under $4, making it the most competitively-priced nug brand compared to the other eight. This would be a crowd-pleasing snack for both adults and kids, but we wouldn’t say it tastes like McNuggets.

$7.50 for 1kg from FairPrice

Bibik’s Choice is a range of halal frozen food products by Singaporean manufacturer Sin Li-Hin Frozen Food Pte Ltd. The golden raw nuggets, which look pretty standard, are simply flavoured with sugar, salt, pepper and a mysterious “chicken flavour”.

We can see why bibik recommended these nugs — blessed with a fabulous crunch, they taste surprisingly homely and not as processed as the other brands. The succulent chook within also tastes like actual, fibrous chicken meat (instead of a mushy floury pulp). Very nice, but this isn't in our top three nugget brands ’cos, while yummy, it doesn’t remind us of McDonald’s. And moving on…

$5.25 for 500g from Redmart

These “tempura chicken nuggets” are made with “tender juicy white meat in crispy batter”. Now, this is where it gets exciting: the nuggets taste similar to McDonald’s version. It also looks exactly like a McNugget, with the same toasty brown hue and shape.

The peppery crust (you can see flecks of black pepper on it) crackles to the bite, and the chicken meat is well-marinated, though unfortunately a bit dry. We finish this with a chilli dip, though we didn’t crave for more. Still, it could almost pass for a McNugget.

$7.95 for 1kg from Redmart

This is the viral nugget brand that, as word on the internet would have it, tastes like McNuggets. But surprise, surprise, it didn’t make it to the number one spot on our list. We must say it really is a dead ringer for a McNugget — it looks and tastes very much alike. But we tried this together with eight other brands at the same time, and the difference becomes obvious.

The hype about this being a good nug is real. Its thin crust is delicately crispy, and the chicken meat smacks of fab fried chook. But its texture is also softer than a McNugget's. As much as it McMasquerades, we feel it deep in our fast food addict soul that this is not The AAA Replica McNugget we’re looking for. Instead, we found the one true contender that could give Ronald McDonald a run for his money, which is…

$4.30 for 400g from Redmart
This brand is ubiquitous and sold at most major supermarkets. The moment we bit into Farmland’s nug, we thought, “This is it.” Even though its colour is a bit more bright yellow than the McNugget’s golden-brown coat.

While Freezepak’s nugget came very close to tasting like a real McNugget, Farmland’s offering is even closer — with the same satisfyingly succulent, juicy chook cloaked in a crispy layer of pepper-flecked batter. The only difference between this and a McNugget is that Farmland’s nug has airy pockets between its crust and meat, while we remember McDonald’s version to be more or less stuck together. Though we were bursting from trying nine nugget brands, we couldn’t resist popping a few more with chilli sauce.

To make things even more interesting, internet-famous cooking enthusiast Leslie Koh, aka ‘Rice Cooker Man’, opines that Farmland’s Premium Shoestring Fries bear 99 per cent similarities to McDonald’s famed fries. Could we have stumbled upon its stock supplier? The fast food giant ain’t telling. But given the current austere times, it’s good to know there’s a wallet-friendly close alternative to your favourite McDonald’s nuggets, even if the chain is opening its doors again tomorrow.

PHOTOS: YIP JIEYING