Last Updated on June 22, 2023
When it comes to chicken, Aldi has plenty. On the raw side, Aldi sells everything from whole chickens to drumsticks to chicken cordon bleu. If pre-cooked is your flavor, Aldi sells chicken tenders, chicken patties, and occasionally even chicken fries.
If you sort through the frozen section at Aldi, you might take notice of a small, inconspicuous little red bag of chicken breast fillets. You might also be forgiven for passing them over in favor of, say, chicken patties or chicken fingers. After all, who needs large chicken breast fillets?
Turns out, everyone does.
Kirkwood Breaded Chicken Breast Fillets are a Regular Buy, meaning they’re in stores year-round. Keep in mind, though, that they’re pretty popular, so they can sometimes be hard to find. They currently come in a 24-ounce bag that claims to have about 4 fillets. (Ours had 5.) At the time of this post, the bag runs $5.99 total, or about 25 cents an ounce.
There is only one listed way to cook the fillets, and that’s in the oven. Prepare yourself, though, as it’s not a fast process. You first have to preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then cook the fillets for 35-40 minutes, turning them at the 20-minute mark. I was able to cut down the time somewhat by using an air fryer, but be aware that these aren’t a quick-and-easy meal.
Cooking instructions. (Click to enlarge.)
The payoff, though, is that they are excellent. Restaurant quality. They’re crisp, well seasoned, and undeniably tasty. If you have the foresight to put one of these, say, on a toasted brioche bun, you’re going to have something that’s as good as fast food.
Nothing this tasty is going to be all that good for you, and these aren’t. They’ve got some fat, but the real offenders are the sodium and cholesterol. I wouldn’t make a habit out of eating them all the time. Also, since this is a processed food, there’s more than just chicken in here.
Nutrition and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The Verdict:
From a taste perspective, Aldi’s red bag chicken, also known as Kirkwood Chicken Breast Fillets, are extraordinary. The flavor is wonderful, they come out crispy, and they make for a dynamite Chik-fil-A impersonation, especially when paired with a brioche bun. The high sodium and cholesterol counts mean you probably shouldn’t have these all the time, but for a sometime treat these are as good as what you’d get from a restaurant. For that reason, they’re sometimes hard to find in stores. Highly recommended, though.
I travel 2x a week to 2 different Aldis for these Kirkwood chicken fillets. They have been out of stock at both stores since December 31. Stating supplier fault.
We were told yesterday they are discontinued, what a shame since they’re so good
They aren’t discontinued. I’ve been buying them weekly for the past 2 months
I was also told they were discontinued at my store. Can you tell us what stores are still selling them?
I live in Ohio. We still get them
They’re not discontinued. Aldi employees say that EVERY TIME they get a popular item that they can’t keep on the shelves. (like the L’Oven Fresh Zero Net Carb Bread)
They get tired of people asking every 5 minutes every day and also calling every day to ask “Do you have them today?” & then getting bitched at when the customer shows up and they’re sold out and so they just tell the customers ‘It’s discontinued,’ so they stop asking all the time. Then if they happen to have it, you feel lucky.
where–they were recommended to me and i can’t find them anywhere. like others i was told they are discontinued
I use their pickup and delivery website to check: https://tinyl.io/3Wze
Looking weekly at 2 stores no luck!!
I just bought some last week in Marietta, GA
We were told yesterday they are discontinued, what a shame since they’re so good
Anything close to the taste of these….anybody?
it was suggested to me that these are as good if not better than Chick’ Fil’ A or whatever…. is it possible these are what they use and not available to the public?
i want to use my air fryer for the red bag chicken , what temp and how long
I cooked them at 400 degrees for about 25-30 minutes, flipping them after 15 minutes. They seemed to come out OK that way. You may have to experiment to find out what works best.
In my air fryer using French fry setting I cooked for 7 mins flipped for additional 5 Came out perfect
I hate these new chicken breasts in the red bag. They have 4 gms of sugar and thick breading. When they were in the blue bag they were 180 calories per piece. Now they are 280. They are now 99 cents per piece. Before they were 40.5 cents per piece. They are 2.5 times more expensive.
Give me the old ones in the blue bag.
This one? – https://www.aldireviewer.com/kirkwood-fully-cooked-breaded-chicken-breast-patties/
If so, then they are patties(formed like a chicken nugget) not whole chunk of breast like these fillets.
Why are you saying by piece? If they are different weights then of course they will be different.
I have no oven or air fryer. Can I prepare them in a skillet on the stovetop? I didn’t pay attention to the cooking instructions when I bought 2 bags for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Thank you very much for your fast reply and
Happy Thnksgiving to you
I’m not sure how they’d turn out prepared on the stove. If you try it, let us know how it goes.
I fried them in my frying pan on the stove. I used about 1/2 cup olive oil. They were amazing and crispy!!!
It wasn’t the Best I would say 3 and a half stars.
Since they are fully cooked, why can’t you heat them in a microwave?
I had a friend buy me a bag and I am disappointed they are not microwaveable.
Has to do with how the microwave functions. moisture transformation etc… The breast explodes because of the moisture inside of it. (I tried this just for giggles)
With the oven the heating process is different and the breading will not fall off as when moisture is developed it gets “fried” at the exterior the result is crispy outer layer. The microwave fails at this.
that about sums it up without getting too long and boring.
I tried it a couple of times in a 1100 watt microwave and I think I cooked them on high for a minute and a half each on each side. Just a little soggy. We had them in the air fryer last night and my wife cooked them at 400 degrees for 7 minutes on each side and they were very good.
Of course all these appliances are different so you may have to do the old trial and error method.
I stopped in Aldi several days ago and these were readily available. There were six in the bag. I baked them per instructions. Some grease bled out of them and it smelled like dirty shortening. If I were to take a blind taste test I would immediately know that these were not Chick Fila as some have said they taste the same. I bought the brioche buns to go with them. I am not in the habit of buying frozen chicken filets/patties, but these were decent.
I actually found these to be pretty disappointing. Sure I got six breasts in there but I found the flavor to be off putting. I figured it would have a fried chicken kind of taste, though they smelled like Kirkwood chicken patties, instead they had a sweet taste I really didn’t expect or like. Definitely a disappointment for nearly $7. And people ask me why I eat the same things over and over again. I know what I like and many of the new things I try disappoint me while also draining my wallet. Talk about throwing good money at bad.
The red bag chicken was $7.99 today. No thanks.
This is the 2nd bag I ve purchased that have been extremely hard and couldn’t t be cut, they came apart in chunks. I never before had this problem. What is going on? I am very disappointed especially at $7.99 a bag. I won t be buying them again. I have 2bags yet to use.
These chicken filets used to be really good. For at least the past 6 months or so they have been so spicy hot that I cannot eat them. What happened? Why did they change?