Breaded chicken at Aldi has a cult following. For a limited-inventory grocery store, Aldi sells a range of chicken from nuggets to tenders to patties. The most popular product is the grocer’s “red bag” chicken or Kirkwood Breaded Chicken Breast Fillets, which Aldi fans compare to Chik-fil-A sandwiches. It’s so popular it even showed up in an Aldi fan coloring book that was sold last spring.
Other chicken options Aldi shoppers commonly recommend include:
- parmesan herb encrusted tenders
- honey battered tenders
- chicken fries
- honey BBQ wings
- chicken strips
- popcorn chicken
- regular nuggets
- dino nuggets
- chicken patties
- chicken cordon bleu
One chicken option I’ve been hesitant to try is the buffalo style chicken strips at Aldi. That’s because my family generally isn’t a huge fan of spicy foods. However, some of us have been slowly coming around to enjoy buffalo-flavored foods. In recent months, we’ve tried some buffalo cauliflower bites and buffalo style chicken pizza from Aldi.
So it made sense that it was the right time to finally try the Aldi buffalo chicken strips.
Kirkwood Buffalo Style Chicken Strips cost $8.49 for a 25-ounce package at the time of publication. The bag describes these as “breast fritters with rib meat and buffalo style sauce.” They’re made with white meat chicken and are fully cooked.
These are a Regular Buy, so you should be able to get them at Aldi all year.
If you’re looking out for allergens, these contain wheat.
These are not healthy for you and in particular are loaded with sodium, but nothing about buffalo chicken really says “healthy” anyway, so this is not a surprise. They also contain a few processed ingredients such as various gums, dextrose, maltodextrin, natural flavor (which is not all that natural), and vague “spices.”
There are about eight servings per package, and one 3-ounce serving (84 grams) contains 190 calories, 9 grams of total fat (12% DV), 1.5 grams of saturated fat (8% DV), 1,040 mg of sodium (45% DV), 17 grams of total carbohydrates (6% DV), and no added sugars.
The bag has directions for heating this chicken in a conventional oven, a microwave, or a deep fryer.
To bake in a conventional oven, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place frozen chicken strips on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes.
To microwave, place frozen chicken strips on a microwave-safe plate. Heat on high for the following times, depending on how many chicken pieces you’re making:
- 1 strip for 1.5 -2 minutes
- 2 strips for 2-2.5 minutes
- 3 strips for 3 minutes
Let stand for 1-2 minutes after microwaving and before serving.
To deep fry these chicken strips, heat oil to 350 degrees and fry frozen chicken strips for 3-5 minutes.
Buffalo chicken heated in the oven and ready to serve, with one piece cut open to show the inside.
I opted to bake these in my oven because my air fryer was already in use for something else. These are simple to heat and were done after about 14-15 minutes in the oven. I served them alongside some traditional crispy chicken strips from Aldi just in case not everyone liked these spicy strips.
These taste about how I expected them to. They have a mild kick that makes them good paired with ranch dressing for dipping to help cut the heat, which is how most of my family ate these. They’re not overly spicy, though.
This chicken isn’t as crispy as some other breaded chicken packs from Aldi, but that’s because these come with a sauce or seasoning baked into the breading. These don’t have sauce that drips or runs. Instead, they’re just breaded strips of chicken that have a softer texture from soaking up sauce that was added during the manufacturing process. I prefer my breaded chicken to be a little more crisp, but these were all right.
Since these are so salty and sodium-laden, I probably won’t buy these often, but they were fun to try.
The Verdict:
Kirkwood Buffalo Style Chicken Strips feature breaded white meat and rib meat chicken with a buffalo style sauce baked into the breading. Because they come pre-loaded with sauce, they’re not the crispiest. Their heat level is mild, which makes them good served with ranch dressing for dipping. If you like buffalo seasoning, these are worth trying, but be aware these have a lot of sodium.
I really like the Kirkwood Buffalo Chicken Strips. I will be purchasing more. Thank you Kirkwood!