Taco Bell brings crispy chicken nuggets back

Taco Bell is returning crispy chicken nuggets to its menu next week as the company looks to make them and crispy chicken a fixture in the future.

The Yum! Brands-owned chain’s locations will once again offer its crispy chicken nuggets, marinated in "zesty jalapeno buttermilk flavor" and covered in a "blend of bread crumbs and crispy tortilla chips," beginning April 24, according to a Thursday press release. 

That move, the brand said, will mark the "start of Taco Bell’s journey to become a go-to destination for crispy chicken with a permanent mainstay by 2026." 

"We’re a taco place doing chicken our own way and like all our best moments, it’s a little unexpected – because we’ve never been about following the rules," Taco Bell chief marketing officer Taylor Montgomery said in a statement. "The demand for our nuggets was off the charts, which is why we’re looking at making crispy chicken permanent to give our fans what they are telling us they want." 

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Taco Bell’s crispy chicken nuggets hit the menu for the first time on a limited-time basis in December. The nuggets sold out in under a week. The chicken nuggets appeared in nearly one in six Taco Bell orders during the first limited-time run.

Taco Bell said Thursday that the "crispy tortilla-chip breaded coating" its nuggets feature is "set to join menus permanently in 2026." It also said the return of the nuggets was "just the beginning" and a "bold new crispy chicken era is on the horizon." 

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The rapidly approaching reintroduction of the crispy chicken nuggets may not come as a surprise to some Taco Bell fans, as the brand foreshadowed the move during its "Live Mas" event in early March. 

During that event, it also said limited-time crispy chicken burritos and tacos were in the pipeline for U.S. and Canadian restaurants this year. It also previewed other limited-time items, such as a grilled cheese burrito with shredded beef, rolled poblano quesadilla and Mountain Dew Baja Midnight that will debut this year.

Taco Bell has been leaning more and more into chicken, rolling out its Cantina Chicken Menu in March of last year and testing other items featuring chicken.

The company said 95% of the "innovations" that its test kitchens are making have chicken "as the premier protein." 

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There were nearly 8,760 Taco Bell locations globally at the end of last year. Of those, 87% were located in the U.S.