Are Aldi's Chicken Nuggets Made With Milk? Here's What We Know

For all the love that Aldi receives, the store has also faced some criticism over its chicken. We previously advised you to exercise caution when shopping for Aldi chicken breasts due to complaints about the poor flavor and texture of those that are on the large side (a phenomenon that's known as "woody" chicken breasts). Thanks to Reddit, we've stumbled upon another chicken-based issue at Aldi that affects the chain's popular Kirkwood Chicken Nuggets. A post was accompanied by an image of the Kirkwood bag showing nonfat dry milk among the other ingredients. As explained by the poster, "The nuggets were previously safe for anyone with a dairy allergy ... they must have changed the recipe."

Here's where things get interesting. Upon searching a local Aldi to confirm the ingredient list, Mashed discovered that not all chicken nuggets offered under the Kirkwood brand contain milk. In fact, searches of the same product in different locations returned various results, with some locations offering nuggets made with milk, and others offering nuggets that aren't. This indicates the inclusion of milk in the nugget recipe could vary according to region. Additionally, the chain's brand of crispy chicken nuggets also contains milk. For comparison, brands like Tyson and Great Value (Walmart's in-house label) don't use dairy in their chicken nugget recipes. It should be noted that Aldi hasn't officially commented on the inconsistency, and it's not entirely clear which regions offer which products.

While we don't know why Aldi's chicken nugget recipe varies from region to region, the inclusion of milk in some versions of the product might have something to do with a famous fast food chain's nuggets. When a Reddit thread favorably compared Aldi's crispy nuggets to Chick-fil-A's, a commenter offered some insight into the fast food establishment's recipe. According to the commenter, Chick-fil-A nuggets are liberally seasoned and "are then milk/egg washed and breaded then pressure fried in peanut oil. That all adds up to a yummy bite!"

As verified by the Chick-fil-A website, the restaurant's regular chicken nuggets do contain milk (and eggs), while the grilled nuggets do not (although Chick-fil-A's grilled nuggets were once involved in an allergen scandal after dairy somehow made its way into the recipe). Our copycat Chick-fil-A nuggets recipe also includes milk as well as nonfat milk powder like Aldi's version. Although adding milk to chicken nuggets seems to have a favorable effect on taste, it does put Aldi customers with milk allergies and intolerances in a precarious position. Accordingly, you may want to check out the ingredients the next time you snag a bag from Aldi.