Fried for all.
Beloved big-box retailer Costco has expanded its food court offerings and is now delivering this hot, fried fan favorite to its food courts nationwide.
Previously, Costco’s breaded chicken fingers were only available at select locations as the retailer tested the tenders.
Now, the gods of gluttony have abided, and the strips are available at all Costco locations.
Food bloggers have been spreading the good word and their reactions to the new addition.
Food blogger and Costco devotee Lucas Gomes, AKA @therealkirklandking, shared his first taste of the tenders and fired a warning shot that Chick-fil-A may want to watch its cluck out for its new competitor.
“Costco just dropped new chicken strips!!! Someone check on @chickfila; if there was a @costco drive-through, it would be over,” he wrote in the caption of the Instagram Reel.
Low-dollar but high-cal, the new offering includes five breaded chicken breast strips and a dipping sauce for $6.99, a combination that clocks in at 1,640 calories.
Gomes described the strips as “gorgeous” and noted visual similarities between the Costco dipping sauce and Chick-fil-A’s signature slather, but said the taste profile is markedly different.
“This sauce does not taste like Chick-fil-A sauce. I don’t know what this mystery sauce is, but it’s good,” he declared. He added that the sauce was honey mustard with “pazaz” and/or paprika, describing it as tasting like “honey mustard that listens to Latin pop” or “wears sunglasses indoors.”
Glorified sauce notwithstanding, the strips proved divisive in the comments section
“We tried them today too, but the breading was disappointing, and I felt like the chicken was dry. It had nothing on CFA strips,” said one user, fearlessly standing for Chick-fil-A
“At our location, they were dry, stringy, and too much breading! Chick-fil-A way better!” echoed another.
“I am pretty sure it is 3D-printed bioengineered chicken; it is super rubbery and tastes off,” speculated a horrified consumer.
Others praised the planks: “They are amazing! I would prefer them not be as thick, but it’s really not that important,” said one.
“I’m not a connoisseur or anything, but I thought they were good,” said another.
Redditors also had thoughts.
“I tried them today. Nothing special…I’ll go back to old reliable hot dog,” said one, referencing Costco’s iconic, unchanging, inflation-proof hot dog combo meal.
“I would buy them if I was starving (they are nicely priced for the portion), but they are a tad gross,” said another.
“They’re absolutely gross. No idea how Costco greenlit these,” said a third.
Commenters consistently criticized the saltiness of the chicken and sauce, the gargantuan portion size, and the price, noting that at Costco, an entire rotisserie chicken, falsely advertised or not, costs less than an order of chicken fingers.
Somewhat more universally appreciated, at least by Gen X shoppers, are Costco’s recently released Esprit sweatshirts featuring the same crayon-colored logos made famous in the 1980s.
Costco is also currently riding the cronut craze, releasing its version of the hybrid pastry earlier this month.
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