McDonald's Spicy Buffalo Sauce for McNuggets

I'm not ashamed to admit I go to McDonald's. Ok maybe a little, but sometimes its fast, it's cheap, and once and a while it can be really good. Plus with the McDonald's Mobile App, you get special deals. And they constantly have something new to try.

Going through the drive-thru (its 'thru' not through at McD's) these days there is a lot of information to take in:

• McCafe drinks and bakery now takes up a huge chunk of the screen
• There are a lot of allergy and warning notices that have to be posted now
• There are so many more items that they don't even seem to post it all out here 
• The provincial law that makes chains post their calories has forced them to really shrink the info to fit it all in 

So if you don't know what you want before hand, good luck reading this thing. But one thing caught my eye in the top left corner:

Spicy Buffalo Sauce eh? This has been around the US for a long time, and it might have been around Canada before too, but not for a while I think. I wasn't even in the mood for Spicy Buffalo; I really wanted BBQ or Sweet & Sour or even the Hot Mustard. But I have an addiction ...

I checked the McApp and boom - there was an offer for 10 McNuggets for the price of 6! Sweet. Time to try this dip out.

10 McNuggets warrants 2 dips per order. But here I'm counting the nuggets in that photo and I only see 9, but then again, I might have eaten one right away.

I am biased, McNuggets are my favourite of all the chicken nuggets on the fast food market. It's the batter on it that is different from all the others - it's crispy but smooth unlike traditional nugget breading. I'm particular to the boot (as opposed to the bell, bone, and ball).

So the Spicy Buffalo Sauce is orange in colour and when you open the lid, that buttery-cayenne hot sauce smell is very noticeable. I couldn't find any information on this sauce on the Canadian website, but the American one lists its ingredients as:

"Cayenne Pepper Sauce (Cayenne Red Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Salt, Garlic Powder), Water, Soybean Oil, Modified Food Starch, Xanthan Gum, Beet Juice (Color), Salt, Natural Flavor, Garlic Powder, Calcium Disodium EDTA (Protect Flavor)"

Now often the Canadian ingredient list is different, but the above seems very plausible. At least cayenne peppers are at the top of the list (of the hot sauce anyway). Not much other heat there, but I was surprised by the beet juice.

The sauce is just the right amount of runny to thick ratio. Most actual wing sauce is a bit runnier, but in this case you are dipping the naked nugget and you want it to cling on.

You are going to want to double dip - everyone knows you can only really get part of the nugget covered, and a nugget in proper etiquette, you don't want to eat a whole one in one go. So go ahead, double dip.

The flavour is pretty decent. You have that strong, fake-butter and cayenne flavour going on. It tastes like Buffalo sauce - buttery, sour, spicy. Artificial Buffalo sauce, but Buffalo none the less. It has just a hint of heat, but I think even the average non-chili head is going to find this pretty mild. Kudos again though for using actually cayenne hot sauce.

Would I get it again? Yes. On this trip I didn't even feel like getting Spicy Buffalo Sauce, but I was glad I tried it. The next time I'm in the mood I'd get it again. Its sort of artificial tasting, but it's a good dip for McNuggets. I'm glad it's an option and I hope it sticks around. And with the McApp offers, it was a good time to experiment.

McDonald's Canada