Tyson Spices Up Chicken Nuggets With Pizza And Chile-Lime Flavors

Tyson Foods is clucking about two new varieties of chicken nuggets. The pizza-flavored nuggets sound extremely kid-friendly, while the other new type of nugget, which is flavored with Tajín seasoning, might need a little more explanation.

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Tajín Clásico Seasoning blends mild Mexican chile peppers, dehydrated lime juice, and a touch of sea salt, and is a household name for many Hispanic consumers, Tyson says in a press release. The company now offers both nuggets and boneless chicken bites seasoned with the chile-lime flavoring.

The other new flavor is likely more familiar. Pizza nuggets blend a variety of flavors from that favorite meal. They're made with real mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses in the breading, and coated with a zesty pepperoni seasoning.

"I'll be honest. When I first heard the idea of a pizza nugget, I was skeptical that we could make it work," Shanna Motl, the lead research and development scientist behind the project, said in a blog post. "But when we actually made the first couple batches, I couldn't believe how good it was."

Early versions had the taste but not the texture of pizza, so the recipe was altered to include bits of mozzarella cheese in the meat, pepperoni dust in the nugget breading, and more basil and garlic flavor, the blog post says.

The pizza nuggets are currently sold at Meijer and H-E-B, and will be coming to additional stores soon. The Tajin-seasoned nuggets are already available nationwide. If creative chicken flavors make you want to wing it in your own kitchen, check out 21 great dishes you can make with supermarket rotisserie chicken.