If it’s Thursday, there’s a very good chance Taco Bell has new menu items out. Today is one of those Thursdays, with Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets, Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries and the Triple Double Crunchwrap either making their debuts or return.
What a trio of releases. Some waves of Taco Bell menu items are focused on a single theme, like the Chicken Bacon Ranch offerings in February. If you love chicken and you love it in a bacon ranch style, then that menu was for you. This week’s new menu items fall across the spectrum of Taco Bell offerings.
The Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets are there if you like Taco Bell’s nuggs and a bit of heat. Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries are perfect for fans of the restaurant’s fries. And then if you’re a Crunchwrap aficionado, well, there’s way more of what you love.
Welcome to Snackology!
This publication is a free newsletter, but it’s fueled by readers like you. Support independent news, reviews and more for just $5 a month.
Includes full access to Popculturology and The Cold Open.
What they cost
You can get Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets as a 5-piece for $4.49 and as a 10-piece for $7.49. Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries will run you $5.49. And the Triple Double Crunchwrap is $6.49.
ALSO FROM THE OMNICOSM
Love what you’re reading? You might also enjoy Popculturology, a deep-dive into the world of movies, television and more.
I’m repeatedly on record as being a big fan of Taco Bell’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets. Thanks to their tortilla chip breading, these nuggs offer a different experience than the traditional nuggets you get at McDonald’s or Wendy’s. (I love both of those restaurants’ nuggets for their own reasons.)
“Diablo Sauce has a cult following, it’s that lingering heat with a hint of lime. Turning that iconic flavor into a dust reimagines how that heat hits,” Liz Matthews, Taco Bell’s global chief food innovation officer, said in the company’s announcement this week. “By coating our nuggets with Diablo Dust, we’re unlocking a new level of intensity and opening the doors for even more creative, dusted flavor experiences with our Crispy Chicken. This is just the beginning!”
Taco Bell originally revealed that Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets were on their way during Live Más LIVE last month. And, yes, they are “just the beginning,” as the company also has Doritos Cool Ranch Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets and Flamin’ Hot Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets on the way this year.
The chain calls its Diablo Dusted nuggets “the first-ever transformation of its cult-favorite Diablo Sauce into dust, unlocking a new dimension of flavor that goes beyond a sauce packet.”
Wow, look at that Diablo Sauce dust. Most of the nuggets in my 10-piece box were very well coated. As Taco Bell’s global chief food innovation officer noted, the Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets do deliver a lingering heat. I definitely got a bit of the under-eye sweats by the time I had worked my way through most of the box.
The other new release on Thursday was Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries. Going into this, I wasn’t familiar with Zab’s “St. Augustine Style” Sauce. Taco Bell notes that the hot sauce is made with “rare Datil Peppers, a culinary treasure in St. Augustine, Florida.”
“Datil peppers have a one-of-a-kind flavor profile — sweet and tangy with a slow-burning heat,” Miles Soboroff, Zab’s co-founder and CEO, said in the announcement for these Nacho Fries. “By blending our ‘St. Augustine Style’ hot sauce with Taco Bell’s Spicy Ranch, we created a sweet-heat flavor that feels right at home on their beloved Nacho Fries, while advancing our mission to celebrate and preserve the endangered Datil pepper and establish it as a staple American ingredient.”
I really respect how Taco Bell has elevated its Nacho Fries into a devilry system for every wave of new topping or sauce. Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries were a huge hit for me. The heat was nice, and I enjoyed the “slow-roasted chicken” as a complement to the Crunchy Chicken Nuggets.
Whenever there’s one of these Taco Bell menu drops, I’ve learned to scroll through the entire list of new items when putting my order into the app to make sure I’m not missing anything that quietly snuck in. Thanks to this move, I already had the Triple Double Crunchwrap in my order before it was even officially announced.
The Triple Double Crunchwrap made its debut back in 2016. It was popular enough to occasionally return to the menu since then — Taco Bell calls the Triple Double Crunchwrap “the fan-favorite fans never stopped asking for” — but it’s been a long time since it was last available.
Your basic CrunchWrap supreme has three very important layers: Ground beef, nacho cheese and the tostada shell. The Triple Double Crunchwrap doubles those three layers. (Get it? Triple the ingredients are doubled? I think that’s how the math works.)
The Triple Double Crunchwrap is hefty. Like, I felt the weight of it in the wrapper as I pulled it out of my bag of Taco Bell goodies. The Crunchwrap Supreme is already the complete packing, bringing together the best of Taco Bell into one handheld item.
Is the Triple Double Crunchwrap too much? In terms of taste, absolutely not. Everything you love about the iconic Crunchwrap is amped up in this item.
But in terms of structural integrity, the Triple Double Crunchwrap is pushing the boundaries of sound fast food architecture. I mean, look at that first picture. The folks at my Taco Bell couldn’t even close it. It also suffers from the same issue that affected the Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme back in the days before Snackology launched — the tostada loses the battle against the beef.
Diablo Dusted Crispy Chicken Nuggets, Zab’s Chicken Ranch Nacho Fries and the Triple Double Crunchwrap were provided to Snackology for this independent review.
Snackology is a publication of The Omnicosm.
Issue No. 206
Snackology is written and produced by Bill Kuchman. Copyediting by Tim Kuchman.
The Omnicosm founder. Snackology, Popculturology and The Cold Open writer. A Rochester, N.Y., native now living in the Washington, D.C., area. Won’t pass up a Genny Cream Ale.
Available in Strawberry Blast, Molten Lava Cake and Cinnamon Caramel, these upscaled Pop-Tarts boast 50 percent more filling than a traditional toaster pastry.
Bluesky
Instagram
