One Simple Addition Gives Sonic's Chicken Bites Triple The Flavor

In the world of fast food, a lot can ride on the quality of the chicken. For a chain like Sonic, which relies more on interesting drinks and its drive-in aesthetic, this may not be quite as important as it is for some other chains, but a good nugget can still bring a crowd. For the best experience, though, some fans of the brand suggest that you need to go slightly off-menu and emulate a product from the past.

Presently, the Sonic menu features three sizes of what it refers to as "Premium Chicken Bites," but which appear to the layperson like popcorn chicken. As the chain accurately puts it, these small bites are "great for dipping," and they come with your choice of a variety of different sauces — Sonic is one of the chains with the largest selection of dipping sauces, after all. For maximum flavor, though, instead of dipping, the move might actually be drenching.

A few years back, Sonic sold what it called "Sauced Jumbo Popcorn Chicken," a serving of bite-sized fried chicken pieces tossed in sauces like honey barbecue or buffalo. This item may no longer be on the menu, but there's nothing stopping a customer from recreating it on their own. Simply dump the chicken bites into the paper bag — you might want to request an extra — pour the sauce over the top, and toss until well-coated. Voilà — you get chicken pieces with plenty of sauce in every single bite.

There is, however, more to this trick than just ensuring a nice, even coverage of sauce on your Sonic Premium Chicken Bites. There is also a lot of room here for creativity. Among that wide array of sauces, Sonic offers options like honey mustard, ranch, Buffalo, jalapeño ranch, Asian style sweet chili, and Groovy sauce — a sort of sriracha ranch — as well as staples like ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and relish. Plus, each order comes with up to three different sauces. From there, it's up to you to improvise your favorite combinations.

Sonic had the best barbecue sauce in our ranking of fast food sauces, so that's an obvious place to start. Barbecue mixed with honey mustard is a favorite of some diners, but you could try something more obvious like combining buffalo and ranch. The options are plenty, and especially so if you are open to bringing an ingredient or two with you from home.

Now, this idea might fly in the face of the convenience of fast food, but a simple ingredient or two from your pantry at home could really increase the number of flavors available for these saucy chicken bites. A drizzle of hot sauce or honey could be combined with any of a number of these to amp up the sweet or the heat, or you could forgo the Sonic-brand offerings entirely and go straight for one of our favorite sauces for fried chicken. However you choose to mix and match, though, one thing is clear: The saucier the chicken, the better.