Tyson’s ‘Thanksgiving Nuggets’ Don’t Contain Any Turkey

But they might be the next best thing to eating an actual turkey.

October 18, 2025

Photo by: Photo courtesy of Tyson

Photo courtesy of Tyson

There are all kinds of Thanksgiving dinner disasters, from gluey mashed potatoes to dry dressing. But messing up the turkey might be the most devastating. Don’t be too hard on yourself, though. Sometimes these mishaps aren’t totally your fault. Consider the fact that most of us only practice roasting a 20-pound turkey once a year. Or maybe, despite your best efforts, you’ve got finicky kids (or grown-ups) who won’t eat anything but pasta and chicken nuggets. Well, whatever the reason is for you needing a quick swap for Turkey Day’s traditional main course, Tyson has you covered with its new Thanksgiving-themed nuggets.

Don’t let the affiliation with a traditionally turkey-filled holiday fool you, these nuggz are still made with 100-percent white meat chicken. But for the first time ever, Tyson has shaped its classic frozen chicken like little turkeys, complete with beaks, feet and tailfeathers. Tyson points out that not only are its Thanksgiving Chicken Nuggets potentially less messy and stressful to make, they’re also “over 20x faster than waiting for a traditional turkey to defrost and cook in the oven.” Suddenly we’re rethinking roasting a whole bird.

As for dipping sauce, you could always go for gravy instead of ketchup, or Tyson has also posted recipes for Thanksgiving-appropriate replacement dips like Cranberry Sweet & Sour and Browned Butter Sage Ranch.

Photo by: Photo courtesy of Tyson

Photo courtesy of Tyson

The Thanksgiving Chicken Nuggets join other festive fall nuggets from Tyson, including NFL shapes celebrating the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, as well as Spooky Nuggets with Halloween-related shapes like pumpkins, bats and ghosts. The Thanksgiving Chicken Nuggets in 3.5-pound (56-ounce) bags are exclusively available at Sam’s Club right now and will only last a limited time.

Of course, if your kids are finicky to the point that they only want dinosaur-shaped nuggets, you can answer back with the fact that birds are the descendants of dinosaurs. Who says learning can’t be fun and tasty?

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