Cook Out Chicken Nuggets — Calories, Protein & How to Order (2026)

Does Cook Out Have Chicken Nuggets?

Yes. Chicken nuggets are on the Cook Out menu as a full order and as a tray side, and Cook Out publishes separate nutrition for each portion. The full order weighs 81.7 g and has 240 calories; the tray side weighs 49 g and has 144 calories.

Cook Out’s nutrition sheet lists the full order alongside its chicken strips and the tray-side portion with the other sides, which tells you how the restaurant thinks about them: a full order works as a small chicken entree or snack, while the tray side is one of the two sides you pick with a Cookout Tray. Cook Out’s own menu listing on SinglePlatform describes the full order as five nuggets served with your choice of sauce, though counts and sauce options can differ by store.

The nuggets are available at the roughly 370 Cook Out restaurants in 11 states listed on Cook Out’s store locator in October 2026, from North Carolina and Virginia to Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida. Most stores open at about 10:30 AM and stay open until about 3 AM Sunday through Thursday and 4 AM on Friday and Saturday, so nuggets are one of the easiest late-night chicken orders in the Southeast. Hours vary by store; see the Cook Out hours guide.

• Full order: 240 calories, 16 g protein, 12 g carbs, 540 mg sodium.
• Tray side: 144 calories, 10 g protein, 7 g carbs, 324 mg sodium.
• Sauce: not included in either figure.
• Sugar: 0 g in both portions.

How Many Calories Are in Cook Out Chicken Nuggets?

A full order of Cook Out chicken nuggets has 240 calories and a tray-side portion has 144 calories, according to Cook Out’s published nutrition sheet. Both figures are for the nuggets alone, without dipping sauce.

The tray side is 60% of a full order by weight (49 g versus 81.7 g), and every nutrient scales by the same ratio: 144 is 60% of 240, 10 g of protein is about 60% of 16 g, and 324 mg of sodium is exactly 60% of 540 mg. In practice, two tray sides (98 g, 288 calories, 20 g protein) give you a little more than one full order.

How much of your day is that?

Measured against the FDA Daily Values used on U.S. nutrition labels (78 g fat, 20 g saturated fat, 300 mg cholesterol, 2,300 mg sodium, 275 g carbohydrate, 50 g protein), the nuggets look like this:

The standout numbers are protein and cholesterol. A full order covers about a third of the Daily Value for protein but also about a third for cholesterol, because breaded chicken nuggets are made from meat and fried. Carbohydrates are low, at just 12 g for the full order, since the breading is a thin coating rather than a thick batter.

If you add a sauce cup, add its calories on top. Sauces are where nugget calories quietly grow, so check the Cook Out nutrition guide or add everything in the calorie calculator before you order.

Are Cook Out Nuggets a Good Source of Protein?

For a fried side, yes: the nuggets deliver about 6.7 to 6.9 g of protein per 100 calories, the best ratio of any Cook Out tray side and slightly better than the char-grilled chicken sandwich. They are still fried food, so fat supplies most of their calories.

Here is the math from the official numbers. The full order packs 240 calories into 81.7 g, or 2.94 calories per gram; the tray side has the same density (144 calories in 49 g). Protein runs 16 g per 240 calories, or 6.7 g per 100 calories, and 10 g per 144 calories, or 6.9 g per 100 calories, for the tray side. By label arithmetic (9 calories per gram of fat, 4 per gram of carbohydrate or protein), the 18 g of fat in a full order accounts for about 162 calories, roughly two-thirds of the total, while protein supplies about 64 calories and carbohydrate about 48.

How does that compare with Cook Out’s other chicken? The table below ranks the main chicken items by protein density using the same nutrition sheet.

Three takeaways:

• Nuggets beat the chicken strips on protein per calorie. Three strips have 36 g of protein in 660 calories (5.5 g per 100), so the nuggets are the leaner way to get breaded chicken at Cook Out.
• Nuggets are lighter on sodium per calorie than the strips. Both nugget portions run 225 mg of sodium per 100 calories, against 323 mg for the strips and 260 mg for the spicy chicken sandwich.
• The char-grilled sandwich is still the bigger protein hit. It has 25 g of protein in one item, so for a high-protein tray pair it with a nugget side rather than replacing it.

A full order of nuggets plus a tray side of nuggets would be 384 calories and 26 g of protein; two full orders would be 480 calories, 32 g of protein and 1,080 mg of sodium. Those totals are simple multiples of the official figures.

How Do You Order Nuggets at Cook Out?

Order a Cookout Tray and name chicken nuggets as one of your two sides, or ask for a full order of nuggets on its own. The tray side is the value play; the full order is the bigger portion.

Tray side or full order?

Older online menu listings showed a full order of nuggets for around a dollar, but those prices are years old and Cook Out stores set prices locally. Trust your store’s menu board, and expect tax on top. The Cook Out tray menu explains every tray entree, and the sides menu lists the other side choices.

Tips for better nuggets

• Eat them early. Breaded chicken softens as it steams in a closed bag; nuggets travel better than onion rings but worse than fries.
• Order near peak times for the freshest batch. Busy hours mean faster fryer turnover.
• Count your sauce. The official calories exclude sauce, so a creamy dip can add more than you expect.
• Check delivery distance. Fried sides suffer on long rides; see the Cook Out delivery guide.

What Are the Best Cook Out Trays With Nuggets?

The leanest nugget tray in this set is a char-grilled chicken sandwich with two nugget sides and unsweet tea at 665 calories and 45 g of protein; the heaviest is a BBQ sandwich with nuggets, hushpuppies and sweet tea at 1,048 calories. Every total below adds Cook Out’s official figures for each item.

Burger and chicken figures are for the item as listed on Cook Out’s nutrition sheet; the Big Double total adds the Cook Out Style toppings (chili, slaw, mustard and onions) at 123 calories. Drinks are regular 16 oz fountain sizes. Sauces are not included.

What the math shows:

• The drink is the easiest swap. A regular sweet tea adds 236 calories and a regular Cheerwine 144, while unsweet tea, Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar add none. See the drinks menu.
• Watch sodium more than calories. The hot dog tray comes in under 700 calories but reaches 2,369 mg of sodium, above the 2,300 mg Daily Value, mainly because the Cook Out Style hot dog (1,118 mg) and side of chili (917 mg) are salty.
• Nuggets are a cheap way to add protein to any tray. Swapping hushpuppies for nuggets saves 156 calories and adds 8 g of protein.

To try your own combination, use the Cook Out calorie calculator, which builds a tray the same way: one entree, two sides and a drink.

How Do Nuggets Compare With Other Cook Out Sides?

On a tray, nuggets are one of the lighter sides at 144 calories, and they have more protein per calorie than any other side Cook Out lists. Onion rings (128 calories), Cook Out Rounds (149) and cheese bites (150) sit in the same calorie range.

All values are the tray-side or single-item portions from Cook Out’s nutrition sheet. The side of slaw is shown as published; its 405 calories are high for a coleslaw portion, so treat that row with caution. Regular fries are shown for reference at the regular-size portion Cook Out lists.

• Nuggets vs onion rings: 144 vs 128 calories, but 10 g of protein vs 3 g. Rings are lighter per gram (1.86 vs 2.94 calories) because they carry more onion and moisture. See the onion rings guide.
• Nuggets vs cheese bites: nearly identical calories (144 vs 150), but nuggets have 10 g of protein to the cheese bites’ 8 g and less than half the saturated fat (2 g vs 5 g).
• Nuggets vs hushpuppies: hushpuppies have 300 calories and 2 g of protein per tray side; nuggets have less than half the calories and five times the protein.
• Nuggets vs chili: the side of chili has 164 calories but 917 mg of sodium, nearly three times the nuggets’ 324 mg.

How Do Cook Out Nuggets Compare to McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A?

A full order of Cook Out nuggets (240 calories) is in the same calorie range as a 6-piece Chicken McNuggets (250 calories) and an 8-count Chick-fil-A Nuggets (250 calories), but Chick-fil-A’s larger 113 g portion delivers far more protein. Cook Out’s order is the lowest in sodium of the two for which sodium is published.

Per gram, Chick-fil-A’s nuggets are less calorie-dense (about 2.21 calories per gram against Cook Out’s 2.94) and much higher in protein: 27 g in 250 calories works out to 10.8 g per 100 calories, compared with 6.7 g for Cook Out’s full order. Chick-fil-A’s nuggets also carry less fat (11 g vs 18 g). Cook Out wins clearly on sodium, with 540 mg against Chick-fil-A’s 1,210 mg, less than half.

McDonald’s product page for the 6-piece Chicken McNuggets lists 250 calories; we only compare calories here because the other values were not shown on the official page we checked. Chick-fil-A states its nuggets are pressure cooked in refined peanut oil; Cook Out does not publish a comparable cooking-oil statement on its nutrition sheet.

The bigger difference is the value structure. At most chains, nuggets are their own combo. At Cook Out they can ride along as one of two sides in a tray that already includes an entree and a drink for about $7.39 to $7.99, so a nugget side effectively costs nothing extra on a tray.

Are Cook Out Nuggets Gluten-Free, Low-Carb or Keto-Friendly?

They are low in carbohydrates (12 g per full order, 7 g per tray side) but they are breaded, so do not assume they are gluten-free. Cook Out does not publish an ingredient list or gluten-free claim for the nuggets on its nutrition sheet.

• Low-carb and keto: 12 g of carbohydrate and 0 g of sugar per full order make nuggets one of the lower-carb items at Cook Out, but the carbs come from breading. A low-carb eater might fit a tray side (7 g) into a meal; strict keto plans may not allow breaded food at all.
• Gluten and wheat: breaded fried chicken products typically use wheat-based coatings, and fried sides usually share fryer oil. Anyone with celiac disease or a wheat allergy should ask the manager and read our Cook Out allergen guide.
• Other allergens: breadings often contain egg or milk ingredients. Cook Out’s nutrition sheet does not list allergens for the nuggets, so confirm at your store.
• Vegetarian and vegan: not suitable; they are chicken. See the vegan menu guide for plant-based picks.
• Sodium-conscious: 324 mg per tray side is moderate for a fried side, but tray totals add up fast, as the combo table shows.
• Kids: a full order (240 calories, 16 g protein) is a natural kid-size meal; pair it with unsweet tea or water to skip sugary drink calories.

Cholesterol is the number people overlook: 95 mg per full order is 32% of the Daily Value. If you are watching cholesterol, the tray side (57 mg) is the smarter portion.

Where Can You Find More Cook Out Menu and Nutrition Guides?

Start with the calorie calculator to build a full tray, then use the nutrition and sides guides for everything else on the menu. These pages cover the items most often ordered with nuggets.

To find a store open late near you, use the Cook Out locations finder.

Next, compare another favorite tray side: our guide to Cook Out hush puppies covers calories, portions and the best tray pairings.

Cook Out Chicken Nuggets FAQs

Answers to the questions people ask most.