Costco's New Chicken Strips Are Showing Up In Washington State

It was a few months ago that we did a story about the fact that Costco was deleting the calzone from their food court menu and adding chicken strips. That change has been moving its way across the United States and has finally arrived in Washington state.

Two weeks ago, my daughter Beth told me that chicken strips were now available at her favorite Costco in Seattle. Last week my buddy Lon in the tri-cities told me that there were chicken strips available at the Kennewick Costco. Last weekend when I was doing my Costco run, lo and behold, chicken strips were available in East Wenatchee's Costco as well.

They have arrived.

It was Sunday morning, right after breakfast, so I could not bring myself to order Chicken strips after just having breakfast, so my taste test of Costco chicken strips had to wait until yesterday. (Tuesday 7/14) So I decided yesterday morning that this was going to be the day and during my lunch break, I made my way to the East Wenatchee Costco to sample the Holy Grail of fried chicken parts.

I got to Costco at about 11:10 in the morning, was really lucky to find a nice parking place and went into the food court to place my order. These days you use a computer kiosk to make your purchase. I placed my order of five chicken strips. (That's the smallest order possible) for $6.99 and waited. (My number was 804).

They lost my order.

By the time they got up to #814, I realized they had probably lost my order, and I went up to the counter and said, “excuse me, I'm 804”. The gentleman at the counter said, "Well, we must have misplaced your order, we can fill it right now” and took care of me. 5 chicken strips with dipping sauce and a cup for a beverage. (The soda was $0.79.)

The first thing you realize when you see these chicken strips is that they are big. 5 big chicken strips in a basket. I opened the container of dipping sauce, dipped it, and took a bite.

First off, the chicken strips were hot and moist (not over cooked). The breading on the chicken strips was obviously seasoned, and the flavor was quite good.

What about the dipping sauce?

How do I describe the dipping sauce? Well, that's easy, it's the closest thing that Costco can come to the traditional Chick-fil-A dipping sauce without it actually being that sauce. It's a really good sauce and they give you plenty of it, although for me personally it would not be enough to allow me to dip and eat all 5 chicken strips.

Before you hesitate at the price, keep this in mind 5 chicken strips are more than enough to feed two people unless you have an enormous appetite. I found myself full at 2 1/2 chicken strips so that $6.99 purchase would feed two people easily.

What about leftovers?

So, I finished my meal and found myself with 2 1/2 chicken strips leftover, and I thought, OK, I'll just take him back to work and put him in the fridge, which is what I did.

As I am writing this it's almost time for me to have breakfast before I go on the Air, So I'm about to find out just how well these chicken strips will reheat because that's what's for breakfast today.

And the answer to that question is...

They reheat OK, but I Had to use a microwave. I think a better way to reheat them would be in an air fryer or in an oven at about 200°. The flavor of the breading held up, but the breading had a tendency to separate from the chicken. Still, it's all the protein I could possibly want for breakfast.