How much is a 20 piece nugget at mcdonalds

McDonald's 20-for-$5 McNuggets meal is one of the best deals in fast food, offering a Costco-style discount in bulk.
Unfortunately, the deal is not available nationwide, so it may take some legwork to find a McDonald's location that still offers it.
It's worth it, though.

Hidden on many McDonald's restaurants' menus is a deal so good, it's not even on the board above the register.

It's the 20-piece McNugget for $5.

No commercial runs to announce its presence. It was last promoted way back in 2014. Perhaps the current price is just a mistake, an oversight from a leftover promotion that was never deactivated from the registers.

The price is not offered at all restaurants, and McDonald's has confirmed to Business Insider that it is not a national deal. However, franchisees have latitude to set their own prices and run their own promotions at their restaurants.

Whatever its cause, it's an unparalleled deal. It's a mountain of nuggets for only a little bit more than a non-meal burger or sandwich, depending on the market. It's also only about a dollar more than a 10-piece nugget meal, making the upgrade kind of a no-brainer.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

The deal is reminiscent of what you might find at Costco: it's a popular item sold in bulk at a discount. And make no mistake — 20 McNuggets for $5 is a bulk price. It's just 25 cents a nugget.

The one thing you don't get with a 20-piece McNugget is variety. This is especially true considering McDonald's has its McPick 2-for-$5 deal, as well as the $1, $2, and $3 Menu, both of which add a whole lot of variety for a similar price.

But there's just something unique and special about opening up the enormous box to see all of the nuggety goodness inside. If you're a nugget fan, the only thing better than McNuggets is more McNuggets. The 20-piece is also easily shared, the hefty amount encouraging you to act like a feudal McNugget land baron, generously spreading your absurd nugget wealth to friends and family alike.

The only issue is finding a McDonald's that still offers the deal. It tends to vary by location, and the pricing seems random and inconsistent, as customers reported in a recent Reddit thread. After visiting two McDonald's restaurants in Manhattan within one week, I found one had the $5 deal while another charged $9 for the same item.

It might take some effort, but it's worth it to seek out the best deal in fast food.

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

A man who claims to be a McDonald's employee has shared his top tip on how to get the freshest nuggets when ordering—a dilemma faced by many customers.

Sharing to his TikTok account @nicaraguanjesu, the anonymous worker showed the heat boxes inside the kitchen of a McDonald's, filled with nuggets.

The bottom box was pulled out to reveal more than 20 nuggets inside, as he wrote on-screen his one tip: "Don't buy a 4, 6 or 10 piece at McDonald's, always get a 20, it'll be fresher."

In just one week, the advice has reached over 400,000 views and 14,000 likes with users agreeing with the idea. "That's true tho," wrote one user who seemingly had an identical experience as a customer.

The video can be seen here.

Although the employee didn't divulge exactly why a 20 box of chicken nuggets at the fast food chain would be fresher, it appears logical that with less orders of the 20 pieces, McDonald's kitchens are also less likely to have a whole 20 nuggets waiting to be placed directly into a box, like they do with smaller orders.

Filling a 20 box would often require a whole new batch to be made instead too, with not enough nuggets left sitting in the heat box to make it up.

Despite the worker's insistence that this is a sure way to get fresh nuggets, not everyone was completely sold.

"Wrong. It's never fresher when ordering the 20 pieces. We order them all the time and you can tell they've been sitting for a while," wrote one TikTok user.

"Nah I got the stalest box of 20 piece nuggets once before," argued another.

The McDonald's worker clarified that although the tip is reliable, customers will "not always" get fresh nuggets using it.

One overall conclusion appeared: If you're looking for fresh food, perhaps a fast food restaurant isn't the place to go. "I'm not buying McDonald's for the 'freshness,'" wrote one user.

Stock image of chicken nuggets and fries in a fryer. Getty Images

McDonald's employees are becoming a rising anonymous genre on TikTok, revealing tips and secrets straight from the stores. Freshness is one common problem that workers appear to open the curtains to regularly.

Last year, a McDonald's worker revealed exactly what he does when customers request fresh nuggets while ordering, and customers weren't happy.

The worker alleged that he simply dunks already cooked nuggets back into the fryer to simply crisp them up and give the fresh feeling. "Good as fresh ones," he wrote on-screen.

Newsweek reached out to @nicaraguanjesu and McDonald's for comment.