Costco just launched a brand-new food court item. We tried the $6.99 chicken strips and compared them to Raising Cane’s.

Costco’s food court has a brand-new menu item this week, and it’s one shoppers have been waiting months to get their hands on.

After a testing period at a handful of locations in the Chicago area that started back in May, Costco has rolled out Kirkland Signature chicken strips to food courts nationwide, and they’re now available at warehouses across the Seattle area. MyNorthwest first spotted the new item at the Bonney Lake Costco on Monday and picked up an order at the Federal Way location on Tuesday to see if the hype holds up.

Each $6.99 order comes with five breaded chicken breast strips and a generous container of dipping sauce. The strips sit on the food court menu board right where the combo calzone used to be, marked with a yellow “NEW” tag. The chicken strips had already been available at Costco food courts in Canada and Australia, fueling anticipation among U.S. shoppers who had been tracking the item online for months.

How big are Costco’s new chicken tenders?

These aren’t the skinny little tenders you’d grab at a drive-thru window. Each Costco chicken strip is closer to a chicken cutlet than a traditional fast-food finger. Early reviewers who weighed individual strips clocked them at about 3.5 ounces each, putting the total order at well over a pound of chicken.

The calorie count reflects that size: 1,130 without the dipping sauce and up to 1,640 with it, according to the Costco food court menu board.

A photo of Costco’s new chicken tenders. (Photo: Charlie Harger, KIRO Newsradio)

How Costco’s calorie count compares to Raising Cane’s

That 1,640-calorie number has stirred up a real debate online. When the chicken strips first appeared at Chicago-area Costcos in May, Reddit threads and TikTok comment sections lit up over the figure. But some context helps.

A Raising Cane’s Box Combo with four fingers, fries, coleslaw, Texas toast, sauce, and a drink tops out around 1,590 calories. Costco’s calorie count looks startling on its own, but it’s not wildly out of step with a full fast-food chicken meal. And the portion is big enough to share or split across two meals, something you wouldn’t typically do with a Cane’s combo.

Costco chicken strips vs. Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A: price and portion

The Puget Sound region has been on a chicken tender kick this year. Raising Cane’s opened its first Seattle location in the U District in February, drawing more than 1,000 fans on opening day. The chain followed up with a new Lynnwood location last month that snarled traffic on 164th Street for days. Costco’s food court won’t cause a traffic jam, but it’s competing for the same appetite.

Costco undercuts both Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A on price and outweighs both on portion size.

At Raising Cane’s, the Box Combo runs about $11.49 for four chicken fingers with fries, coleslaw, Texas toast, sauce, and a drink. Each Cane’s finger weighs roughly 1.4 ounces and carries about 130 calories. Chick-fil-A’s Chick-n-Strips meal costs about $12.99 for four strips with waffle fries and a drink.

Costco’s $6.99 gets you five strips with no fries, no drink, and no sides. But each strip is more than twice the size of what Cane’s serves, and the total weight is about triple what you’d get in a Cane’s Box Combo. If you want a drink, Costco still sells its legendary $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. A standalone 20-ounce fountain soda costs just $0.79 and comes with free refills. That puts a chicken strips and soda run at $7.78 before tax, or a chicken strips, hot dog, and soda combo at $8.49, still well under what you’d spend at Raising Cane’s or Chick-fil-A for less chicken.

What do Costco’s chicken strips taste like?

The strips are baked, not fried, likely coming out of the same ovens Costco uses for its pizza. You won’t get the same crispy crunch you’d find at Raising Cane’s or Chick-fil-A. But the trade-off is a thick, meaty bite with solid flavor and a peppery kick in the breading. The chicken itself is quite moist, which is a pleasant surprise for a baked product served at a food court counter. Dry chicken is the usual risk with baked tenders, and Costco avoids that trap.

Costco pairs the strips with a smoky, tangy dipping sauce built on a mayo base with a touch of sweetness. It lands somewhere near honey mustard territory but with a smokier edge. The container is generously portioned, easily enough to coat all five strips with sauce to spare. You can also grab ketchup, mustard, or diced onions from the food court condiment station if you want to mix things up.

A few early hiccups at Federal Way Costco

Costco’s food court isn’t a restaurant, and the early going showed it. A couple of the chicken strips from MyNorthwest’s order had small but noticeable scorch marks, the kind of minor charring that comes from sitting in a hot oven a touch too long. On one tender, the breading didn’t fully stick to the chicken and slid clean off the meat.

Those feel like early rollout issues that should smooth out as food court crews get more reps with the new item. The underlying product is solid: Good flavor, juicy chicken breast, and enough food to make finishing all five strips a real challenge.

Where to find Costco chicken strips in the Seattle area

The chicken strips appear to be rolling out across Costco warehouses this month. MyNorthwest confirmed availability at both the Bonney Lake and Federal Way locations. Given that this is a nationwide rollout, shoppers at other area warehouses in Tacoma, Tukwila, Kirkland, Shoreline, and beyond should expect to see them on their food court menu boards soon, if they aren’t there already.

Costco isn’t doing much to promote the new item. There are no banners, no floor stands, no special signage at the Federal Way location. The only indication that something new has arrived is the small yellow “NEW” tag on the menu board above the counter. That’s classic Costco: Let the product speak for itself and let word of mouth handle the marketing.

Only a handful of shoppers ordered the strips during the Tuesday lunch rush at Federal Way, a sign that word is still getting out. The Seattle area lined up around the block for Raising Cane’s earlier this year. Costco’s chicken strips won’t require a wait in traffic, but they just might pull some shoppers away from that drive-thru line.

Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here. 

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