Everything That's Actually In A Chicken Nugget

On one dark and stormy night, a mad scientist at Cornell University

hidden from the prying eyes of both polite society and the law

pieced together a veritable Frankenstein's monster from assorted chicken parts and a never-before-seen batter coating

He called his new creation the Chicken Crispy. But unlike the batter, the Crispy name would not stick

When this new creation was finally unveiled to the public, it had an all-new identity

and soon, every man, woman, and child across America would know its name

Today, we're dunking into the sweet and sour history of chicken nuggets

All right, get your McNugget buddies in a row, and don't let them see the dipping sauce

During the Second World War, the U.S. military seized much of America's red meat supply

and citizens at home were made to ration what was left over. While this caused some to buy their beef and pork from black market meat leggers

a name which makes them sound more whimsical than they probably were, many instead turned to the military's unwanted, unrationed meat supply, fresh poultry

Soon, farmers began raising more and more chickens to meet this increased demand

and many began breeding their birds bigger and better than ever before

While in the war's final months, the U.S. military jumped on this growing market

driving chicken sales to their highest levels yet, victory in Japan brought with it beef's heroic return to the home front

Chicken sales quickly plummeted, and there was an immediate issue of too much supply and too little demand

For the decade and a half that followed, chicken farmers struggled to sell their birds

Whole chickens were too big for individuals to eat on their own, but too small for the sudden baby boom and the big families that came with it

Enter Cornell Professor Robert C. Baker. Baker was a poultry fanatic, and he wanted his fellow countrymen to be just as passionate about chicken and turkey as he was

He'd previously worked outside of Ithaca, New York, and he'd seen firsthand how chicken farmers were struggling to get by

Baker knew that if these poultry pushers wanted to survive, they need to make better use of their birds

His solution? Increased processing, allowing more parts of the bird to be used than ever before

The chickens were less excited about this breakthrough. After receiving his doctorate in food sciences from Purdue University in 1956

Baker headed to a basement lab at Cornell, wherein he devised all sorts of new and innovative ways to make use of chicken

Over the course of his career, Baker would be credited with producing nearly 300 research papers and developing over 40 different poultry-related innovations, including the first-ever chicken hot dogs and the ever-popular turkey ham, just like mom used to make

Still, none of his other creations would reach the cultural ubiquity of his finest invention, the chicken nugget

While singular in its delectable scrumptiousness the chicken nugget accounted for not just one of Baker innovations but three It all started in 1963 when Baker was joined by his prot Joseph Marshall while attempting to solve two separate age problems How can you make ground chicken meat

stick together without using the skin? And how do you create a breading for it that's

simultaneously freezable and able to be deep-fried? It's harder than it sounds. What they came up with

was a grain, vinegar, salt, and milk powder concoction to bind the meat and an egg and grain

based mixture for the breading. And thus, in April of that year, without bothering to patent his

newfound invention, Baker published the world's first ever chicken nugget recipe under the name of

Chicken Krispies in Cornell University's Food Science Bulletin, Agricultural Economics Research. That issue of agricultural economics research, in turn, was mailed out to about 500 different

companies around the country, and it wasn't long before all the usual suspects began claiming that

it was them who'd invented the original chicken nugget, leaving Baker, for a time, a mere footnote

in the Extra Crispy History of Processed Chicken. In the 1970s, America began to fear red meat. People were concerned that beef consumption was

leading to high rates of heart disease. All the cigarettes that were being sold at the time

probably didn't help either, but those are easier to hide around the house than cheeseburgers

So in 1977, Congress released the Dietary Goals of the United States

These goals encouraged citizens to forego red meat and to instead eat leaner proteins

like chicken and fish. While following these guidelines may have led to a healthier population in the past

the rise of processed poultry virtually canceled out any health benefits acquired from making

the switch. Science never got in the way of the U.S. government, though, and red meat sales soon fell

Many fast food joints, dependent on burger sales to stay afloat, began to panic

They needed to pivot fast in order to keep things running. To this end, McDonald's led the charge, hiring famed chef Rene Arendt for the job

He's the guy who designed the McRib for them, among other things. Rene's first ideas were a saucy fried chicken breast and a chicken pot pie

both of which the clown quickly shut down. The company then tried their first shot at the McChicken sandwich

The only menu item at McDonald's, nobody wants to eat. But after disappointing sales, they pulled the McChicken from stores entirely

McDonald's big cheese, Ray Kroc, apparently feeling defeated after these false starts

asked Rene to switch gears and to work instead on making a bite-sized onion ring

As if that would save the struggling golden arches. Not all of his ideas were great, just ask the San Diego Padres

Kroc called this idea the onion nugget. This is an onion ring that has been made easier to consume

And the history of humanity nearly took an entirely different direction. For a brief period, onion nuggets even got a limited release

being sold at McDonald's locations in the late 70s for 45 cents a serving

But then chairman of McDonald's, Fred Turner, had different plans for us all

According to legend, he was still hell-bent on a chicken idea. And one day, he wondered aloud

Oh, why not a chicken nugget? He makes an excellent point. Chef Rene Arendt ran straight up to the kitchen chopped up some chicken battered it fried it up and voila the Chicken McNugget was born After over a year of tinkering with the recipe

McDonald's got in contact with Keystone Foods, the food processing company that already provided them

with their frozen burgers, and asked that they start providing tiny chunks

of processed chicken as well. Then, they also contacted Gordon's, famed for their frozen fish sticks

to provide the company with the perfect batter. And thus, in 1981, the same year that Rene created his infamous McRib, Chicken McNuggets found their place in Knoxville area test markets

And the sales were unlike anything McDonald's had seen before. Mickey D's knew they had a hit on their hands and that they needed a bigger chicken supplier if they wanted to produce their McNuggets globally

So they hit up Tyson Foods. Tyson, in turn, bred for the task an entirely new kind of chicken

They called this new bird breed Mr. McDonald, and it was identifiable by its ginormous breasts

which were even bigger than the breasts of Tyson's famed Chicken of Tomorrow breed

Once scientifically perfected, these Mr. McDonald's chickens were then sent to processing plants all across America

and were ground into four different nugget shapes. The bone, which is sometimes called the bow tie, the bell, the ball, and the boot

all of which were standardized to ensure consistent cooking times, and all of which are still made to this day

Finally, in 1983, the Chicken McNugget, with its barbecue, hot mustard, and sweet and sour sauces in tow

was ready for its global debut, the shockwaves of which would soon upend the fast food industry forever

Within the first few months of the Chicken McNuggets release

McDonald's grew into the second largest chicken retailer in the world, trailing behind only KFC

In fact, the Chicken McNugget proved so successful that many mistakenly came to believe that it was the clown himself

who'd invented the Chicken Nugget. Should have gotten that patent, Baker. What's more, before the end of the 80s

McDonald's decided to double down on chicken and gave the McChicken sandwich another shot

And then in 1988, the McChicken made its triumphant return. People seemed to want it this time around

and while it would briefly be pulled again in 1996, the McChicken had otherwise finally found its footing

and was on the menu to stay. Meanwhile, other fast food chains

took note of McDonald's chicken-based success and wanted in on the action too

Just two years after McDonald's released their McNuggets, Burger King ever the royal copycat

came out with their first ever nugget lineup and Wendy's and KFC

soon followed suit all the while Chick-fil-A which first opened its doors in 1946

claims to have beaten McDonald's to the nugget game by a whole year

on their corporate website they claim to have first started selling nuggets

in 1982 at the request of their patrons and they soon after

not only sold nuggets by the half dozen but in huge party quantities

as well and if you ask us That's the only size they should come in

Regardless of who was the very first to sell them chicken nugget madness had taken over the fast food industry And it wasn long before home nuggets came to freezer aisles everywhere

By the late 1980s, Purdue was experimenting with all sorts of nugget options

including your standard nuggets, your star-shaped nuggets, and your football nuggets. But in 1991, they would patent their biggest nuggets of all

the world's first ever dino nuggets, which are just chicken nuggets in fun dinosaur shapes

and not actually chunks of processed stegosaur. And with Jurassic Park coming to theaters just two years later

dino nuggets were here to stay. In 1965, the average individual American ate 36.6 pounds of chicken annually

By 2020, that number had increased threefold to just shy of 100 pounds

in no small part thanks to the advent of the chicken nugget, which today yields about 2.3 billion servings each and every year

As the years wore on, though, people started to ask, what the heck's even in these things

Way back when they first came out, McDonald's advertised the McNuggets as being

savory chunks of boneless white and dark meat, dipped in a specially seasoned batter and fried to a crisp golden brown

But in the 1980s, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating the McNuggets' exact makeup

just to make sure no McBeaks or McTow Claws had found their way into the recipe

It turns out the original McNuggets were mostly thigh and breast meat, along with a little bit of skin and some salt

In 2003, they updated that recipe to include only breast meat. And in 2016, they updated it again to drop all artificial flavorings, colors, and preservatives

Still, a 2013 study by the American Journal of Medicine found that the nuggets from some fast food chains

while the exact restaurants in question were never specified, contain very little meat

And they instead are made up by as much as 60% fat

which in fairness still tastes delicious when you dip it in honey mustard

Around the same time as the study, America went through a pink slime scare

brought about by an expose which aired on ABC. The so-called slime, also known as finely textured beef

or boneless lean beef ts, is a meat by-product used as an additive

in many processed meats. This is not fit for human consumption. Many swore off McNuggets right then and there

even though McNuggets were not and never have been made with the stuff. The McNugget had another brief setback in 2015

when one of their chicken suppliers was found to be engaged in horrific treatment

of their animals. But McDonald's and Tyson both distanced themselves from said suppliers

and they've been on the upswing ever since. More recently, in 2022

TikToker Nick DiGiovanni and celebrity chef Linja teamed up to make the world's largest chicken nugget

This nugget is almost as big as Linja. What they made ended up at over 46 pounds

and utilized 40 pounds of ground chicken, 40 eggs, half a gallon of milk, and 40 slices of bread

And while something so big no longer qualifies as a nugget, that didn't stop Nick and Linja from busting out the confetti and calling up Guinness

Now they just need a gigantic tub of ranch