Chicken nugget
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A chicken nugget is a molded piece of chicken product, breaded or battered, then fried or baked. Fast food restaurants typically deep fry their nuggets in vegetable oil. Oven baking is a more healthy method of preparation.
The chicken nugget is a meat product that was invented in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University, and published as unpatented academic work.[1] Dr. Baker's innovations made it possible to form chicken nuggets in any shape. McDonald's recipe for Chicken McNuggets was created on commission from McDonald's by Tyson Foods in 1979 and the product was sold beginning in 1980.
A ruling in 2003 in a lawsuit brought against McDonald's on behalf of a group of obese teenagers cataloged the 38 ingredients in a Chicken McNugget.[2]
Alternative products
After the success of chicken nuggets, some fast food restaurants launched vegetarian alternatives. McDonald's previously served Garden McNuggets, made of beans instead of chicken. However the dish was ultimately replaced with a burger made of beans. The Irish fast food chain R. Haecker's offers, in addition to its original chicken nugget meal, an "Emerald Isle" veggie nugget meal, made with beans and cabbage and served with its vegetarian honey-mustard dipping sauce.
The contents of the vegetarian nuggets vary; for instance, Swedish fast food restaurant Max Hamburgare offers a dish called Falafel Box containing nuggets made of falafel,[3] but otherwise served with the same side items as their chicken nuggets and marketed as an alternative to them.
See also
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- ^ (Cornell University) obituary, March 16, 2006
- ^ The industrial food chain leading from corn to McDonald's McNuggets was traced by Michael Pollan, in several chapters of Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, 2006:109-119.
- ^ Food contents specification, Max Template:Sv