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