Chicken McNuggets

Chicken McNuggets (introduced in 1983 with support from the McNugget Mania campaign) are a type of chicken product offered by international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's. They consist of small pieces of processed chicken meat that have been battered and deep fried.

Description and origin

The Chicken McNugget is a small piece of processed chicken meat that is fried in batter and flash-frozen, then shipped out and sold at McDonald's restaurants. It was conceived by Keystone Foods founder Herb Lotman in the late 1970s.

McDonald's first executive chef, René Arend, created the Chicken McNuggets recipe in 1979. "The McNuggets were so well-received that every franchise wanted them", said Arend in a 2009 interview. "There wasn't a system to supply enough chicken". Supply problems were solved by 1983, and Chicken McNuggets became available nationwide.

According to McDonald's, the nuggets come in four shapes: the bell, the bowtie, the ball and the boot.

Ingredients

As of October 9, 2010, the ingredients within the United States are as follows: Chicken, water, salt, sodium phosphates. Battered and breaded with bleached wheat flour, water, modified food starch, salt, spices, wheat gluten, paprika, dextrose (sugar), yeast, garlic powder, rosemary, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and cottonseed oil with mono- and diglycerides, leavening (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate, monocalcium phosphate), natural flavor (plant source) with extracts of paprika. Fried in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid). Dimethylpolysiloxane is added as an antifoaming agent. McDonald's ingredients can vary outside of the US.