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Top 10 Tantalizing Fun Facts About Chicken Nuggets: Bite-Sized Secrets You Need to Know!

illustration of chicken-nuggets
Did you know there's more to chicken nuggets than just their deliciously addictive taste? Let's take a bite-sized peek into some of the most fascinating and scrumptious fun facts about these golden, crispy treats!

1. Chicken Nugget Recall

In a nugget of irony that's hard to swallow, it turns out some chicken nuggets were a bit more plastic than fantastic: Tyson Foods recalled over 130,000 pounds of the poultry products in 2016, due to potential contamination with hardened plastic pieces, which originated from a manufacturing transfer belt and mainly affected Costco stores nationwide and institutional use in Pennsylvania.
Source => whsv.com

2. McNugget's True Ingredients

Fear not, fellow nugget lovers, for the secret ingredient in Chicken McNuggets is not a nefarious pink potion brewed by a cackling Ronald McDonald in a dimly lit fast-food dungeon: The truth is that every nugget is crafted from USDA-inspected boneless white-meat chicken, neatly snipped from the chicken breast, tenderloins, and rib meat – sans any hints of mysterious pink slime!
Source => mcdonalds.com

3. Fried Chicken Day at McDonald's

What's cluckin' at your local McDonald's?: Brace yourself for a flavor feast as you couple McSpicy Fried Chicken with their variety of menu offerings, from tempura-crusted Chicken McNuggets to fruity McCafé beverages, topped off with a side of crispy fries – it's a celebration of Fried Chicken Day!
Source => mcdonaldsblog.in

4. McNugget Shape Geometry

Beware the chicken and the nugget, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch – or in this case, the bell that rings, the ball that bounces, the boot that kicks, and the bow tie that parties! The whimsical world of McDonald's Chicken McNuggets knows no bounds: McDonald's has crafted four specific shapes for their McNuggets to ensure evenly cooked nuggets and delightful dipping experiences for both kids and adults. This technique also helps maintain food safety across their establishments, while letting the inner child in all of us indulge in some fancifully shaped fried goodness. If you were ever curious about nugget geometry, you now know that three shapes are too square while more than five would be a round of madness!
Source => businessinsider.com

The Chicken Nugget Inventor

5. The Chicken Nugget Inventor

Before cluckin' Colonel Sanders had even uttered his first "finger-lickin'" and way before Wendy's ever considered dipping their crispy digits in sauce, there was a man tinkering away in his fowl laboratory, concocting a golden, tender delight that would soar over the fast-food heavens: Meet Robert C. Baker, the Cornell University poultry science professor who invented the, now ubiquitous, chicken nugget prototype in 1963. With the assistance of a graduate student, he created a frozen, breaded "chicken stick" that perfectly solved the riddle of binding ground meat without a skin and managed to keep that crispy batter clinging to its precious cargo. Despite his ingenious creation, Baker never patented the idea and didn't see a penny from the finger food frenzy that followed; his secret recipe remained a gift to about 500 food companies freely distributed via a Cornell publication.
Source => slate.com

6. George Washington McNugget

Whoever said money doesn't grow on nugget trees clearly never met this American commander-in-chicken: In 2012, a Nebraska woman sold a George Washington-shaped Chicken McNugget on eBay for a staggering $8,100, after preserving it in her freezer for nearly three years. Her entrepreneurial McSpirit helped fund a group of children from her local Family Worship Center to attend summer camp, proving that sometimes, poultry profits can bring more than just nuggets of joy.
Source => businessinsider.com

7. McNugget Recipe Change

Hold onto your nuggets, folks, because change is a-cluckin': McDonald's Japan is revamping their beloved Chicken McNugget recipe by ditching the thigh meat, and leaving us with a tantalizing combo of just chicken breast and skin! While some fans might squawk about the potential loss of juiciness and flavor, others are thrilled for the premium meat upgrade – who will rule the roost in this battle of McNugget taste-buds?
Source => japantoday.com

8. The Spicy Nugget Saga

Much like a spicy surprise in a chicken party, Wendy's threw the world of nugget lovers for a loop: they introduced their spicy chicken nuggets as a limited-time option, only to make them a permanent menu item around 2010, and then, without warning, vanished them from stores across the country. Never fear, nugget guardians have risen and amassed over 1,400 signatures on a petition to bring back the lost, fiery treats.
Source => consumerist.com

9. Healthier Nugget Options

Holy nug-gets, Batman! It seems the Joker has snuck some vegetables into our crime-fighting fuel: In a bid to make the beloved childhood staple healthier, chefs have been experimenting with all-white meat, organic ingredients, and even hidden veggies – with McDonald's leading the charge by switching to a lower-calorie, all-white meat recipe in 2003. However, some nutritional heroes argue for a focus on unprocessed, whole foods for kids to munch on instead.
Source => baltimoresun.com

The Giant Chicken Nugget

10. The Giant Chicken Nugget

If you've ever dreamed of chomping on the king of all nuggets—a gargantuan, golden brown hunk of deliciousness so grand everyone would feel nugget-envy—then buckle up, because the mother of all cluckers has arrived: Empire Kosher Poultry showcased a 51.1-pound chicken nugget at Kosherfest trade show in Secaucus, New Jersey, in honor of their 75th anniversary; this scrumptious record-breaker measures 3.25 feet long and two feet wide, requiring 2.5 pounds of breading and six dedicated nugget artists for over three hours to create the equivalent of 720 measly, regular-sized jewels.
Source => nj.com

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