Chicken nuggets are so familiar that hardly anyone stops to ask where they came from. The answer is surprising: they were not dreamt up in a takeaway kitchen but in a university laboratory in 1963, by a professor who gave his recipe away instead of patenting it. It took another twenty years for the fast-food industry to turn the idea into a worldwide habit. If you want to know why a good nugget shatters on the outside and stays juicy within, this is the story to read.
At a glance
- Name: chicken nuggets, after the small lumps of gold the pieces are said to resemble
- Origin: Cornell University, New York State, 1963; famous worldwide since the 1980s
- Flavour: a crisp, salty crust around mild, tender chicken
- Key ingredients: chicken, a marinade or seasoning, flour, egg, breadcrumbs or batter, oil for frying
- Eat it with: dips such as mango chutney or raita, chips, onion rings, a cold drink
Invented in a laboratory: Cornell, 1963
The story begins with Robert C. Baker, a professor of poultry science at Cornell University in New York State. In the early 1960s the poultry trade had a problem: chicken was sold almost only whole, and sales were slipping. Baker set out to create new chicken products that were easy to store and quick to cook.
In 1963, working with his colleague Joseph Marshall, he came up with the chicken stick: a finger of minced, seasoned, breaded and frozen chicken. Two technical hurdles stood in the way. First, minced meat had to hold its shape without a sausage skin. Second, the coating had to survive freezing and then frying without falling off. Baker cracked both. He mixed raw chicken with salt and vinegar, added milk powder and finely ground grain as a binder, shaped and froze the sticks, then rolled them in an egg batter and cornflake crumbs and froze them again, harder this time.
The sticks were tested for 26 weeks in five local supermarkets, and in the first six weeks they sold about 200 boxes a week, a remarkable figure for a food nobody had seen before. What Baker did next is the remarkable part: he never patented the idea. He published the recipe, the packaging, the sales figures and the cost projections in a university bulletin that was posted free of charge to around 500 companies. Any poultry firm could pick it up and run with it.
The man who invented the nugget never earned a penny from the billions sold since.
More than 50 inventions from chicken and eggs
The chicken stick was only one of over 50 products to come out of Baker’s laboratory. There were chicken frankfurters, chicken cold cuts, chicken meatloaf and a barbecue sauce still served as “Cornell chicken” at fundraisers across New York State. By the time Baker died in 2006, his link to the nugget had largely been forgotten.
From the lecture hall to the drive-through
The nugget’s big break came in the early 1980s, quite independently of Baker. In the late 1970s American health authorities were advising people to eat less red meat, and the big burger chains needed something made from poultry. At McDonald’s, executive chef René Arend, who was born in Luxembourg, was experimenting with onion nuggets in 1979. As the story goes, the company’s chairman suggested in passing that he drop the onions and try chicken instead.
Chicken McNuggets reached a handful of markets in 1981 and were so popular that the supply chain could not keep up. Only in 1983 were they available across the United States. The poultry giant Tyson Foods came on board as supplier and is said to have bred a bigger-breasted bird especially for the job. To this day McNuggets come in exactly four shapes, known in-house as the bell, the bone, the ball and the boot, so that every piece cooks in the same time. In 1991 Perdue Farms trademarked dinosaur-shaped nuggets, a children’s favourite ever since.
How chicken nuggets are made
There are two roads to a nugget. The industrial road runs through finely minced chicken pressed into shape, much as Baker designed it. The restaurant road runs through whole pieces of chicken, marinated, coated and fried to order. The second kind tastes far more of chicken and has a bite the pressed version simply cannot offer.
1. The chicken
Most nuggets use breast meat, though thigh stays juicier. For whole-piece nuggets the meat is cut into bite-sized chunks or strips, roughly three to four centimetres across. For the industrial kind, deboned meat is chopped, seasoned, mixed with binders into a paste and then stamped into shape by machine.
2. Marinade and seasoning
Whole pieces are marinated first, classically in buttermilk or yoghurt with salt, pepper, garlic and paprika. The gentle acidity tenderises the meat and keeps it moist in the fryer. Indian kitchens reach for ginger, garlic, turmeric, chilli and garam masala, so the meat itself tastes seasoned and not just the crust.
3. The coating
The classic coating takes three steps: flour, beaten egg, breadcrumbs. The flour dries the surface, the egg acts as glue, and the crumbs form the crust. Fine crumbs brown evenly; coarse Japanese panko fries up lighter and crunchier. The alternative is a wet batter, as in tempura, which sets into a thin, slightly bubbly shell. McNuggets, for instance, are cooked in a tempura-style batter.
4. Frying
Nuggets are deep-fried at around 170 to 180 degrees Celsius in plenty of oil. The fierce heat flashes the water in the coating into steam, which creates the crust while the meat inside cooks gently. Too cool and the coating turns greasy; too hot and it burns before the chicken is done. Small pieces take three to five minutes. Frozen nuggets are briefly par-fried at the factory so the coating sets, and are only finished off at home.
What does a good nugget taste like?
A good nugget is all about contrast. Outside, a crust that cracks audibly, salty, lightly toasted, with a hint of pepper or paprika. Inside, white meat that still has its juice and steams a little when you bite in. Chicken itself is mild, which is why the seasoning matters so much: a marinade brings flavour from within, a well-seasoned coating from without. Pressed, factory-made nuggets often taste of little but crust and salt. Freshly fried nuggets cut from whole pieces have grain, bite and the chicken’s own flavour.
Nuggets, tenders, popcorn chicken: what is the difference?
Coated chicken comes in many guises, and the names get muddled all the time:
- Chicken nuggets are bite-sized, irregularly shaped pieces, usually breaded and deep-fried, made either from whole pieces or from formed meat.
- Chicken tenders (also chicken fingers or strips) are longer, around eight to ten centimetres. Strictly speaking they are the inner fillet, a small and especially tender muscle that sits beside the breastbone.
- Popcorn chicken is made of very small cubes of whole meat, often in a batter rather than crumbs, so it is extra crunchy and meant to be eaten by the handful.
- Chicken wings are whole wings on the bone, marinated and fried or grilled. More skin and fat, but more flavour too.
What to eat with chicken nuggets
Nuggets may be the most democratic food there is: you eat them with your fingers, and the dip decides their character.
- Dips: ketchup, barbecue sauce, sweet and sour, honey mustard or a creamy garlic sauce are the classics. For something fresher, try a yoghurt dip.
- Indian partners: mango chutney brings sweetness and tang, raita cools, and a green mint and coriander chutney adds heat and freshness. All three suit a crisp coating surprisingly well.
- Sides: chips, onion rings or a small salad turn the snack into a meal.
- Drinks: something cold with a little acidity, a lemonade or a lassi, cuts through the richness of the crust.
Fried chicken around the world
Frying small pieces of chicken until crisp is of course far older than the nugget, and many cuisines have their own version:
- Karaage from Japan: pieces of chicken, usually thigh, are marinated in soy sauce, ginger and garlic, or simply in salt, then tossed in potato starch or flour and fried. The starch gives a thin, glassy crispness rather than a thick breaded crust.
- Taiwanese popcorn chicken: seasoned with five-spice and white pepper, coated in sweet potato starch and served with fried basil leaves.
- Chicken pakora from India: chicken pieces in a spiced gram-flour batter with chilli, turmeric and ajwain, fried and eaten with chutney. The Indian cousin of the nugget, with a great deal more spice.
- Chicken 65 from South India: red-marinated, crisp-fried pieces tossed with curry leaves and chilli. Many stories explain the name; none is proven.
And the nugget keeps evolving. Meat-free versions made from pea or soy protein have been on the market for a few years now. One fast-food chain trialled nuggets made from chickpeas and potatoes in Norway in 2019, and another added plant-based nuggets at around 4,000 American branches in 2022.
Chicken nuggets at Masalas
Our nuggets come from the finger-food menu: juicy pieces of chicken, marinated and deep-fried until crisp, nine to a portion, or six if you want a smaller one. The meat is halal, and we cook without alcohol. They come to you fresh from the fryer in Berlin-Köpenick, for collection or delivery.
For a dip we suggest what our kitchen already has to hand: a sweet and tangy mango chutney, or a cool raita with cucumber and tomato. Order the nuggets as a starter before a curry and you have both on the table anyway.
Chicken Nuggets (9 pcs)
Juicy chicken pieces, marinated and deep-fried until crispy
Allergens: gluten
Order nowGoes well with it
More variations at Masalas
Chicken nuggets FAQ
Who invented chicken nuggets?
Robert C. Baker, a professor at Cornell University, is generally credited with the invention. In 1963 he and Joseph Marshall developed the breaded, frozen chicken stick and published the method for anyone to use. The fast-food industry made the snack famous worldwide in the early 1980s.
What is the difference between chicken nuggets and chicken wings?
Nuggets are small boneless pieces of breast or thigh, coated and fried. Wings are whole chicken wings with bone and skin, marinated and then fried or grilled. Nuggets are eaten in one bite; wings are nibbled off the bone.
Do chicken nuggets contain gluten?
Yes. The coating on our chicken nuggets contains cereals with gluten. If you have an allergy, please call us before ordering: 030 66068017.
