Americans eat 2.3 billion servings of chicken nuggets annually. It’s easy to love chicken nuggets. They’re convenient, easy to eat, crispy, and pair well with a variety of sauces! Have you ever wondered who created and served the first chicken nugget? Although McDonalds would like you to believe that they invented the chicken nugget in 1980, this culinary mainstay can be traced back to a chicken savant and food scientist from upstate New York.
The History of Chicken Nuggets
It all started in a laboratory at Cornell University in the late 1950s. Food scientist Robert C. Baker discovered a way to keep, “ground meat together without putting a skin around it, and keeping batter attached to the meat despite the shrinkage caused by freezing and the explosive heat of frying.” Professor Baker mixed ground chicken with vinegar, salt, powdered milk, and grains, and then coated each portion with an egg and grain- based batter.
Baker’s “nugget” became an instant success, selling more than 200 boxes in less than two months. Baker generously mailed the recipe to hundreds of companies nationwide, so his new recipe could be widely enjoyed.
The Problem With Most Nuggets
Most chicken nuggets are made with industrial chicken meat, where the animal suffers from poor animal welfare, and the meat is nutritionally inferior, poor tasting, and rubbery. These mass-produced nuggets often contain too many ingredients including too much salt and other junk fillers.
Guilt-Free Nuggets
At Cooks Venture, we drew upon the innovation and creativity of Robert C. Baker, and created a chicken nugget with pasture-raised heirloom chicken.
Breaded in chickpea flour for a golden, gluten-free outside with deliciously tender white meat chicken on the inside, these pasture-raised chicken nuggets are perfect when you need an easy option and want to cut out the junk, like fillers, preservatives, and empty calories. You can finally enjoy crispy chicken nuggets guilt-free!
