A Cornell researcher invented the chicken nugget and changed farming forever.
Chicken nuggets are a quintessentially American food: easily mass produced and a quick, convenient protein source that can be eaten on the go. A staple of fast food restaurants and grocery freezer aisles for decades, they weren’t always on America’s dinner plates and children’s menus. It would take war, laboratory experiments and changing U.S. dietary guidelines before chains like McDonald’s catapulted chicken nuggets to a household name.
Though the origin of chicken nuggets, like so many food items, remains disputed, it’s commonly accepted that agricultural scientist Robert C. Baker invented chicken nuggets in a laboratory at Cornell University in 1963. They were among dozens of poultry products he developed during his career, including turkey ham and chicken hot dogs, helping to greatly expand the U.S. poultry industry.
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His “chicken sticks” earned him the nickname the “George Washington Carver of chicken.” Baker did not patent chicken nuggets. Instead, he mailed the recipe to hundreds of American companies who would later profit from his invention. But it would take a new health trend for Americans to truly embrace the chicken nugget.
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McDonald’s debuted Chicken McNuggets in select markets in 1981. They were inspired by owner Ray Kroc’s determination to develop a new menu item that appealed to the American desire for a convenient alternative to red meat. McDonald’s Chairman Fred Turner zeroed in on what that product should be: “a boneless piece of chicken,” sold “almost like French fries.”
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