Guide Note

Chicken McNuggets are small pieces of fried chicken sold by McDonald's. They are made of minced chicken breast and other modifiers, fillers, and preservatives. Originally invented in the 1950s, they were made popular by the fast food chain in 1980.

Fast Facts

1. Chicken is mechanically separated and held together with phosphate salts
2. Chicken McNuggets are sold in packs of 4, 6, 10, 20 and 50
3. 4.8 billion Chicken McNuggets are sold annually
4. McDonald's first tested Chicken McNuggets in Knoxville, Tennessee
5. 250 Calories in 6 pieces
6. In 2003, McDonald's switched to all white meat

Dipping Sauces

Popular dipping sauces in the U.S. include barbecue sauce, sweet 'n sour, hot mustard, and honey mustard. One sauce comes with a four to six piece option, while two sauces come with ten pieces.

Promotions

While being transformed from partially dark meat to white meat, the McNugget has also had its share of promotional transformations from the Shanghai McNuggets launched in 1986, which came with a pair of chopsticks, fortune cookie, and Asian-influenced dipping sauce to the Fiesta McNuggets in 1988, which were packaged in an exotic box and came with a collectible fiesta coin. Also included in the transformation were a series of advertisements first depicting speaking nuggets lined up in an egg carton known as the McNugget Buddies, and most recently, two men rapping about McNuggets while beatboxing.