McDonald's Chicken McNuggets are small pieces of chicken that have been breaded and fried. Served in boxes with either 4,6,9 or 20 pieces, they come in four varieties:
- Round - These are circular nuggets that look like little chicken patties. They are the only nugget that is made of white meat chicken. Yes, it’s true, nuggets come in both white and dark meat varieties. The white meat is pale and spongy whereas the dark meat is fattier with dark splotches and globules. Round nuggets account for 7 of your average 20 piece.
- Oval – These are oval on top and taper towards a point on the bottom. They are dark meat and make up 6 of 20.
- Rectangular – These are roughly rectangular, dark meat nuggets accounting for just 3 in 20 nuggets.
- Trapezoid – These resemble the rectangles but have one corner stretched out, Florida style. They are, of course, dark meat, and account for the remaining 4 nuggets.
Frankly, while I do enjoy eating them on occasion, the thing that Chicken McNuggets most remind me of is particle board. I envision some giant factory where they grind up chickens, add all sorts of fillers and chemicals and then injection mold them in to unnatural shapes. (Sorry, chickens don’t come with rectangular pieces).
The four sauces available are Sweet ‘N Sour, Barbeque, and Hot Mustard or just plain Honey.
The ingredients of the nuggets are: Chicken, marinated up to 8% with a solution of water, chicken seasoning (chicken, wheat starch, salt, butter oil, chicken fat, beef extract, vegetable shortening, roasted sesame seed oil, silicon dioxide (anticaking agent), thiamine hydrochloride), salt, sodium phosphates. Battered and breaded with water, enriched bleached wheat flour (niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, wheat flour, modified corn starch, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, dried whey, wheat starch, corn starch. Cooked in partially hydrogenated soybean and corn oils, TBHQ (to protect flavor), citric acid, dimethylpolysiloxane.