Tasty Chicken McNuggets are always a popular menu item at McDonald's fast food restaurants.
When McDonald's decided to eliminate artificial preservatives from their chicken nuggets,
sales skyrocketed. Customers were really happy with the revised McNuggets recipe. McDonald's
McNuggets have been around for decades and the removal of artificial preservatives wasn't
the only change to these delicious little nuggets. Whether you eat these addictive Mickey
D menu items in one bite or two, let’s look at the top 10 ways Chicken McNuggets have
changed.
McNuggets Used To Contain Dark Meat
As consumers became more health-conscious, they started looking for fast food chicken
products that were made with white meat, instead of dark meat. White meat has less calories
and a lower amount of fat than dark meat. Up until 2003, McDonald's put some dark meat
into its luscious Chicken McNuggets. The pre-2003 recipe for Chicken McNuggets included dark
meat, white meat and other ingredients. As consumer tastes evolved, McDonald's changed
its famous and successful McNuggets recipe. The recipe no longer included dark meat. Today,
McNuggets are made with chicken breast, as well as starches, seasonings and other ingredients.
Some McNugget fans long for the taste of the dark meat McNuggets, but McDonald's is happy
with the current recipe. McDonald's Canada's official website reports that certain Mickey
D's menu items, such as Junior Chicken Sandwiches and McChickens, are made with a variety of
chicken meat, including some dark meat. So, these other menu options are good choices
if you do like the taste and texture of dark chicken meat. Most people definitely prefer
the white meat nuggets. They are so popular. Chicken is a nice alternative to burgers at
fast food restaurants. McDonald's makes sure that customers have all of the menu item options
that they want.
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Artificial Preservatives Were Removed From McNuggets
One of the biggest and most publicized changes to Chicken McNuggets was the removal of artificial
preservatives. The change happened in 2016. McNuggets weren't the only Mickey D's menu
item to become artificial preservative-free. The fast food chain's scrambled eggs, pork
sausage patties and omelets were also changed to take out the artificial preservatives.
At the same time that the restaurant chain cleaned up its Chicken McNuggets recipe, McDonald's
let the public know that it was going to change its buns, too, so that they would soon be
free of high-fructose corn syrup. Why did McDonald's make these changes? Well, the restaurant
chain was attempting an image upgrade. McDonald's execs realized that the fast food chain's
customer base was becoming more knowledgeable about natural and healthy foods...and looking
for those types of foods from the restaurants that they patronized. To meet evolving demand,
McDonald's took out the ingredients that customers didn't want in their McNuggets and other popular
McDonald's menu items. These changes really paid off. McDonald's sales went up, when sales
had been lower-than-anticipated the quarter before. The new recipe for Chicken McNuggets
was filled with ingredients that customers would recognize, rather than a bunch of ingredient
names that sounded chemical and unfamiliar. Rice starch and pea starch are two examples
from the new recipe. McDonald's also ditched the citric acid, safflower oil and chicken
skin. The breading for the McNuggets still featured an additive known as sodium phosphates,
but the chicken meat did not.
McNuggets Used To Be Made From Chickens That Couldn't Lay Eggs
In the early days of Chicken McNuggets, according to the controversial Super Size Me documentary,
these breaded chicken bites, which are flash-frozen and then deep-fried at McDonald's locations,
were made from chickens who were older and no longer able to lay eggs. The documentary
implied that those older chickens weren't always the healthiest chickens. These days,
McDonald's official website reports that the chickens utilized to produce Chicken McNuggets
are slaughtered when they are forty to forty-five days old. That's pretty young, because chickens
have the capacity to live for years. McDonald's definitely pays attention to any bad press
that it gets. There's no question that the execs at Mickey D's watch documentaries like
Super Size Me carefully and do their best to neutralize or negate
any bad publicity. By being open about how old its McNuggets chickens are when they are
slaughtered, McDonald's gives customers the hard facts. Fast food production has changed
a lot over the decades. McDonald's has evolved its Chicken McNugget production process to
make it as efficient, and healthy for customers, as possible.
Halal McNuggets Were Available At Some Mickey D Locations
When McDonald's introduced halal Chicken McNuggets, the restaurant chain eventually got sued.
Apparently in 2013, a Muslim male sued McDonald's because he believed that the fast food chain
wasn't consistent in terms of following Muslim laws for halal. The man who sued received
a settlement of seven hundred thousand dollars. After the settlement was reached, McDonald's
announced that halal McNuggets and McChickens would no longer be offered to customers at
two Michigan-based McDonald's. Both restaurants were located in the Dearborn suburb of Detroit.
The man believed the restaurant was selling non-halal chicken as halal chicken, based
on information from an inside source. Since McDonald's decided to settle, there is a high
likelihood that there was wrongdoing in terms of the whole halal meat promotion. Some companies
do settle when they aren't guilty of wrongdoing, though, just to avoid bad press. After settlements,
parties involved in lawsuits usually aren't allowed to talk about their cases publicly. With
halal meat, a particular type of animal slaughtering is utilized. The slaughtering style is outlined
in the Koran. The animals must be healthy and alive when they are slaughtered, and every
bit of blood must be removed from their carcasses. The chicken products marketed as halal at
the two McDonald's locations had been on menus for twelve years before the lawsuit.
McNugget Dipping Sauces Aren't The Same As They Used To Be
Right now, McDonald's is offering McNuggets fans access to a special, limited-time only
dipping sauce called Sriracha Mac Sauce. It's something unique and tasty for McDonald's
McNuggets fans to try, but it won't be on the menu forever. If it's a huge hit, maybe
the powers-that-be at Mickey D's will consider making it a regular menu item. Current regular
dipping sauce options for chicken nuggets from McDonald's include Tangy Barbecue, Honey
and Honey Mustard, to name just a few. Chicken McNugget sauces which are no longer available
include Sweet Chili and Hot Mustard. Both of these sauces were discontinued a few years
ago. Other discontinued sauces for McNuggets, which may or may not be missed, include Zesty
Italian, Green Chili Salsa, Barbecue and Mesquite. That group of sauces was around in the 80s.
Food tastes change. McDonald's evolved by revising its collection of McDonald's dipping
sauces occasionally. Some people love the dipping sauces. Others don't bother with them.
Everyone has their own eating style when it comes to Chicken McNuggets. Are you a dipper?
If so, what's your favorite dipping sauce? Dipping sauces do up the calorie count for
fast food, but they also add a lot of taste and moisture. McDonald's offers dipping sauces
to suit so many different palates, from sweet to spicy. There’s a dipping sauce to suit
everyone's taste.
McNuggets Portion Sizes Vary From Nation To Nation
Some countries offer different McNugget portion sizes than others. In the USA, you may buy
these yummy chicken nuggets in four-packs, six-packs, 20-packs and 50-packs. The 50 packs
aren't available at all McDonald's locations. In the United Kingdom, customers may access
four-packs within Happy Meals, or go for six-packs, nine-packs or twenty-packs. In Australia,
three-packs are available via Happy Meals. Same thing in New Zealand. In Australia and
New Zealand, it's also possible to grab "tick healthy' three-packs in meals that are Heart-foundation
approved. In Canada, McNuggets come in four-packs in Happy Meals, and six-packs, ten-packs and
twenty-packs are also available. Sometimes, fifty-packs are offered for special occasions,
such as the Super Bowl. In India, McNuggets were only available in Breakfast Meals for
a while, until they were added to the regular menu. Times have changed, and McDonald's
franchises all over the world meet the needs of customers by offering portion sizes that
fit the needs of each country. What works for the USA isn't right for the UK and vice
versa. If you're a world traveler and a Chicken McNuggets fan, you may enjoy ordering McNuggets
in different nations and checking out the differences. You should enjoy the same great
McNugget taste anywhere that you roam, but there are people who find that McDonald's
food tastes different from nation to nation.
McNuggets Come In Four Distinctive Shapes
A lot of people don't realize that McNuggets are produced in four distinctive shapes. These
shapes even have names. The next time you order a pack of Chicken McNuggets, keep an
eye out for the four shapes, which are the bow-tie, the bell, the boot and the ball.
They may come in updated packaging and portion sizes, but the basic shapes remain, because
they have been chosen in order to make sure that cooking times are consistent. This is
done to ensure superior food safety. The names of the McNugget shapes weren't introduced
until 2013. The original McNuggets were created in 1979 by a chef named Rene Arend. When McNuggets
were made available, people fell in love with them right away. McDonald's had a difficult
time meeting the large demand for its new menu item. McDonald's had to tweak its supply
and production system to ensure that adequate numbers of Chicken McNuggets made it into
McDonald's franchises.
McDonald's Took Heat For The Pink Slime Controversy
In 2014, McDonald's addressed the whole famous pink slime controversy, which related to allegations
about how its Chicken McNuggets were prepared. Pink slime is a term that was a slang phrase
for lean beef trimmings which are treated with a chemical called ammonia. In industrial
food production, meat parts which are edible, but which stick to bones and can't be stripped
from bones easily, are sometimes recovered via mechanical processes and then converted
into a slimy substance that plumps up chicken and beefs up beef patties. The
pink slime is an affordable way to produce beef and chicken products. If you're worried
about pink slime in McNuggets, don't worry. McDonald's says it ceased using lean beef
trimmings to plump up food products back in 2011. The restaurant says its nuggets are
created from boneless, white meat chicken. To prove its claims, McDonald's released a
video of the Chicken McNugget production process, which showed how breasts are taken from complete
chickens. They also showed how the chicken breasts are blended and seasoned. Everyone
also got to see how the nuggets are formed.
Some Restaurants Offered McNuggets Earlier Than
Others
Customers were who lucky enough to access Chicken McNuggets as soon as they were launched
lived in areas where the tasty chicken bites were being sold at their local McDonald's
fast food chains. Others had to wait until McNuggets made it to their locations. Roll-outs
of new products take time. Eventually, every McDonald's on the planet offered Chicken McNuggets
to their customers. The instant popularity of these nuggets was phenomenal. Today, they
are extremely popular and so beloved. Khloe Kardashian revealed that McDonald's was her
restaurant of choice when it was time to order fast food for the very first time after having
her baby daughter. Khloe was photographed pulling up to the drive-thru with her boyfriend,
Tristan Thompson, shortly after her baby was born. Did she order McNuggets? Maybe. She
was pictured munching on a golden French fry. It's hard to say what else was in her takeout
bag. Her sister, Kim, absolutely adores Chicken McNuggets. Kim Kardashian goes for the Honey
dipping sauce when she orders them from Mickey D's. Sometimes, she grabs a pack of McNuggets
and a burger and then eats fifty percent of each. Kylie Jenner is more of a Popeye's person.
McNuggets Now Contain 30 Ingredients
McDonald's hasn't revealed how much of each Chicken McNugget is chicken and which percentage
of each nugget is other ingredients. Examples of ingredients in modern-day Chicken McNuggets
include water, white boneless chicken, salt and wheat starch. A full ingredient list is
available and easy to find at the official McDonald's USA website. There are a lot of
ingredients that you'll recognize, because McDonald's had made an effort to change its
chicken nugget recipe, to reassure consumers. McNuggets have changed over the years, but not too much.
The same great taste is there. These chicken nuggets are perennial faves and McDonald's
has made changes to its recipe mostly to change with the times. However, the restaurant chain
is always careful not to change their Chicken McNuggets too much. They know that customers
want them to have the same taste, breading and mouth feel that they are used to. McDonald's
changes it up with the dipping sauces sometimes, but also keeps the old standards on hand,
including Kim Kardashian's favorite Honey dipping sauce.
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