Nuggets of Truth

Chances are if you have kids they eat some type of chicken nuggets, perhaps under the golden arches, perhaps you buy some all-natural-organic nugget, but before you let your kid take one more bite I urge you to reconsider the source of that processed chicken. There are some things we eat (and by we I certainly include myself) and either willfully or not we ignore what went on between the source of that item and the box we’ve removed it from.

There are hundreds of horror stories about the chicken industry and the practices that are considered acceptable, here in the U.S.  Read here how the U.S. has given permission for chickens raised here to be processed in China, with absolutely no oversight by the USDA.  As awful as poultry farms are, and they are awful, chicken processing plants are about one thousand times worse. Most nuggets, even all-white meat nuggets are made from chicken paste, made of ground chicken that is mixed with starch to bind them together, then formed into some nugget-y shape, breaded and readied for the freezer case of your grocery store. And of course almost all of them have sugar added too, because your kids need more sugar in their diet!

You may think this is only about the nuggets you get at a fast food establishment, but most of what you buy at the store is just as bad. You would be shocked at what is considered a “natural” ingredient, often it is MSG or some hydrolyzed soy product (and I don’t mean tofu). Large food manufacturers create flavor profiles, and then create a blend of natural and synthetic ingredients to replicate that flavor. Think about fruit flavored candies as an example—you recognize strawberry flavor, and generally it is only vaguely reminiscent of an actual strawberry. The same goes for things like chicken products; nuggets, patties, boneless wings, etc. Manufacturers identify their target audience and create an item flavored to appeal to that group.

If you want to break the addiction your kids have to these chicken-like products it may be difficult; they have a slew of ingredients and flavorings you cannot access at home.  That said, it is probably the crunch they love best, so you might want to try making your own version. If you want something soft, like a fast food nugget you might want to start with ground chicken rather than whole meat. There are plenty of recipes online for homemade nuggets, and quite honestly, though I love you I am not willing to put a lot of time into trying to create a recipe for something we’re not going to eat at my house! If I can convince just a few readers to break the fake nugget habit I will consider myself triumphant!

If you want to be grossed out of eating this stuff (notice I didn’t use a really disgusting term) browse nuggets or McNuggets on YouTube, you will find more than you bargained for. Homemade nuggets may sound like a pain, but if you make a bunch, and par-bake them then freeze them, you can have a freezer stocked with a bag of them that’s better than anything Perdue or Tyson’s or even Applegate Farms fabricated for your toddler’s enjoyment.