Check out the ‘7 Fast-Food Chicken Nuggets That Are Not 100% Chicken’ Let’s make sure we’re all 100% on the same page when it comes to chicken tenders vs. nuggets vs. strips and such in the first place before we get into the less than 100% chicken meat of the matter.
Technically, the chicken’s pectoralis minor muscle the thinner strip of meat that hangs below the larger breast muscle must be used to make chicken tenders.
This thinner strip of muscle is utilized less frequently than other areas of the bird’s anatomy, so it has not grown as much and is actually more delicate. Therefore, a true chicken tender is formed from this particular piece of fowl rather than simply being a big chunk of white meat that has been breaded and cooked, typically by deep frying. What about chicken strips or nuggets?
You can make those with any type of chicken flesh. The fact is that they frequently contain ingredients other than just meat; we’re not referring to breading or seasoning. The meat is typically removed from the bone, crushed, and combined with seasonings and additives to make nuggets.
If you’re unsure, go on the side of listening to what a restaurant is telling you or not telling you instead of making assumptions. The majority will proclaim loudly that their tenders are hand-breaded and taken from whole tenderloins. Use caution if they don’t because they’re probably not.
The 7 Fast-Food Chicken Nuggets That Are Not 100% Chicken
1. McDonald’s
Wow, what a surprise! The inside of those uniformly sized and flavorful McDonald’s McNuggets contains additional ingredients in addition to chicken.
But don’t worry, the pink slime allegations are merely a hoax; according to Insider, McDonald’s actually starts with chicken that is entirely made of white meat and then adds spice and chicken skin for flavor after grinding the chicken. pink goo? No. whole chicken pieces shaped like boots? And no.
2. Burger King
Although the Chicken Fries at Burger King are quite delicate to the bite, they are not produced with chicken tenders or even 100% chicken meat. Since chicken does not typically come in fried shape, this should come as no great surprise.
According to Fooducate, these thin sticks of breaded meat are made of “chicken breast with rib meat, water, seasoning (salt, modified corn starch, flavoring), modified potato starch, sodium phosphates,” and “seasoning (salt, modified corn starch, flavor).” The “meat,” not the breading, is that?
3. Whataburger
It makes sense that you go to Whataburger for the burgers. Because “Southern style chicken breast fritter strips containing up to 12% of a solution of water, isolated soy protein, salt, and sodium phosphates” are included in the chicken strip “meat.” To be clear, it’s not all chicken.
Additionally, the Whatachick’n Strips three-piece meal contains a startling 1,470 calories if you consume the chicken, the Texas Toast, the fries, the gravy, and a Coke. P.S. The phrase “fritters” is a dead giveaway that these aren’t tenderloins and aren’t entirely made of chicken.
4. Dairy Queen
Although Dairy Queen refers to its Chicken Strips as being “all white meat,” this phrase actually just suggests that there isn’t any black meat inside the breading. The actual incident involved “uncooked chicken tenderloin fritters containing up to 18% of a solution of water, hydrolyzed soy protein, salt, and sodium phosphates,” according to the truth.
5. White Castle
You can eat as many sliders as you like, but avoid the chicken rings for the sake of your health. Chicken does not come in rings, to start.
The following ingredients are all found after “chicken breast with rib meat” and before the breading: water, salt, sodium phosphates, modified food starch (corn, potato), carrageenan, powdered cooked chicken, sunflower oil, maltodextrin, chicken broth, buttermilk powder, and more.
6. Domino’s
If you want to consume solely meat in your chicken, don’t buy it from this well-known pizza company. Although its front-facing description of its boneless chicken pieces may read: “Breaded chicken made with 100% whole white breast meat,” you’ll find that this actually means: skinless chicken breast chunks with rib meat, wheat flour, water, and modified food starch when you look at the more in-depth (and harder to find) ingredients page.
And yes, that comes before we discuss the components of the breading.
7. Smashburger
Smashburger’s burgers are fantastic. the chicken sandwiches sold by the chain. and even the new wings. However, just looking at the chicken tender’s ingredient list is enough to make us decide against buying them.
The “meat” includes, among more than a dozen other components, “up to 20% solution of water, modified food starch, sodium phosphates, chicken broth powder, chicken at, natural flavor, salt, seasoning, sunflower oil.”
