10 Facts About McDonald's McNuggets Only Real Fans Would Know

Golden brown and crispy tempura on the outside. Tender, meaty shreds of chicken on the inside. Biting into a McDonald's Chicken McNugget is a joy-inducing experience, especially if you swirl it in one of the chain's rich and creamy sauces. There's even one rather unexpected McDonald's dipping sauce to try with your nuggets the next time a craving hits.

But whether you snag a pack of six for a quick snack or opt for a 20-piece to split with a friend, those bite-sized bits of chicken will always hit the spot. Though the fast food chain traces its origins to red meat, McDonald's customers have demonstrated an overwhelming enthusiasm for poultry, and the Chicken McNugget is a crucial part of that side of the business.

Today the McNugget is a McDonald's menu mainstay, but some parts of its backstory might not be common knowledge. Ranging from its development history to its saucy sidekicks, below are 10 facts about McDonald's Chicken McNuggets that only real fans would know.

It's hard to imagine a world without the Chicken McNugget, but it actually took the fast food giant decades to introduce them. Though the first McDonald's opened in 1940 and took shape as the recognizable chain everyone knows in 1955, it wasn't until 1983 that the McNugget made its national debut.

Chicken McNuggets were an immediate hit. And with American customers gobbling them up, McDonald's took the bite-sized bits of crispy chicken to the international stage. In 1984, McNuggets spread to menus in Canada, Japan, France, and Germany. The following year, McDonald's brought the iconic menu item across the pond to England. And, it wasn't until 1997 that Poland got to bite into that tempura-battered goodness.

So the next time you're abroad and need a taste of home, go ahead and order a pack of Chicken McNuggets. But if you're feeling adventurous, there are 14 international McDonald's menu items you should order when traveling.

Crack open a box of Chicken McNuggets and take a good look. Though upon first glance they might appear to be indistinct blobs churned out with no rhyme or reason, McNuggets aren't unique like snowflakes. The bites of battered chicken actually come in four shapes: the ball, the bell, the boot, and the bow tie (also referred to as the bone).

With their prescribed shapes, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Chicken McNuggets aren't made fresh at each individual McDonald's location. The fast food chain churns them out at a factory, where after being seasoned the ground meat is pressed and cut into one of those four forms.

Beyond the visual consistency across locations, there's another reason for keeping McNuggets to those four shapes: food safety. With all of the bites of chicken around the same size, the chain can ensure the same cooking times at all of its restaurants.

Onion rings are a classic. But what about Onion Nuggets? As McDonald's expanded in the 1970s, the fast food chain's former Executive Chef René Arend was looking for ways to expand the menu too.

Upon joining the McDonald's team in 1976, Arend set out to test recipes that might take the quick-service restaurant to the next level. He landed on Onion Nuggets as another side option, which resembled their chicken successor. In 1978 and 1979 the pungent finger food was tested in a few regional American markets, but the battered and fried chunks of onion just didn't catch on. With the Onion Nuggets not seeing the hoped-for success, Arend had to pivot.

The solution came to the chef in a passing conversation with McDonald's Chairman Fred Turner. When the two bumped into one another in 1979, Turner suggested Arend try the product out with chicken instead. It wasn't long before the chef, with help from a few colleagues, crafted the Chicken McNugget.

It was amid America's red meat scare that the fast food giant's owner Ray Kroc wanted to give customers an alternative to McDonald's famous burgers. Following his conversation with Arend, Turner also wanted to ensure the Chicken McNugget really did make it onto McDonald's menu. In order to make that happen, the chairman recruited Bud Sweeney, one of the masterminds behind the Filet-O-Fish, to gather a squad dedicated to the development of the Chicken McNugget.

Before market testing and technology assembly could occur, the McNugget team made sure the bite-sized snack's formula was perfect. Among other recipe-development items on the to-do list, the squad perfected the formula for the McNugget's crispy casing, which secures them a spot high in the definitive ranking of fast food chicken nuggets and tenders. With that tender tempura, the key to McDonald's iconic Chicken McNuggets is in the batter, not how they're fried.

Part of the joy of eating a pack of Chicken McNuggets is dunking them in one of McDonald's delicious sauces. But back when those battered bites were rolled out in 1983, customers only had four sauces to choose from: Hot Mustard, Barbecue, Honey, and Sweet and Sour.

Yep, you read that right. Today's Creamy Ranch and Spicy Buffalo Sauces weren't on the roster four decades ago. It's hard to believe those iconic flavors weren't available to the earliest McNugget consumers.

But between then and now, the fast food giant has put out more than 25 sauces in the U.S. market. Though the condiment lineup has evolved over the years, there are plenty of discontinued McDonald's dipping sauces that fans miss. Remember the Szechuan Sauce? The Chipotle BBQ? Plenty of McNugget lovers would be glad to see those, along with many other now-defunct sauces, make a comeback on the fast food chain's menu.

Everyone knows about Ronald McDonald and Grimace, and many have witnessed the rise and fall of McDonald's Hamburglar, but those who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s will have a special place in their hearts for the McNugget Buddies.

McNuggets are the perfect size for kiddos with an appetite, and introducing the anthropomorphized chicken nugget puppets helped the fast food chain build some serious hype among their youngest customers. The McNugget Buddies took up a starring role in many McDonald's commercials during that era and eventually became a Happy Meal toy. No child could resist them, especially since they came with costumes you could swap in and out.

Though the McNugget mascots won't be seen in any of the fast food giant's contemporary advertising campaigns, they'll still trigger that nostalgia. And thanks to the McNugget Buddies' tiny sizes and smiling faces, they're near the more non-threatening end of the list ranking every McDonald's mascot from least to most nightmare-inducing.

No matter how hungry you are, there's a pack of McDonald's Chicken McNuggets that'll be the right size for your appetite. Snag a Happy Meal if you only need four pieces, but if you need a bit more, you can also get McNuggets in packs of six, 10, and 20. Some stores even offer a 50-piece option for those who want to share the crispy love with their friends.

But back in the 1980s, when the McNugget first hit the menu, there were fewer size options. The six- and 20-piece have been choices since day one, but previously, customers could also opt for the nine-piece.

You won't be able to find a nine-piece McNugget option in the U.S. anymore, but that doesn't mean it's gone entirely. While Americans will either have to order the six- or 10-piece, customers in England still have access to those original three sizes, including the nine-piece.

Remember that photo of pink slime that circulated around the internet a few years ago? The one that kind of resembles strawberry soft-serve ice cream or frozen yogurt? Well, that's not what McDonald's Chicken McNuggets are made from, despite the online chatter. The iconic fast food item contains all white meat from the tenderloin, breast, and rib, and the recipe for the nugget everyone knows and loves was introduced in 2003.

Over the past decade, the fast food giant made even more improvements to those battered bites of chicken. According to the McDonald's antibiotics policy introduced in 2015, it only sources chicken "raised without antibiotics important to human medicine."

Though ionophores (a type of antibiotics not used for humans) are still administered by farmers as a means of keeping the flock healthy, Chicken McNugget fans can rest easy knowing that at least there isn't any pink slime in their meal.

As if Chicken McNuggets couldn't get any more delicious, in 2020 McDonald's went ahead and upgraded the fan-favorite with an ultra flavorful cayenne and chilli pepper tempura. And, to top it all off, the Spicy Chicken McNuggets were served with Mighty Hot Sauce to kick the heat up a notch.

Though the Spicy Chicken McNuggets were a limited edition release, coming back a couple of times over the past few years, the folks over in McDonald's corporate office saw the hype surrounding the flavor-packed breaded bites. In November 2024, the fast food giant announced that the Spicy Chicken McNuggets would re-emerge in select regional markets. Though the popular cayenne-flecked crispy chicken chunks aren't on every location's menu, folks in areas like New York, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, and Memphis can stop by their neighborhood McDonald's for a pack. But, if you've got a hankering for some of that peppery poultry, you better go quick. The item isn't a permanent addition, and the chain hasn't said exactly when it'll be yanking it off the menu again.

Prior to its 1983 nationwide launch, the Chicken McNugget prototype went for a test run in Tennessee stores. The response was overwhelmingly positive. So positive that those little bites of battered chicken broke company sales records.

With the McNugget being an instant hit during the testing phase, McDonald's knew it needed to secure a dependable source of chicken when they introduced the now-iconic menu item to customers across the United States. The fast food giant constructed a McNugget-specific factory and teamed up with multinational poultry processor Tyson Foods to meet the inevitable demand from customers.

Under this partnership, Tyson created a new breed of chicken for the restaurant chain, dubbing it the "Mr. McDonald." The Mr. McDonald was one hefty bird. With a breast larger than that of the winning bird from the 1948 National Chicken of Tomorrow Contest — strategically bred by the founder of a Tyson subsidiary — Mr. McDonald was ideal for McNugget production.