Dairy Queen - May 2022 - Sarah Stierch 02

Chicken fingers (also known as chicken goujons, chicken strips, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets or chicken fillets) are

chicken meat Chicken is the most common type of poultry in the world. Owing to the relative ease and low cost of raising chickens—in comparison to mammals such as cattle or hogs—chicken meat (commonly called just "chicken") and chicken eggs have becom ...

prepared from the

pectoralis minor muscle Pectoralis minor muscle () is a thin, triangular muscle, situated at the upper part of the chest, beneath the pectoralis major in the human body. Structure Attachments Pectoralis minor muscle arises from the upper margins and outer surface ...

s of the animal. These strips of white meat are located on either side of the breastbone, under the

breast meat Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

(pectoralis major). They may also be made with similarly shaped pieces cut from chicken meat, usually the breast, or sometimes just pulverized chicken flesh. Chicken fingers are prepared by coating chicken meat in a

breading Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickenin ...

mixture and then deep frying them, in a manner similar to the preparation of

schnitzel A schnitzel is a thin slice of meat. The meat is usually thinned by pounding with a meat tenderizer. Most commonly, the meat is breaded before frying. Breaded schnitzel is popular in many countries and is made using veal, pork, chicken, mutt ...

. They are a very popular snack or main course due to their convenience and have become a staple across the United States. Chicken fingers are a popular fast-food snack in the U.S. Some of the most popular fast-food restaurants that sell chicken fingers include

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is an American fast-food restaurant chain specializing in chicken fingers founded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey in 1996. History Founders Todd Graves and Craig Silvey were both enrolled ...

, Chick-Fil-A, Church's Chicken, KFC,

Popeyes Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., also known as Popeyes and formerly named Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits and Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits, is an American multinational chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants that was formed in 1972 ...

Zaxby's Zaxby's is an American chain of fast casual restaurants offering chicken wings, chicken fingers, sandwiches, and salads. The chain operates primarily in the Southern United States and has more than 900 locations. Most Zaxby's restaurants are owne ...

Culver's Culver Franchising System, LLC (Culver's) is an American fast-casual restaurant chain. The company was founded in 1984 by George, Ruth, Craig, and Lea Culver. The first location opened in Sauk City, Wisconsin on July 18, 1984 under the name "Cul ...

Chicken tenders were first made in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

at the

Puritan Backroom The Puritan Backroom is a 2020 James Beard Foundation Award America's Classic restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire. They are known for their mudslides and chicken tenders, which they invented in 1974. History Arthur Pappas and Louis Canotas, G ...

in 1974. Restaurants in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, and

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

have challenged this claim with later assertions to the invention of chicken tenders, although the general consensus supports the claim in Manchester.

Mass production

Chicken fingers are a

mass-produced Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and ba ...

product in the United States of America. They gained popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s as an alternative fast food choice to

chicken nugget A chicken nugget is a food product consisting of a small piece of deboned chicken meat that is breaded or battered, then deep-fried or baked. Invented in the 1950s, chicken nuggets have become a very popular fast food restaurant item, as ...

s, since they retained more chicken meat. Production can involve coating chicken meat with spices,

polyphosphate Polyphosphates are salts or esters of polymeric oxyanions formed from tetrahedral PO4 (phosphate) structural units linked together by sharing oxygen atoms. Polyphosphates can adopt linear or a cyclic ring structures. In biology, the polyphosphate e ...

and breading or crumbs, flash-frying the product to hold the breading in place, and then freezing it prior to shipment for consumer, retail and commercial use.

Tyson Foods Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. It annually ...

is one such company that mass-produces chicken fingers. Some are manufactured with a specific flavor profile, such as with a Buffalo-style hot sauce flavor. They are also manufactured with flavors such as Honey BBQ and Parmesan Herb Encrusted.

Vegan chicken fingers

In recent years, chicken fingers made without chicken and with plant-based ingredients have entered the market and are called vegan chicken fingers or vegan chicken nuggets. They are made from ingredients that include pea protein, soy protein, textured vegetable protein and wheat gluten.

Variants

Chicken fingers are sometimes grilled rather than fried; they may accompany salads or pasta.

References

Works cited

* * “Fooddata Central Search Results.” ''FoodData Central'', https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/2108385/nutrients. * “Crispy Chicken Strips.” ''Tyson® Brand'', https://www.tyson.com/products/breaded-chicken-crispy-chicken-strips/. * Jawad, Yumna Jawad, et al. “Grilled Chicken Tenders.” ''FeelGoodFoodie'', 12 June 2021, https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/grilled-chicken-tenders/.

External links