Farmers markets are a treasure trove of unprocessed, whole foods. For many, this is a place they can go to escape the parade of chemical additives and fillers that lurk in every aisle of the supermarket, like a trip to an unspoiled nature reserve. On a recent visit to a local greenmarket in Manhattan, you can imagine my surprise when, while collecting bumpy carrots and three-ingredient yogurt, I passed a pasture-raised meat shop with an unusual item on its burlap-covered counter: bags of frozen chicken nuggets.
Indeed, the bratwurst and saucisson from this farm (Woodbury, Conn.) Ox Hollow Farm–They also sold similar processed foods. However, the meaning of the term “nugget” is slightly different. When you’re eating nuggets, you’re no longer sitting at a long barn table strewn with chopped radishes and cultured butter. You’re in a plastic booth at a children’s arcade, and ketchup is ready. You are buying fast food at a drive-thru window. Or you’re a busy mom carrying dinosaur-shaped chicken sheet pans from the freezer to the oven.
At least, that’s how I’ve experienced chicken nuggets since I was a kid. Many weeknight dinners consisted of breaded and toasted nugs served with tater tots. I wasn’t interested in burgers at first, so the only thing I would order at fast food chains during road trips were nuggets (dipped in ketchup, not syrupy-tasting barbecue sauce). Either way, I loved them.
A few weeks later, after tasting Ox Hollow Farm’s juicy yet reassuringly nostalgic nuggets and trying many other brands in the frozen aisles of supermarkets, I spoke by phone with Stephanie Maynard, co-owner of the family farm.
Maynard, who grew up eating fast food, vowed to do things differently for her children and founded Ox Hollow Farm with her husband, Mark, in 1997. They raise beef cattle, pigs and chickens and sell them locally and online. nuggetNew as of last year, it can be shipped nationwide. The farm was working with a processor to produce ground chicken to utilize surplus breast and drumstick meat, and was looking for value-added products to make from it. The resulting nugget’s ingredient list looks a little more like a cookbook recipe than most frozen food labels, including chicken, oats, sea salt, fennel, cayenne pepper, apple cider vinegar, and celery powder as a natural binder. The bread flour comes from a Mennonite bakery that uses whole wheat flour instead of bleached white flour. By comparison, the average ingredient list in a bag of mass-produced chicken nuggets sold at the supermarket is much longer and includes obscure additives such as “food starch” and “natural flavors.”
“We’re serving the equivalent of fast food, which I think is quick and easy and resonates with the idea that we all need something that simplifies our lives,” Maynard says. Adults without children ask if they buy nuggets at the farmer’s market. Some people are hesitant, she admits. They might say you need to wait until your niece is in town and try it. “We’re always looking for excuses to eat fun and easy food, but we’re busier than kids,” she says. “I always tell adults, ‘It’s okay, adults eat more than children.'”
Ostensibly aimed at children but loved by all ages, chicken nuggets are junk food across America, but in recent years they’ve become a little less junky and a little more adult-friendly. In grocery store freezer aisles and farmers market coolers alike, brands are reinventing nuggets as a vehicle for nutritious trends and culinary creativity, while maintaining the nostalgia and convenience that made them so beloved. They’re pumped with protein macros, fried in beef tallow, and stuffed with cheesy jalapeños. Today’s nuggets may be gluten-free, grain-free, seed oil-free, and still shaped like dinosaurs. Increasingly, they are sold not only to children but also to busy adults, athletes, college students, and health-conscious families. And behind many of them lies a broader shift in the way Americans think about comfort foods. People still want food that feels familiar and luxurious, but they also want convenience and nutrition.
Indeed, chicken nuggets stand apart from breaded chicken breasts, strips, and whole chicken chunks. Because the chicken underneath that breading has been ground, ground, or otherwise processed in some way. These may all look like similar foods, but you can’t make alphabets or animal shapes out of other things. This feature helped place nuggets firmly in the realm of children’s food.
“The reality is that all adults love them,” says Christina Zwicky, the Chicago-based company’s chief marketing officer. really delicious food. “People are looking for better-for-you versions of the foods they already love.”
Founded in 2017 as a better-for-you frozen food brand, Real Good Foods began selling breaded frozen chicken chunks and strips in 2022, quickly becoming the company’s top seller and flagship product. Since then, several breaded chicken SKUs have appeared, including popcorn chicken, dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, and seed oil- and gluten-free varieties. Prominently displayed on each package is the protein content per serving, a number between 20 and 23 grams.
“We figured out a way to provide a delicious breading with increased protein without sacrificing texture,” says Zwicki. The secret ingredients to make it happen include whey protein and chickpea flour. That’s why these products are becoming increasingly appealing not only to children but also to busy, health-conscious adults, she says. In the 1980s and 1990s, Zwicky recalled that many convenience foods aimed at health really sacrificed taste. Think fat-free cookies made with sugar substitutes. Real Good Foods is trying to do the opposite with its frozen chicken products.
Zwicki calls her family of four, including two teenage boys, “kitchen ninjas.” They use strips and chunks to make salads and stir-fries. They serve the nuggets with ketchup and ranch. Either way, she’s happy that it takes about 15 minutes to go from the freezer to the plate and you get all the protein and nutrients. “This makes meal planning at home so much easier. We just stock our freezers with all shapes and sizes,” Zwicky says.
They’re pumped with protein macros, fried in beef tallow, and stuffed with cheesy jalapeños. Today’s nuggets may be gluten-free, grain-free, seed oil-free, and still shaped like dinosaurs.
Even traditional frozen food brands are finding new customers for nuggets. pilgrim’sis an 80-year-old brand that started as a small feed store in Texas in 1946 and has grown into a nationally distributed frozen food brand. We relaunched in 2024 with a new recipe and renewal. brand voice He promised to make chicken “silly fun again.” Our current selection of air fryer-made frozen chicken nuggets includes flavors like butter popcorn and dill pickle, as well as “full” chicken nuggets oozing with things like cheesy jalapeño and chicken pot pie filling.
“Quick-service restaurants have been pushing bold chicken experiences for years, but grocery stores haven’t caught up,” says Chelsea Parker, senior director of marketing at Pilgrim’s. Despite the stagnation in innovation, chicken nuggets have been a big driver of growth for the brand for several years, Parker said, and the only new products were different-sized packages rather than exciting new flavors. With this, the brand has taken a whole pig (or maybe a whole chicken?) approach to chicken nugget innovation, creating a crunchier crumb and a flavor that’s satisfying even without sauce.
Currently, more than half of Pilgrim’s frozen chicken customers are adults without children, Parker said. “Kids still love it, but this is made for people who want a quick, easy-to-eat chicken meal,” she says.
Chicken patties, chicken sausage, chicken meatballs, chicken cold cuts, etc., as well as chicken nuggets, chicken sticks, Invented by Cornell University professor Robert C. Baker He was tasked with revitalizing the ailing poultry industry in upstate New York, and invented many value-added products (and some were regionally famous). chicken barbecue sauce recipe). At the time, chicken wasn’t the ubiquitous protein in the United States that it is today. In fact, it is less available than beef and pork. Until the 1990saccording to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Baker’s invention has successfully brought chicken to the forefront of the American diet, and our appetite for chicken has only grown. of USDA estimates Americans will eat 42.2 billion pounds of chicken in 2026.
Chicken nuggets continue to evolve outside the supermarket. At high-end restaurants across the country, make homemade nuggets It will be topped with caviar, similar to the signature dish served at the 2024 U.S. Open by New York-based Korean fried chicken restaurant Coco Duck. (Even McDonald’s got into this) mcnugget caviar action. ) influencer teeth create your own homemade nugget recipe, healthy At an angle that is like mixing in “hidden vegetables”. Even fast food giants that have traditionally shied away from the genre, such as Taco Bell, are starting to release their own nuggets. flat cross brand nugget For example, Super Bowl tie-ins shaped like the Philadelphia Eagles mascot are now popular.
But frozen, ready-to-heat chicken nuggets have become a popular item in my house ever since my toddler started eating solid foods and has since shown no interest in most solid foods. Before I discovered Ox Hollow Farm’s nuggets at the farmers market, I might still have had my eye on this whole category. But any hesitation I might have had about the nuggets quickly disappeared as I watched my son gleefully “boo” his breaded morsels into mayonnaise and ketchup, then eat a few bites of it of his own volition (a rare victory). Now I peck, munch, and munch on the nuggets frequently and stock them in the freezer. with chinese dumpling. The cycles of life brought me back to some of my first comfort foods. And, well, I cook less.
