Hamburgers were under attack!

For years, Americans had been in love with burgers. And few companies sold more burgers than McDonald’s. But in 1977, the U.S. government warned Americans that eating too many beef burgers was unhealthy. Eat chicken instead, experts said.

Chicken?!

McDonald’s leaders panicked.

The company had grown rich by offering tasty fast-food burgers at a bargain price. How could they make Americans fall in love with chicken the way they had with burgers?

The answer—the chicken nugget—would change fast-food history.

Chicken Genius

The Nugget Is Born

Like a chicken-obsessed Thomas Edison, Baker spent hours tinkering in his lab in Ithaca, New York. He and his team experimented with different mouthwatering creations. Chicken hot dogs! Chicken meatloaf! Chicken sandwich slices!

But Baker was especially proud of the chicken stick: a bite-size chunk of ground chicken coated with golden-brown batter. It had taken hours of experimenting to come up with a recipe that wouldn’t crumble apart when fried. No one had ever seen anything like it before. And just like that, the original nugget was born.

Baker and his team called their invention the “Chicken Crispie.” They published the recipe for anyone to copy for free. Yet this chicken masterpiece didn’t catch on—until nearly 20 years later, when McDonald’s was facing its big hamburger crisis.

Instant Hit

After the U.S. government put out its burger warning, leaders at McDonald’s knew they had to come up with a new menu item—and fast.

The company’s head chef experimented with possibilities. Chicken pot pie? Taste-testers wrinkled their noses. Bone-in fried chicken? KFC already did that. Onion nuggets? Just . . . no.

But wait: What about chicken nuggets?

Right away, McDonald’s leaders knew nuggets were a winning idea. Luckily for them, the company had Baker’s Chicken Crispie recipe from years earlier to help them craft the perfect nugget.

In 1983, Chicken McNuggets launched in McDonald’s restaurants across the country. They were an instant hit. Diners who had given up burgers fell in love with this crispy creation. Later, experts would learn that these deep-fried nuggets were no healthier than burgers. But by then, it was too late—the nugget had already become an American classic.

Baker never made money off his most famous invention. But he achieved his goal: America turned into a nation of chicken eaters. Today, we gobble up more than 2.3 billion orders of chicken nuggets each year. And they aren’t just a fast-food item. They’re everywhere—cafeterias, kids’ menus, the grocery store.

So the next time you bite into a chicken nugget—or a tofu nugget—you can think of Baker.