Chicken nuggets just 37 per cent real deal

Top Hat Chicken Nuggets. Photo / Wendyl Nissen

Best to make your own and avoid all those additives.

I've looked at chicken nuggets before but never have I seen a packet which contains so little chicken.

When I fried some of these up they tasted more of salt, fat and spices than anything resembling chicken.

Ingredients in order of greatest quantity first:

Chicken (37%)
This is very low for something which is supposedly a piece of chicken. Looking at the chicken mix inside the batter, it seems to be a processed blend of many ingredients, as this list will no doubt prove. Other brands use pieces of chicken breast which I think is preferable.

Water

Flour (wheat, maize)
This will be for the batter and comes from wheat and corn.

Soy protein
This is a cheap and common filler, probably in the processed chicken.

Modified starch (1404,1412)
These are oxidised starch (1404) which is starch oxidised with sodium hypochlorite and distarch phosphate (1412), which is starch prepared with phosphates.

Wheat bran
In my opinion, this is filler.

Dextrose
This is a form of sugar. Per 120g of these nuggets you will get 2.2g of sugar.

Yeast
This will be a raising agent in the batter.

Salt
These taste very salty. You will get 540mg of sodium per 120g serve.

Raising agent (500, 541)
These are baking soda (500) and sodium aluminium phosphate (541).

Acidity regulator (263,327,451)
These are calcium acetate (263), calcium lactate (327) and diphosphates (451). They will be in here to help stabilise the product when it is frozen.

Hydrolysed soy protein
This is soy which has been broken down chemically to release the protein. This ingredient is commonly used in processed foods as a flavour enhancer.

Sunflower oil
This is a mostly unsaturated fat oil.

Spices

Flavour enhancer (621)
This is MSG. Some people who eat MSG experience burning sensations, numbness, chest pain, headaches, nausea and asthma.

Dehydrated onion

Emulsifiers (433, 481)

These are polysorbate 80 (433) which is a synthetic compound and sodium lactylate (481) which is a sodium salt.

Spice extract

My recommendations:
Give these a miss and instead buy 500g of chicken breast and chop it up into nugget size pieces. Then make a simple batter by combining 1 & 1/2 cups of flour and 2 tsp baking powder (sifted) with an egg, 1 cup water (or soda water for a fluffier batter), and 1 tbsp olive oil.

Whisk it all together, let it sit for 10 minutes then coat the chicken pieces in it and fry them.

These nuggets will cost you a little more and take 20 minutes of your time, but you can safely feed them to your family knowing that they are eating 100 per cent chicken and not 15 additives.

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