A chicken nugget is a molded piece of chicken product, breaded or battered, then fried or baked. Fast food restaurant

Fast food restaurant

A fast food restaurant, also known as a Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service...

s typically deep fry their nuggets in vegetable oil, such as coconut oil.

The chicken nugget is a meat product that was invented in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker

Robert C. Baker

Robert C. Baker was an inventor and Cornell University professor who invented the chicken nugget as well as many other poultry related inventions...

, a food science

Food science

Food science is a study concerned with all technical aspects of foods, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption, an ideology commonly referred to as "from field to fork"...

 professor at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, and published as unpatented academic work. Dr. Baker's innovations made it possible to form chicken nuggets in any shape.