Name: Teds Haarlem - All Day Food & Drinks
Address: Spaarne 94, Haarlem, 2011 CL, NL
Telephone: 023 207 2304
Price range: €€
Rating: 3.4

Netherlands

Haarlem

Teds Haarlem - All Day Food & Drinks

Bite-sized pieces of chicken, coated in batter or breadcrumbs and deep-fried until golden: chicken nuggets are a product of the American food industry rather than of any kitchen, and they are rated on BiteCritic because people order them constantly, in fast-food chains, pubs and children's menus. The form was developed in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food scientist at Cornell University, who worked out how to bind ground chicken and make a coating that would stick through frying and freezing; McDonald's launched its version nationally in 1983 and made the shape universal. Two families exist. The industrial nugget is ground or finely chopped meat, often with skin, pressed into a mould and coated; the restaurant nugget, sometimes sold as chicken bites or popcorn chicken, is a cut piece of whole breast or thigh. The difference is visible on the inside and should decide most of the score.

A whole-meat nugget starts with chicken breast or boneless thigh cut into pieces of twenty to thirty grams, often brined or marinated in buttermilk for a few hours so it stays moist. The coating is either a seasoned flour dredge, an egg wash and breadcrumbs or panko, or a wet batter of flour, cornflour and sparkling water or beer; a double dredge gives the craggy surface that holds sauce. Frying is at 175 to 180°C for four to six minutes, until the coating is deep gold and the centre reaches 74°C; crowding the fryer drops the temperature and gives a pale, greasy result. Industrial nuggets arrive at a kitchen par-fried and frozen and are finished in a fryer or oven in a few minutes, which is why they taste the same everywhere. Sauces are standard: barbecue, honey mustard, sweet chilli, ketchup, mayonnaise-based dips.

Cut one in half before you judge. Whole-muscle meat shows fibres and juice; a smooth, uniform, slightly spongy interior means processed meat, and it should not be scored as if it were chicken breast. The coating should be crisp, well attached and seasoned, not a soft shell that slides off or a thick batter with a gap under it. The meat should be hot through, moist and taste of chicken, not of salt and phosphate. Mark down greasy, pale coatings, dry or stringy meat, a frozen-tasting centre, nuggets held under a heat lamp until the crust goes leathery, and a plate where the dip is the only flavour. Count matters less than quality: six good whole-meat pieces beat twenty pressed ones. Crisp fries and a proper dipping sauce are expected, not credited.

Chicken Nuggets

A strange way to try the chicken nuggets on a donuts. Also donuts had a sweet chilli sauce on it. The syringe you see had mapple syrup. Overall it was too sweet

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