Chicken goujons – we all love them but how much do you actually know about them? Here’s some titbits of information about the golden goujon!
- What is a Goujon?
A goujon is a thin strip of food, usually chicken or fish, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. But, a Goujon was also the name of a French automobile manufactured from 1896 until 1901 – you’ve probably seen a few battered cars but I doubt they’d be as tasty as our Coosters Chicken Goujons! - Is a Goujon Made of Chicken or Fish?
The word goujon derives from the French word ‘Gudgeon’ which is the common name for a number of small freshwater fish. However, a goujon is also commonly used to refer to strips of chicken. The upshot is that you can buy both fish goujons and chicken goujons, depending on your preferences, or both if you like a bit of variety and the taste of both! - Chicken Goujons AKA
Chicken goujons are also known as chicken fingers, chicken tenders, chicken strips, chicken fillets to name a few variations – they might be shaped a bit differently but the contents are much the same, aren’t they? - Who Invented the Chicken Goujon & When?
Goujon, chicken tender, chicken finger, chicken strip or chicken nugget – when it comes to identifying who made the first goujon it proves to be a hard one to answer and depends on whether you consider all of these chicken bits to be the same thing or different. The Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire, US claims that it invented the ‘chicken finger’ in 1974 but ten years earlier, Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York is credited with inventing Buffalo Wings – surely fingers came before wings or did they?Robert Baker is cited as the man who came up with ‘chicken sticks’ in the 1950’s while studying at the Cornell University, however his work wasn’t patented. In 1970, Baker founded the Institute of Food Science and Marketing at the university and is credited with over forty food innovations which included turkey, cold cut, and poultry. As a result he became known as the ‘Thomas Edison of poultry’.Others credit Frank Perdue. Perdue Farms was the first well-known chicken brand in the US. In 1971 Frank became the face of the company’s first major advertising campaign which used the tag line ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken’ but is a tender chicken and a chicken tender the same thing?One thing that can be agreed on is that the 1970’s was the era where chicken goujons, tenders and so on increased in popularity.
Whilst McDonald’s definitely didn’t invent the chicken goujon, they did patent ‘Chicken McNuggets’ which they sold in various branches of McDonalds in 1980.
If you’re fascinated by the dawn of the goujon read the history as we know it on New Hampshire’s History Blog and decide for yourself who deserves the credit!
