When McDonald's introduced the Chicken McNugget in 1981, fast-food fans had never seen anything like it. Some non-chain places sold chicken fingers, but the nugget shape was strictly something bought in grocery stores for home consumption.
McDonald's (MCD) -) created its now famous chicken nuggets because Americans in the early 80s had just started to worry about eating too much red meat. That created a problem for a chain -- really an industry -- where menus consisted entirely of hamburgers, with a fish sandwich as the only real alternative.
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Chicken McNuggets were an instant hit. The chain rolled them out with a marketing campaign that included handing them out in its stores and massive advertising.
The launch of Chicken McNuggets essentially changed the rules of the fast-food burger wars. McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's (WEN) -) were no longer limited to burgers. The three chains could open up their menus, try new things, and expand their horizons.
Offering a chicken nugget, of course, became something every chain had to do. Wendy's managed to launch its "crispy" chicken nuggets (that's how they were branded) successfully but Restaurant Brands International's (QSR) -) Burger King followed McDonald's, which waited until 1985 to follow its rival, has struggled in the nugget space.
You could argue that Burger King struggled with having second-tier chicken nuggets until the chain launched a spicy variety in 2017. That variant followed Wendy's success with a limited-time offer of its own take on spicy nuggets.
Burger King even trolled its rival by offering anyone named "Wendy" a free serving of the new spicy nuggets. Now, while it's not giving any free samples to people named Ronald, Wendy, or even Grimace, the number three burger chain in the US does have a new take on chicken nuggets.
If you want to try Burger King's new Ketchup Nuggets, however, you will have to head to one of its locations in Canada.
Image source: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
Burger King Mixes Two Things That Don't Go Together
While ketchup has long been a fast-food staple for burgers and fries, chicken nuggets have famously used other dipping sauces. There's nothing preventing you from dipping your chicken nuggets in ketchup, but Burger King, McDonald's, and Wendy's have all offered a large array of other choices.
Now, Burger King, at least in Canada, has taken the bold step of putting ketchup right on its new chicken nuggets.
"The new variety of the chain's chicken nuggets are features crispy-fried Canadian white-meat chicken nuggets coated in a ketchup glaze," Brand Eating reported.
Burger King's Ketchup Chicken Nuggets cost $4.99 CAN ($3.77 U.S.) for an 8-piece order.
And while the concept of a "Ketchup Nugget" may seem a little odd to Americans, it actually makes a lot of sense north of the border.
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"The new chicken nuggets take their inspiration from ketchup-flavored potato chips, which are quite popular in Canada," the website added.
Normally, when Burger King launches a new item in Canada, there's a reasonably good chance that a US launch will follow. In this case, that seems much less likely as the chain is offering something that has local, but perhaps not global appeal. In many ways, its similar to how poutine -- french fries with gravy and cheese curds -- is a fast-food staple in Canada, but has not been offered by Burger King, McDonald's, or Wendy's in the US.
