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OK, I think I've got this figured out...
If you assume that a chicken can only come from an egg that has been laid by another chicken, the
problem seems insoluble. However, if you take evolution into account it becomes clear that
this assumption is not true.
The chicken as we know it evolved from an earlier species of bird, so the first-ever appearance
of a chicken occurred when one of these chicken-like birds laid an egg containing an embryo that
was slightly genetically different from itself. This mutation may have been very small indeed,
and it may have occurred many times before it became established as a distinct new species. Of
course there are many different breeds of chicken and many wild fowl that are similar to the wild
ancestors of the modern domesticated chicken, so defining exactly which birds count as a chicken
and which do not could be quite challenging. It would also be impossible to find out precisely when this
first true chicken appeared from the limited information available in the fossil record.
But however chickenhood is defined, the first bird to meet that definition must have been born from
parents which were slightly genetically different and were therefore not quite chickens themselves.
This primal fowl started life in an egg, therefore the egg came first.
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