My kids love chicken nuggets- but I’m not so in love with the added ingredients and price. Plus the texture of chicken nuggets is just…nasty to me. I do, however LOVE Chik-fila Nuggets. I could eat at chik-fila 5 days a week and not get tired of the nuggets. Its so good. That being said, I can’t afford Chik-Fila. I love their business model, and that they are closed on Sundays, and that everyone is smiling, and the restaurant is clean, but I just can’t afford their prices very often.
So I needed to be able to recreate something similar at home, for a fraction of the cost. And of course I wanted it to be from scratch. I still visit chik-fila for birthdays, or the occasional play-date, but this recipe is my go-to for the rest of the time. Give it a try! I usually buy several pounds of chicken at a time and cook a LOT of nuggets. Then we freeze the majority of it for quick meals later on. Its a bit of time up front, but its so nice to be able to pull nuggets out of the freezer that I made myself!
Scratch-made Chicken Nuggets
2 lbs chicken
1 egg
2 cups of flour +/-
Oil for frying (or you can spray them and bake them if you like, healthier but not quite as tasty)
Seasoning as desired (I’ve made this with ranch dressing, plain old salt, and garlic- it always tastes delicious)
Cut up your chicken in nuggets or strips- I was lazy when I took these pictures and did it more like chicken fingers than nuggets since it meant less time
Place the chicken in a bowl and crack and egg over it, then just mix it all up until you have the egg coating everything really well. You CAN take 1/2 hour and dip each individual piece into a shallow bowl with an egg in it if your like…but I like to take shortcuts where I can.
Take a large bowl and put your flour in it and drop the chicken pieces in and shake them till covered- I usually do several at a time, the put then directly into the hot oil.
Don’t overcrowd the pan (like I always do) and cook them on medium high, turn halfway through and cook on the other side. These do NOT take long to cook- maybe about 5-10 minutes.
When we have eaten our fill, (thats a LOT with 4 kids in the house) I take the leftovers and set them on a plate and put them in the freezer for about 10 minutes to flash freeze them
Then I just wipe them off the plate into a ziplock freezer bag and place back in the freezer. This way I can pull out a few for a kids lunch, or they can put them in their lunchbox to defrost during the morning. Sometimes they eat them frozen…gross I know.
Enjoy! I’ll share my favorite honey mustard dipping sauce to go with them soon!
