Simple Chicken Nuggets

I've made chicken nuggets countless times.  I've made them in a variety of ways.  But I have always used chicken breast or roasted chicken.

Last week I put chicken nuggets on my menu...then went to the freezer to get chicken...and found I had no chicken breast.  Hmmm.

I did have some ground chicken, so I figured I'd go with that.  I had no recipe and not a lot of time to prepare dinner.  And I had my usual little "helper" in the kitchen (Abram thinks he must be held whenever I'm cooking so he can watch and try to get his hands on whatever I'll let him).

I came up with an easy, delicious chicken nugget recipe that we all loved.

This is a great recipe if you're trying to get your kids to eat homemade chicken nuggets instead of a fast food version.  By using ground chicken you can make them round...or whatever shape you want really :)  They look like the typical nugget, but they only have good stuff in them.

I used a combination of bread crumbs and freshly grated parmesan cheese for the breading.  You can skip the cheese if you want.  And you can sub wheat flour, coconut flour or almond flour for the bread crumbs.

I also used egg yolks for a binder.  If you can't eat eggs you can leave them out.  They will still hold together.

One other bonus about this recipe - they are baked.  Don't get me wrong, I love to fry things in healthy fat like coconut oil, butter and lard.  But it can be messy and you have to monitor the stove.  I like it when I can prepare dinner, stick it in the oven and forget about it until it's time to eat.

You can prepare a large batch and freeze them for quick lunches any time.  They didn't last long enough here to freeze any :)  Serve them with homemade ketchup, honey mustard or barbecue sauce.

This post is linked to Real Food Wednesday and Fat Tuesday.

Simple Chicken Nuggets
dairy free, nut free, grain free, gluten free, egg free options

1 lb. ground chicken (or turkey or pork)
2 egg yolks (optional)
seasoning (I used sea salt, garlic powder and seasoning salt)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

3/4 cup bread crumbs, wheat flour, coconut flour or almond flour
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Grease a large baking sheet.

Mix the chicken, eggs, seasoning and cheese.  In a separate bowl mix the breadcrumbs or flour and cheese.

Take a small scoop of the chicken mixture.  Drop it into the breadcrumb mixture.  Roll it around until it is coated.  Place it on the baking sheet and press down until desired thickness.  Repeat until all of the chicken mixture is used.

Bake the chicken nuggets for 30-35 minutes, flipping them over after 20 minutes.