I may be the only person who hasn't watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, but that won't stop me from sharing this method for making chicken nuggets at home. Hmmm, I learned it from an American Heart Association cookbook which has managed to hide itself somewhere in my house. So rather than specifics, I will share the gist and leave it to your kitchen sense to fill in the gaps.
The idea is this - coated pieces of chicken that are then baked instead of fried. I say coated instead of breaded because the coating could be just about anything suitably dry and crumbly. Panko for example, or crushed up crackers, or even crushed up cheese crackers.
Cut up some pieces of chicken into whatever size you like. Dredge in flour and shake off excess. Dip in a wet material for binding such as beaten egg or buttermilk. Then dip into your crumbly mixture. Bake on a baking sheet coated with a little oil (or nonstick spray) or use a Silpat until done, turning once during baking. I can't tell you how long to bake because it will depend on the size of your nuggets and how hot your oven is, but I would expect that 375 for 20 minutes would do it. Keep checking though so they aren't dry.
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3 comments:
I've never done chicken nuggets (and if I did I would probably shallow-fry them). The food item that appears to fill the nugget niche in my kitchen ecosystem is the Mini Salmon Patty. Take your favorite salmon patty recipe, and form into nugget shape. Allow dipping in ketchup with fingers.
Said salmon nuggets have to be well bound with egg and flour, and done fairly crispy so a nice brown crust forms all over.
One could, I suppose, use minced cooked chicken instead of salmon. But the salmon patties are a pretty good way of increasing the oily-fish component of one's diet without having to worry about obtaining good-quality fresh fish, something I find challenging here because of the time commitment of shopping at several stores.
I have not actually made these in over 10 years (probably explains why I can't find the cookbook that includes the recipe), but post was in reaction to a conversation with a friend. Neither of our children have yet experienced nuggetized meat or even chicken 'fingers' as far as I know, certainly not at home.
Without a vent hood, frying is just such a mess that it pushes me to the oven whenever possible. Perhaps I could shallow fry on the side burner of the grill outside, but I have managed to make even eggplant parmesan nice and crispy in the oven.
Thank you for posting this! I am determined to never buy nuggets again. (Ask me in a few months how that has gone for me :)!)
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