Chicken Nuggets

Chicken Nuggets are a right of passage in the American diet. At least they are if you are a kid born after 1980 in the United States. Take a quick poll of the children in your house and ask them what they think of Chicken Nuggets. I would venture to say there would be some sort of shouting of exuberance after you ask them that question. Chicken Nuggets are heaven on earth.

For me, my experience with Chicken Nuggets were no different, as a kid that was the ultimate thing that I could have. Being the child of Iranian Immigrants, Chicken Nuggets had an even greater significance. They were always a special treat, my mom couldn’t make them the way I wanted so we would always either get them at McDonald’s or she would buy me some from the grocery store that you could bake in the oven. Remember the kind of nuggets that had cheese in the middle? Yeah those were awesome.

McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets were something else though, they were the perfect combination of crispy and tender. Whenever I had them as a kid I always was sad when I ran out. This was before the time of being able to order a 20 piece, I’m talking the 4 piece people, the 4 piece Chicken McNugget is the biggest tease around. You literally can’t eat it without wanting to devour like 50 more.

But I digress, Chicken Nuggets were a huge part of my childhood and influenced what would become my favorite foods as I grew up. What became a passion for Chicken Nuggets, quickly moved to Fried Chicken, which then moved to just loving all things fried. Not the best combination for healthy eating!

Chicken Nuggets have transformed over the years, you see all kinds of varieties now. From all white meat chicken nuggets to panko crusted chicken nuggets, the chicken nugget spectrum is vast and overwhelming. But for me, the true chicken nugget will always be the Chicken Nuggets from McDonald’s.

So how do you recreate that magic? You use Chicken Sausage. Now the McDonald’s folks they only use breast meat, rib meat, and the tenderloin to create the all white meat Chicken Nugget. They also use a tempura batter to make that awesome crust. What I did here, is not that, by using chicken sausage instead I think you can actually build more flavor because you are incorporating more cuts of meat into the nugget. Then by using breadcrumbs in lieu of tempura batter you get a great crispy crunch with each bite.

The trick is you just take the chicken sausage meat out of the casing and then you’re home free. If you want to grind your own chicken meat go ahead, but I’m hesitant to using my blender or food processor to grind up chicken meat. (See Salmonella).

Enjoy this recipe and you’re welcome, in advance.

 

 

 

Recipe – Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients

1lb of Chicken Sausage

1 Cup of Flour

1 Cup of Breadcrumbs

2 Eggs

2 Tsp. Salt

2 Tsp. Garlic Powder

2 Tsp. Thyme

2 Tsp. Black Pepper

Peanut Oil or Coconut Oil

Method

Remove the chicken from the sausage casing. Form them into 2 to 3 inch wide discs.

Dip them in the flour, then dip in the eggs, then dip in the breadcrumbs, repeat. Place on a piece of parchment paper or a wire rack to allow the coating to stick to the sausage.

You can choose to deep fry or pan fry these. I pan fried them. In a cast iron skillet or deep pan, pour about a cup of peanut oil into the pan.

Heat the oil, make sure it’s hot before you place your nuggets into the oil. Test by flicking some flour into the oil, when it begins to crackle you know it’s hot enough.

Carefully place your nuggets into the oil a few at a time. Be careful not to overload the pan, this will bring the temperature of your oil down causing your nuggets to take longer to cook and to be greasy.

Fry the nuggets on both sides, then place on a rimmed baking sheet, when all of your frying is done, bake the nuggets in the oven at 300 for 30 minutes to cook through.

Then serve and enjoy!