These homemade baked chicken nuggets are delicious, flavorful, and easy to make. They have a perfectly crisp exterior and tender inside. Pair with your favorite dipping sauce for a dish that both kids and adults will love!
Homemade Baked Chicken Nuggets
These baked chicken nuggets are much healthier than those that you might find in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. With homemade, you know exactly what’s in your nuggets and can customize them to your liking. Best of all, these baked chicken nuggets are made with only real, recognizable ingredients. You can feel good serving them to your kids and family.
While frozen or fast-food chicken nuggets are convenient, they should be eaten sparingly. Most of these processed versions are high in fat, salt, and sugar. They can also be filled with questionable additives, preservatives, and random unpronounceable ingredients (always a red flag).
Instead, if chicken nuggets are a favorite in your house, opt to make this healthier version. All of the ingredients are fresh and baking them significantly reduces the fat content when compared to fried nuggets. These nuggets still get nice and crispy on the outside while maintaining that satisfying juiciness on the inside.
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Ingredients
These baked chicken nuggets are made with minimal ingredients and can be customized to your liking. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Chicken breast: I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but chicken tenders can work here too.
- Panko breadcrumbs: These Japanese style breadcrumbs have a drier and flakier consistency than regular breadcrumbs. This is what makes the nuggets so crispy!
- Parmesan cheese: finely grated parmesan cheese adds a touch of saltiness
- Flour: adds more texture to the breadcrumb layer and helps the eggs bind to the chicken better
- Egg: acts as the glue to help the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken
- Milk: adds more fat and protein to the eggs which leads to more browning; also helps breadcrumb adhere to the chicken
- Seasoning: I add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and ground black pepper for more flavor
Substitutions & Tips
- If you want additional fiber, experiment with almond flour, oat flour, or whole wheat, instead of the white flour.
- For a crisper outside, place a wire cooking rack on top of the baking pan to bake the chicken. With this method there is no flipping necessary since the air circulates around each nugget.
- To make this dairy free, omit the parmesan cheese or use nutritional yeast and use non-dairy milk. For gluten free, choose gluten free flour and gluten free breadcrumbs
- Change up the spices: add Italian seasoning, old Bay, truffle spice, or cayenne pepper to the breadcrumbs. You can even add Dijon mustard or hot sauce to the egg mixture for more flavor.
Favorite Dipping Sauces For Chicken Nuggets
These baked chicken nuggets are delicious on their own but taste even better when dunked into your favorite dipping sauce. I put out a variety of sauce options to make it even more fun. A few of my favorite sauces are:
- Ketchup
- Spicy ketchup- combine sriracha and ketchup
- BBQ
- Ranch dressing
- Honey mustard or spicy mustard
- Buffalo sauce
- Sweet and sour sauce
These baked chicken nuggets are great for a weeknight meal or serve as an appetizer at a party. However you serve these, they’re guaranteed to be a hit!
Here’s some additional recipes to make with the baked chicken nuggets:
- Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
- Refrigerator Pickles
- Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts
- Oven Roasted Carrots
- Chickpea Salad With Cucumbers & Tomatoes
Baked Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast cut into 1 inch cubes
- ½ cup flour white, white whole wheat, almond, or oat flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Tablespoons milk of choice
- 1 Cup Panko breadcrumbs
- ½ Cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup finely grated parmesan cheese
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Olive oil cooking spray
- parsley for garnish
Honey mustard dip (optional)
- 3 Tablespoons Dijon
- 2 Tablespons honey
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking pans with parchment paper and set aside.
- Prepare your breading station. In a shallow bowl or plate add the flour. The next bowl whisk the eggs well with the milk. The last bowl stir together the panko, Italian breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and the spices (garlic powder through black pepper).
- Dip each chicken piece in the flour and shake off excess before transferring to the egg mixture. Then coat the chicken in egg completely and drain excess before rolling in breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to the prepared baking pans in a single layer, being sure to leave space in between pieces.
- Continue breading process with the remaining chicken. When all the chicken is breaded, lightly spray the pieces with olive oil spray.
- Place the chicken in the oven and bake for 20-24 minutes, or until golden brown, flipping after 12 minutes. If you have a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 165°F to know they’re cooked through completely.
- Optional: While the chicken is cooking prepare the honey mustard dip. Add all the ingredients to a small bowl and mix until well combined.
- Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauces.
Nutrition Facts
What’s your favorite healthy comfort food you like to make? Share in the comments below. I love to try out your recommendations, and maybe other readers will love your ideas, too! Also, be sure to stay in touch and follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest
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