Chicken Nuggets

4
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Chicken Nuggets are a classic kid favorite meal you can EASILY make at home with just a few ingredients in under 30 minutes baked or fried!

Serve your delicious, fresh Chicken Nuggets with some Crispy Sweet Potato Fries, Shoestring French Fries, or Beer Battered Onion Rings.

Chicken Nuggets on serving plate with ketchup

Chicken Nuggets are a favorite American snack, and they are surprisingly easy to make. In fact, they may end up being one of your new favorite Dinner Recipes. Homemade Chicken Nuggets are much easier to make than you think and are better for you than your traditional fast food. All you have to do to cook them up is assemble the ingredients, dredge your skinless chicken breasts, and cook them up in a skillet.

The nice thing about making homemade Chicken Nuggets instead of getting some from your favorite fast food chain is that you can control what goes into them, so they are extremely customizable depending on what you’re in the mood for. You can also make them even more kid friendly for the pickier members of your family.

As far as chicken recipes go, this one is extremely simple to make. While you assemble the ingredients, you can experiment with a few extra spices, but keep in mind that a little goes a long way. Once you’ve cooked up the Chicken Nuggets and let them cool, serve them up with your favorite honey mustard dipping sauce and enjoy.

Chicken Nuggets collage of prep steps

To keep these nuggets crispy until you serve them, let the Chicken Nuggets sit on top of a metal cooling rack placed over a layer of paper towels on a plate to let some of the oil drain.

If you enjoyed these Chicken Nuggets and want some more delicious dinners to make, next time try Super Crispy Chicken Tenders, Oven Fried Chicken, and Super Crispy Fried Chicken. Our most popular fried chicken recipes, though, are of the copycat variety! Your family will love KFC Fried Chicken, Chick-Fil-A Nuggets, and Pioneer Fried Chicken (if you’re a kid from LA you know what this is!)

How to Make Chicken Nuggets

  • Heat 1 inch oil to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) in a large skillet or saucepan.
  • Stir together the flour, garlic salt, and pepper in a bowl.
  • Dip the chicken pieces individually into the beaten eggs.
  • Press into the flour mixture to coat; shake off the excess flour.
  • Place the coated chicken pieces onto a plate until all the chicken has been coated.
  • Cook the chicken in batches in the hot oil until golden brown and no longer pink in the center.
Chicken Nuggets nugget dipped in ketchup

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add cheese to homemade Chicken Nuggets?

Try dusting the top of your Chicken Nuggets with a handful of parmesan cheese. The cheese will crisp up when cooked, giving the nuggets an extra layer of delicious, crunchy flavor.

Can I use homemade Chicken Nuggets to make boneless wings?

Absolutely! Get saucy with your Chicken Nuggets and toss them in a bit of BBQ or Buffalo Sauce for some easy Boneless Wings.

How do I make Baked Chicken Nuggets?

Follow the steps until you get to the coated chicken pieces.
Spray them with vegetable oil and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes, spraying with vegetable oil spray one more time in the middle of the cooking time.

When is chicken safe to eat?

Chicken is safe to eat when the inside temperature reaches 165 degrees F (73.8 degrees C), according to the USDA’s Official Website.

How to Store Chicken Nuggets

  • Serve: Don’t leave your Chicken Nuggets out at room temperature for longer than about 2 hours. If you accidentally left the Chicken Nuggets out last night, don’t risk eating them.
  • Store: Make sure you wrap any leftover Chicken Nuggets you have in plastic wrap or put them in a sealable, airtight container. They’ll last in the fridge for about 3 days before you need to toss them and make more.
  • Freeze: To freeze your Chicken Nuggets, put them in an airtight container or bag. If you want to make sure that they don’t freeze together, you can layer them with parchment paper or wax paper. They will last up to 2 months in the freezer. Always make sure you allow them to cool to room temperature before you store them to save yourself from getting sick later.
Chicken Nuggets on serving plate with ketchup

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Chicken Nuggets

Chicken Nuggets are a classic kid favorite meal you can EASILY make at home with just a few ingredients in under 30 minutes baked or fried!
Yield 4
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Main
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 large egg , beaten
  • 2 chicken breasts , (boneless skinless) cut into small chunks
  • vegetable oil , for frying

Instructions

  • Whisk flour, garlic salt, and pepper in a medium bowl.
  • Add the chicken to a bowl along with the egg and coat well.
  • Remove each piece of chicken and coat with the flour mixture then place chicken on a baking sheet until all the pieces are coated.
  • Let chicken sit for 5 minutes while you heat up your oil (this helps coating stick better).
  • Heat 2 inches of oil to 350 degrees in a large dutch oven.
  • Cook the chicken in small batches (do not crowd the pot) for 3-4 minutes until the chicken is cooked to 165 degrees and golden brown and crispy.

Video

Nutrition

Calories: 264kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 125mg | Sodium: 1896mg | Potassium: 471mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 110IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 2mg
Keyword: Chicken Nuggets
Chicken Nuggets Collage

Photos used in a previous version of this post.

Chicken nuggets on a plate with ketchup

Chicken Nugget up close
Chicken Nuggets on a plate
Chicken Nuggets

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. These were amazing. Just have one question what would the serving size be after being prepared 8 oz? I’m trying to measure our cabs for diabetic and we did 6 oz as the chicken does shrink during preparation.

    1. Serving sizes become an issue because people will have ingredients of different sizes. Packaged products are weighed and measured at the time of creation which makes their measurements accurate. The only way to accurately know the measurements of meals is to weigh and divide.

  2. My kids are insanely picky when it comes to chicken nuggets, so I was a bit nervous about making these, but my kids loved them! – A total win!

    1. I’d flash freeze them and then place them into an airtight storage bag or container. Makes it super easy to pull out how many you’d like to heat up. Hope this helps!

    1. I preferred frying but there are instructions for baking them in the post above if that’s what you prefer. Enjoy!