Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Ground Chicken

How to make homemade chicken nuggets with ground chicken. A healthy way to make baked nuggets in your oven. Want them extra crispy, cook homemade chicken nuggets in air fryer too.

How to Make Toddler Chicken Nuggets with Ground Chicken

Ok let’s be honest, this is likely your toddlers favorite food group. Anything shaped into a nugget is a win and they don’t flinch before digging in. If you make them yourself you can be rest assured that healthy ingredients will be integrated for their bellies. Especially if they have allergies, this is a great way to tailor it just for them.

Easy to tweak to your liking or dietary needs, you could use ground turkey or even sausage instead. I don’t know about y’all but over the years McDonalds nuggets and other fast food joints have definitely changed. They taste a lot more processed now and aren’t my favorite at all. If you’re with me you should give this one a whirl.

Ingredients

• Ground chicken or even ground turkey works
• Eggs act as a binder
• Garlic powder is a nice touch
• White pepper we love
• Salt and pepper are basic seasonings
• Carrots grated you can add for healthy
• Minced ginger is a nice touch
• Green onions diced are optional
• Cornstarch to bind
• All purpose flour keeps it all together
• Thyme is optional
• Italian breadcrumbs is better than Panko

Substitutions

You can make these a gluten free chicken nuggets recipe with the following substitutions. Of course you should ensure that the brand of meat you bought is GF, but the main ingredients that would need to be changed would be;

• Panko GF breadcrumbs would be best
• Almond flour or your favorite GF flour is a great flour substitute
• Arrowroot can be used as a thickener instead of cornstarch

How to hide veggies in chicken nuggets

To make things faster use a food processor for your veggies. Throw them all in and make it real fine at first, then you can adjust later as they get used to the flavor. Blend chicken mixture in a bowl and just incorporate together. Have baking sheet ready after you form them into nugget shapes.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Ground Chicken and Vegetables is a great way to get kids to eat vegetables. I have three girls who used to ewwwww every time I served carrots or anything else out of the ground for dinner. Once I started integrating shredded pieces into other foods though (and telling them after they said they loved it) they over time gained a love for them.

This is a great one for little mouths that aren’t so sure about anything green. Softening as they bake, I guarantee they’ll never know it was even in there.

Chicken legs in air fryer with flour are heathy choices too that taste deep fried but you only use a quick spray of oil to crisp.

Whisk egg in a shallow small bowl, flour in another and breadcrumbs in a third. Make these in a sort of assembly line of sorts. Way better than store bought kids love these. Keep in mind that the prep and cooking will take about 30 minutes to do.

You can jump to recipe at the bottom of this post but here is a rough run down of how these are made. Remember to coat really well with the coating for them to get as crispy as possible. You can use any ground meat but we use poultry just as we did with our favorite Ground Chicken Sloppy Joes.

How to Make Ground Meat Nuggets

• In a large bowl combine ingredients; ground chicken, 1 large egg, garlic and/or onion powder, pepper, salt, shredded carrots, ginger, onions, and cornstarch and mix until just fully combined.
• Scoop out 1 tablespoon of the mixture, shape it into a small rectangle and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  • Repeat the process until everything has been shaped.
  • Chill in the refrigerator for 5 minutes.
• In 3 small separate bowls, place flour, black pepper, thyme in bowl 1, bread crumbs in bowl 2, and the remaining egg in the 3rd bowl
• First, dip the chicken nugget in the flour
  • followed by the egg
  • then finish it up by covering with bread crumbs until all sides are coated.
  • Cook pan fried or baked in the oven

Why won’t my breading stick?

If you coat but they feel still really lose to pick up and transfer to your baking sheet, pan or air fryer you can; bread, set on sheet pan and refrigerate for an hour to firm it up a bit more.

Pan Fried

In a frying pan, add oil and heat over high / medium heat. Add breaded nuggets and fry for 2-3 minutes cooking time on both sides until golden brown. Place on a few paper towels to remove excess oil.

In the Oven

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Liberally spray the nuggets with cooking spray on the tops and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Ground Chicken Air Fryer

Preheat air fryer to 400 F for 5 minutes. Spray chicken with olive oil spray. When full but not overlapping cook for 8-12 minutes (depending on size) flipping pieces over halfway through. For extra crispy pieces spray with olive oil again after flipping over at minute 4. You could throw them into your Ninja Foodi and air crisp as well.

Tip: Ideally you should flip all of them over to the other side halfway through the baking time to get really crispy on the outside. Serve with chicken nugget dipping sauce options of all kind and enjoy.

Can I freeze raw homemade chicken nuggets?

Yes you can! If you love batch cooking you could easily double or triple it, lay on a sheet pan, freeze before frying until solid, then throw them into a freezer bag. Take a few out later to cook when you’re ready. You do not want to cook and then freeze or they won’t come out quite as well.

How to Freeze Leftover Homemade Chicken Nuggets

To freeze the chicken nuggets that have already been fried and baked, allow them to cool completely. Store them in an airtight container. The best way to reheat is to use your air fryer and follow our air fryer frozen chicken nuggets directions. To have a crispier coating, use panko instead of breadcrumbs

The best way to store them is to follow up to step 4. Lay these prepared pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Put this into the freezer for 2 hours. Remove the tray and move frozen pieces into a freezer bag.

Store in the freezer until you’re ready to cook them. When you’re ready, lay on a plate to defrost and continue on as directed below with steps 5 and 6 and then enjoy as though they were fresh.