Ahhhhh- the chicken nugget. So many feelings…
So normally, a chicken nugget dinner in my house is an “I give up” kind of night. Either I don’t have time, groceries or the fortitude to make something a bit more.. hmmm shall we say, impressive.
But leave it to me, to complicate things!
My kids really do like chicken nuggets, but I’m not too keen on processed foods in general so I thought I’d ante up on their request and make them from scratch. With a little twist of course, the addition of a flavor favorite around here- BUFFALO SAUCE!
This is really quite simple actually. You simple cut up some bite sized pieces of chicken , breast or tenders, let them marinate in a mixing bowl with Frank’s Red Hot. You want let them sit in the sauce for AT LEAST an hour.
Honestly, I had them sitting in the sauce overnight because I had some unexpected carpooling duties arise and I was unexpectedly unable to cook dinner at all that night! See- even when u plan your meals, sometimes it still doesn’t work out! Blessing in disguise though, because the chicken really had A LOT of that tangy spicy flavor from the hot sauce. And we are all BIG buffalo sauce fans- so woohoo!
So once the marinating is over and done with, all that’s left to prepare this little guys is the breading. As with any breading situation, you are going to have 3 stages: flour, egg, breadcrumbs. Easy as 1,2,3!
As you go through and bread each nugget, lay them on an oiled baking sheet. When you are ready to heat them up, 15 minutes at 425 degrees will do the trick. On this night I served them with some steamed broccoli and smashed blue and buffalo baby potatoes!!! And you know what- chicken nuggets never looked (or tasted) so damn good!!
Buffalo Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs white meat chicken breast or tenders
- 1½ cups breadcrumbs panko or traditional
- 1 cup flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp ground mustard powder
- 1 cup Frank's Red Hot sauce
Instructions
- Cut chicken meat in approximately 1×1 inch cubes. Sizing does not need to be exact
- Place chicken in mixing bowl with hot sauce and let marinate for at least 1 hour in refrigerator, or overnight in preparing in advance.
- Preheat over to 425°
- Set up breading station consisting of bowl of flour, bowl of beaten eggs and bowl of breadcrumbs with added seasoning.
- One by one, dredge the chicken in flour, dust off excess, then egg, drip off excess and lastly breadcrumbs to coat. Place on oiled baking sheet.
- Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, timing will depend on how large you have cut the chicken.
- Serve warm with blue cheese dressing as dipping sauce if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Amazing. Simple & healthy. I think my husband will even love this one. Making it tonight.
if he’s anything like my husband, he will love them too!
These were awesome. I had to make some slight adjustments (my kids can t tolerate anything too salty or spicy but they love chicken nuggets). I cut the salt back a little and didn t put the spices or hot sauce directly in the nugget. Instead I used Chef Johns buffalo wing sauce (which is amazing) as a dipping sauce for the adults. Also I didn t read the recipe ahead of time all the way through so I didn t realize how long they need to refrigerate I used the suggestion of cutting down the time by putting them in the freezer and it worked perfectly. I will be making these again but this time will plan ahead!
Thank you so much for your comment! I’m so glad you all enjoyed!