Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Homemade chicken nuggets are the best way to treat your kids to a delicious, nutritious and wholesome snack without any preservatives. Once you taste these you will never go back to store bought ones again!
Ingredients
- 500 grams tender boneless chicken preferably breast fillets
- 1/3 cup plain flour / maida
- 1 large egg or 2 small ones lightly beaten
- 150 - 175 grams potato chips / crisps I prefer Lays, any flavour * see notes
- salt & pepper to taste
- oil for shallow frying
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into nugget sized pieces. Make sure they are as even as possible in terms of their thickness. Slices of medium thickness would be perfect as they will cook faster.
- Wash the chicken and allow it to drain on a colander. Pat dry with a clean kitchen towel or tissue if required.
- Marinate the pieces with salt & pepper and keep aside for anything between 20 mins - 4 hours.
- Prick a small hole in the bag of chips, let the air escape so that the packet shrinks. Then take a rolling pin and thrash the chips till they evenly turn into a powder - go ahead, take all your frustration on them!
- Place the flour, beaten eggs and the chips powder in three shallow plates.
- Coat each chicken piece in the flour (shake off the excess), then dip it in the egg solution and finally coat it with the chips mixture. Place on a plate. Repeat the process till all the chicken is used up.
- Heat oil in a skillet and shallow fry the chicken nuggets on a medium heat till they turn golden on both sides. * see notes.
- Serve piping hot with some ketchup or cheese dip or eat them plain or as an accompaniment to your meal.
Notes
1. The flavour of the chicken nuggets can be so versatile - use your favourite flavour of Lays chips! My favourite is Sour Cream & Onion. In the above pictures I used Lays Chili flavour. Any flavour works well. If you wish you can add some chilli powder at the marinating stage (don't make it too spicy if you are serving the nuggets to young kids) 2. For shallow frying use plenty of oil in the skillet. Don't gasp! You need to use a little extra oil than you normally would for shallow frying. To make the process less sinful once you are done with the frying tilt the frying pan at an angle so that all the oil drains to one side and the nuggets on the other - this helps the nuggets to release any excess oil. You can also place them on absorbent kitchen tissues before serving. 3. Ensure that the heat of the oil is maintained at a medium. If the oil is too hot the nuggets will burn quickly on the outside and remain uncooked on the inside. I usually like to flip them once after the first minute and then flip them back again and then again- so each side receives heat twice. 4. To freeze the nuggets simply place them in a box and stack them up using a butter paper / baking parchment (or even freezer safe plastic sheets) in between. I usually store stacks of 6 per level. This helps you remove only the desired number of nuggets for frying and they don't clump together.