Homemade chicken nuggets are bite-sized chunks of chicken breast turned in beaten egg and paprika-seasoned breadcrumbs, rested in the fridge for 3 hours, then pan-fried in butter and oil until golden and cooked through. This recipe uses 500–600 g of chicken, preferably breast fillet, and serves 4. “Nugget” simply means a small lump, and chicken nuggets are the best-known kind. The ones sold by burger bars and in the freezer aisle are a different product, so making your own is how you know exactly what is inside.
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Recipe
Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
Method
- Cut the meat into lumps of a size that you think is appropriate.
- Beat the eggs into a bowl and whip them together.
- Pour the breadcrumbs onto a plate or a piece of baking paper, and mix the paprika, salt and pepper in.
- Turn the chicken pieces in egg and then in breadcrumbs. Make sure that egg and breadcrumbs cover all sides of the meat.
- Put the breaded nuggets into a bowl with a little of the breadcrumb mix at the bottom and between each layer you put in the bowl. Pour the last of the breadcrumb mix over after you finish the last layer.
- Place the bowl and contents covered in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
- Heat a pan well with butter and oil and fry the breaded chicken over medium heat, one layer at a time. Fry until they are cooked through and have a golden color.
Step by step, in pictures
The six moves in the recipe card, from cutting the chicken to frying the nuggets.
Cut the chicken into chunks- Beat the eggs
- Season the breadcrumbs
- Egg, then breadcrumbs
- Layer in crumbs, chill 3 hours
- Fry until golden and cooked through
Why the breaded chicken rests for 3 hours
The 3-hour rest in the fridge is what sets this recipe apart from most nugget recipes, which bread and cook straight away. After coating, the pieces are packed into a bowl with loose breadcrumbs under, between and over every layer, covered, and chilled. The recipe does not hurry this step, and that rest is why the recipe takes about 3¼ hours of preparation, although the hands-on work is only cutting, coating and frying.
Use chicken that is as dry as possible: the recipe asks for breast fillet “with as little water as possible”, and the beaten egg is what holds the crumbs to the meat.
How to tell the nuggets are cooked through
Chicken is safely cooked when the thickest piece reaches 165 °F (74 °C) on a food thermometer, the safe minimum internal temperature the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service gives for all poultry. Colour alone is not a reliable test, so check the largest nugget in each batch. Fry over medium heat, one layer at a time, as the card says, and keep going until the nuggets are golden outside and at temperature inside.
Homemade nuggets vs shop-bought: what is inside?
These nuggets are cut from whole pieces of chicken, preferably breast fillet, so every piece is solid meat held together by nothing but its egg-and-breadcrumb coat. Industrial nuggets started from a different problem. The chicken nugget was developed in the 1950s by Robert C. Baker, a food science professor at Cornell University, whose work dealt with two things: making ground chicken hold together without a skin, and making a coating that stayed on through frying and freezing.
Shop-bought nuggets are fast food in the plain sense: food that is ready when you buy it. Fast food is not necessarily junk food, which here means food that fills you up little and gives your body little in return, but junk food is usually fast food. Homemade nuggets are not quick, because of the rest in the fridge, but the result is whole pieces of chicken with a single breadcrumb coat. The same egg-and-breadcrumb coat is used for chicken cordon bleu and Wiener schnitzel.
What to serve with chicken nuggets
- French fries, the fast-food pairing.
- Raw vegetables: carrot and cucumber sticks, radishes and tomatoes.
- A salad, such as bean salad.
- Dips: remoulade, chili sauce, ketchup or salad mayonnaise.
- In a bun, a crusty roll or a tortilla, with salad and a dressing.
For a quick salad mayonnaise, mix equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream (or a similar soured milk product) and season it with crushed garlic, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Chicken nuggets: questions and answers
Are homemade chicken nuggets made from breast meat?
In this recipe, preferably yes: it calls for 500–600 g of chicken, ideally breast fillet, cut into chunks. Nothing is ground or reformed.
What holds the breadcrumbs on the chicken?
The beaten egg. Each piece goes through egg and then breadcrumbs on all sides, and the coated pieces then rest in the fridge for 3 hours, packed in more breadcrumbs, before frying.
How long do homemade chicken nuggets take?
About 3 hours 35 minutes in total: 3¼ hours of preparation, most of it the 3-hour rest in the fridge, and 20 minutes of frying.
What is “rasp”, and what can I use instead?
Rasp is the Danish word for dried breadcrumbs, made from dried, finely crumbled bread. Ordinary dried breadcrumbs from the supermarket are the same ingredient.
