Just what is in a chicken nugget? A lot more than chicken
that’s for sure. Recently I made the colossal mistake of taking a child with me
to the grocery store. Somehow I allowed myself to be talked into not only a box
of frozen chicken nuggets, but another of frozen mozzarella sticks. When we
arrived home with our loot, both boxes were gone within the hour and two of my
children were asking, “Why can’t you buy these all the time?” They were not
happy with my lengthy answer that included reciting the ingredients list on the
side of the nugget box.
Contrary to popular local lore, I am not the meanest mom in
the world. I did feel a twinge of guilt when I looked into their sad faces. Not
enough guilt to land those nuggets in my shopping cart again, but enough guilt
to launch a search for a recipe for homemade chicken nuggets that actually
tasted like the nuggets of their affection but was also good for them. This
inspired me to search further and find a recipe for mozzarella sticks (The greasy,
breaded kind my kids order at restaurants and fill up on before their meal arrives,
not the plain kind that come in those wrappers that require reading glasses and
non-guitar-playing fingernails to open.).
I located two excellent recipes on the website Weelicious
and with a few modifications I’m happy with the version I whipped up last night
to the delight of my diners! The coolest part is that I was able to make triple
batches and freeze the extra nuggets and cheesesticks for future meals that the
kids can fix themselves.
Want to know how I did it? Here you go –
Chicken Nuggets
1 pound chicken
breasts, boneless & skinless cut into chunks
¼ cup whole oats (the
kind that take five minutes to cook, not the instant or minute kind)
¼ teaspoon dried
parsley
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon ground
black (or white) pepper
¾ -1 teaspoon garlic
powder (depending on your pickiness level)
½ teaspoon onion
powder
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup panko bread
crumbs
1 tablespoon parmesan
cheese, grated
1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place first 8 ingredients in food
processor and process until it becomes a big sticky lump.
3. Place bread crumbs and parmesan
cheese in shallow bowl and mix.
4. Shape chicken mush into desired
nugget shapes. (This is where the uber-creative mom might go a little nuts. I
did shape one nugget into a heart, but decided it was too much work and just
went with the standard lump shape after that.) Roll nuggets in breadcrumbs and place on
baking sheet sprayed with coconut oil (or canola oil if you haven’t got any).
5. At this point you can either
freeze nuggets on tray overnight and transfer to a container for later use or cook
them up.
6. Preheat over to 375.
7. Spray nuggets with cooking spray
(coconut!) and bake for 15 minutes. (It will take a little longer if you’re
baking them from their frozen state but we haven’t experimented with that yet.
I’d guess about 5 minutes longer.)
Cheese Sticks
Ingredients
1 pound cheese sticks
(the original recipe says you can cut a block of mozzarella into sticks, but
I’m thinking that might be dangerous and it would immediately alert the natives
that Mom made it)
2 eggs
½ cup whole wheat
flour
¾ cup panko (or
herb flavored breadcrumbs if you want a little more flavor)
1. Unwrap and freeze cheese sticks for an hour.
2. Beat eggs and place in shallow
bowl.
3. Place flour in a separate shallow bowl and
panko in yet another shallow bowl.
4. Dip cheese sticks in flour, then
eggs, then panko and place on greased baking sheet. (Canola spray is fine, but
for even better flavor, use coconut oil spray!)
5. If you aren’t planning on eating
these right away, you can place baking sheet in freezer overnight and later
transfer cheese sticks to a bag for later use. OR
6. Bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes (but
watch them carefully so they don’t overmelt!)
These were the leftovers after my three kids finished eating -
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