Healthy Chicken Nuggets - With An Unlikely Ingredient
Wednesday, January 23, 2013 at 5:00AM
If I told you to get your pickle juice and prepare to make chicken nuggets, you might think I was crazy.
That, however, is one of the key ingredients in our new favorite recipe.
This Healthy Chicken Nuggets recipe was a winner in our house. Best still, it was EASY.
I served the nuggets with a simple baked sweet potato.
Allow two hours for the recipe (simply because the chicken needs to marinate one hour) start to finish.
Ingredients
- 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/3 cup low fat buttermilk
- 1/3 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 1/2 cup Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 large egg, slightly beaten
Directions:
- To prepare the chicken nuggets, combine first 3 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag. Marinate in refrigerator one hour, turning occasionally.
- Place panko in a large skillet; cook over medium heat 3 minutes or until toasted, stirring frequently.
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Sprinkle chicken evenly with 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt.
- Place panko in a zip-top plastic bag.
- Combine 2 tablespoons water and egg in a shallow dish; dip half of chicken in egg mixture. Add chicken to bag; seal and shake to coat.
- Remove chicken from bag; arrange chicken in a single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat procedure with remaining egg mixture, panko, and chicken.
- Bake chicken at 400° for 12 minutes or until done.
Of course, I keep all of my recipes in my Plant to Eat account.
You know how much I love Plan to Eat!
And, the recipes are all cataloged on my Health Pinterest Board.
Thank you for joining me on the journey to better health in 2013. In many ways we are putting our health above "school" this year, but I think teaching my children about good health is one of the most important jobs I have been charged with as a mother.
Enjoy!
Reader Comments (6)
These sound great! I will have to try them out. We love chicken nuggets. Do you think it would work with regular bread crumbs?
I will be coming back for this recipe! You have some great ones!
We are so going to try this!! It looks delicious and fits with our better eating plan! Thanks for sharing.
i used to buy chicken breasts when they were on sale and make bags and bags of these homemade chicken nuggets. I would mix the panko breadcrumbs with the normal ones just to stretch the panko. They are a bit more expensive!
Now I don't use wheat anymore, so the way I found to do these is using almond flour, that I grind myself in my blender, or pecan meal that you can find at grocery stores. The nuts add more protein to the meal without the irritant of the wheat.
Once you have coated all the nuggets you layer them on a cookie sheet and freeze them. Once frozen, bag them into portions. Once you need them, place them into an oven at 375 F for about 20 minutes or less, depending on your oven. They are moist and just wonderful.
Here is another hint: I don't use the egg wash at all!! The stickiness of the marinate is enough to make the crumbs adhere to the chicken!!
How fun that you are sharing your discoveries!! :)
Wow! NEVER would have thought to use dill pickle juice. Looking forward to trying this recipe. THANK YOU!
p.s. - I made chicken salad using plain yogurt instead of mayo, and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't miss the mayo (or the fat!)
@ Cindy Irvin
I looooove mayo and always make my chicken salad with it. Looking for a way to avoid the mayo, I used one avocado the last time I made chicken salad. Just mixed the avocado in the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and used my hands to mash them together. I had seen it done in one of Guy Fiori's show and I thought "this will not work". Well, it did!! The chicken salad turned out creamy like if it had mayo, healthier because of the added good fats from the avocado, WITHOUT the taste of the avocado.
I do recommend that you add a splash of lemon juice and eat it all the same day, because the avocado tends to oxidize and turn green. But other than that, it was yummy!!! :)