Chicken Nuggets

While I was going over a menu for a client I was telling her about this recipe and talking about sugar not being in the recipe.  She looked confused and said, “But Julie, chicken nuggets don’t usually contain sugar so what do you mean by that?”  So I went into her freezer and pulled out her frozen chicken nuggets.

She didn’t even realize there was sugar in them.  There is sugar in just about everything!

Read the labels

Reading the labels on the back, not just the front, is where you are going to find what truly is inside.  If there are a lot of ingredients that you don’t recognize then please don’t eat it.  They are preservatives so the food doesn’t go bad.  We should not be eating those.  Those are what are causing a lot of issues for people.  All these chronic illnesses that are called auto-immune, which just means they don’t know what the cause is, are caused by all these chemicals and preservatives they have to put in the food to make it taste better, look more appealing, and stay on the shelf longer.  DO NOT EAT THEM if you are suffering from any illness.  THEY DO HARM, they do not heal.

Meal Prep

Okay I will get off my high horse and give you this yummy recipe.  I like to cook stuff on Sunday nights so I have it throughout the week and make it easier to heat stuff up or cook quickly.  I do it for my clients as well and it makes it just so much easier to have meals planned.  That way you won’t rush to the drive thru’s and eat junk.  (However, I do like Chipotle for quick fast food.)

EASY CHICKEN NUGGETS

• 4 pieces of your favorite bread (about 3/4 cup) ground up in food processor. (Great for day old bread!)
• 1 pound chicken breasts cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of seasoning (I love the Costco Organic No Salt Seasoning)
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

2.  I just put the bread in my processor and ground it till it resembles bread crumbs.

3.  I then dry toast it till it gets a nice brown color.  Doing this step makes it so you don’t have to broil the nuggets at end of cooking time because it’s easy to burn them that way.  Put bread crumbs into a bowl and mix in the parmesan cheese and set aside.

4.  I then throw my chunks of raw chicken into the food processor and ground it up.  You can buy ground chicken and skip this step but doing it this way makes them so much fresher.  And you can be confident in knowing there aren’t any fillers in your ground chicken.  It’s very easy to do.  You’ll see.  I can’t find my pic I took of this step but will take another one when I do these again!

5.  I then add the oatmeal and spices to the ground chicken and mix them all together.

6.  Grab an ice cream scooper or spoon out about 1 tablespoon of the chicken mixture, roll into a little ball, and then press into the bread crumbs to form a little nugget and fully coat both sides.  Do this until all mixture is done.  (Helps to moist hands with water so it doesn’t stick to you.)

7.  Place nuggets on a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes (turn them over half way through).  You can spray a little olive oil over them if you want them crispier.  (Some ovens differ in heating times so I always recommend checking one nugget first before pulling them out to make sure it’s fully cooked through.)

You can serve with some organic ketchup or some good barbeque sauce (but get some that doesn’t contain any caramel color).  If you or your kids are used to having them saltier or sweeter, I suggest adding some salt into the sauce and not the mix.  You can also sweeten barbeque sauce with some maple syrup.

Just put these in an airtight container and place in fridge so you have them on hand throughout the week!