Fast food nuggets creep me out, so I have abstained for quite a while now. The no nugget streak ended last night thanks to Baked Chicken Nuggets from Allrecipes.com. Seriously allrecipes.com I need some ad sponsorship or something from all this linkage I do! :-D
The nuggets were good, but I wouldn't count them as "great", but that is probably my fault. I left the salt out of the recipe thinking it wasn't needed and for once in my life, I was wrong (it was a shock to everyone else too, trust me).
Ingredients
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (I used local free-range chickens from our local butcher and holy hell, yum!)
1 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (I used panko)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt (essential)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (next time I would do garlic and parsley instead)
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 cup butter, melted (I soaked the chicken in buttermilk for about an hour and then dipped it in to the breadcrumbs. No butter was needed)
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2.Cut chicken breasts into 1 1/2 inch size pieces. In a medium bowl Ziploc, mix together the bread crumbs, cheese, salt, thyme and basil. Mix well. Put melted butter/margarine in a bowl or dish for dipping.
3.Dip chicken pieces into the melted butter/margarine first, then coat with the breadcrumb mixture. Place well coated chicken pieces on a lightly greased cookie sheet in a single layer, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. I needed almost twice this amount before the chicken was no longer pink. Also, I lined the baking sheet with foil and then put a wire rack on the cookie sheet (and then Pam'ed the hell out of it). I flipped the nuggets after 10 min so that 1 side wouldn't get too brown.
Overall, they were fine, and very easy. They paired well with my homemade ranch and homemade honey mustard.Labels: Don't be a lazy ass - make it yourself