The problem I have had with making my own chicken nuggets before is that they take so long to make with all the individual crumbing etc. So I decided to try something a little different and use natural yogurt for dipping the chicken into.
The great thing about using yogurt in the coating process is that it helps to reduce the fat content, so combined with oven baking (not shallow frying), these nuggets are a much healthier option than other homemade chicken nuggets I have made before.
Homemade Chicken Nuggets Recipe
This recipe is in bulk quantities aimed to serve our family of 7 for a lunch time meal, with some left over. You may wish to halve it if you are looking to serve a smaller number of people.
Ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts (approx 1kg)
- 2 cups natural yogurt
- 4 cups bread crumbs
Method:
Making these chicken nuggets is seriously easy. The hardest part is cutting up all the chicken!
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. So the chicken cooks all the way through, I wanted the chicken pieces to be thinner. I sliced the chicken breasts in half width wise, then cut the breasts into pieces. Try making the pieces as close to similar size as you can for even cooking.
2. Add the yogurt to a large dish. I found my lasagne dish to be perfect for the amount of chicken I was working with.
3. Add the chicken and coat well. I used my hands and just mixed the chicken through the yogurt, making sure all of the chicken had a yogurt covering.
But before you get your hands dirty, grab another large dish, I used another lasagne style dish and pour the breadcrumbs into it. Place the dish close to the one with the chicken in it.
4. Once you have covered the chicken in yogurt, you can then pick up the chicken, shake off the excess yogurt and place it into the dish with bread crumbs. Once you have transferred all of the chicken, use your hands again to cover chicken in breadcrumbs.
5. Then transfer the chicken pieces on to trays lined with baking paper. Bake in the oven for 40 – 45 minutes. I turned the nuggets after 30 minutes.
6. Then sit back and watch them disappear from the plate!
Our Family Menu Plan For This Week.
Day Meal Type | Sat Self Serve | Sun Roast | Mon Morning Cook (for us double batch) | Tue Left Overs | Wed Slow Cooker | Thu Meat and Veg | Fri Fun Night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week Starting: 24th June | Marinated Chicken Sticks and Salad Baking: Testing New Recipe | Slow Cooker Roast Beef | Baked penne with bacon | Left Overs | Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup - seriously lovely comfort soup for cold nights! | Marinated Steak and Garlic Mash | Nachos |
If you are looking for further recipe inspiration, check out my complete list of Family Friendly Recipes. You might like to also check out Planning With Kids Menu Planning App.
The kid friendly menu planning app allows you to:
- Create weekly menu plans quickly, choosing as many meals per day as you would like to plan for.
- Generate the shopping list for all the meals selected.
- Modify the shopping list to check off items you already have at home.
- Email the shopping list to yourself and/or others.
The most popular recipes from the blog have been included and more will be added on a weekly basis. The app will notify you when new recipes have been added, so you will be able to deliver plenty of variety in your family’s menu plans. Each recipe lists the ingredients required, easy to follow instructions and a photo from the blog.
How do you make home made chicken nuggets?
10 comments...read them below or add one
I’ve done this before using mayonnaise – but natural yoghurt sounds great! Thanks for the idea!
Your welcome Nina!
Our kids love nuggets too, but I find they take quite a lot of time for a “simple meal”. This is perfect.
Apparently Nigella Lawson does a similar version, where you soak the chicken pieces in butter milk for an hour or more, then roll them in cornflake crumbs and oven bake them. I’ve heard the buttermilk helps to tenderise the chicken.
I love seeing that you guys do a leftovers night during the week too! I love love love having a leftovers meal. We always have at least one, sometimes two in the winter (with more soups, casseroles, slow cooker meals etc.) This week we’ve got slow cooker BBQ chicken on the meal plan – should be interesting.
The Nigella versions sounds tasty, thanks for sharing Brooke. Will give it a go!
What a great idea. I also make my own chicken nuggets, but always found it took forever, but this version seems so simple, will definitely try next week, may I ask what brand of yoghurt you used, was it a greek yoghurt (asking for taste reasons) thanks for sharing.
Hi Julie,
I used Yoplait Natural yoghurt. I think Greek would work it would just be a bit more tangy.
Nic
Yummo! The yoghurt gave a yummy tang! Our kids loved them and we had some friends for tea and their fussy 3 year old gobbled them up. My 4 year old helped me crumb them and she enjoyed helping and getting crummy fingers. I had a few extra for lunchboxes and they enjoyed the change from sandwiches.
Thanks for the idea!
Thanks for letting me know Alison. The post tomorrow actually shows how my kids took them for lunch too!
WOW – these are DELICIOUS and EASY! Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe. I will certainly be passing it on to friends.
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