What Is Chicken, nuggets and How Can I Use It?
If chicken, nuggets has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 1 recipe to try it in.
Key Points
- Bite-sized breaded chicken, fried or baked, sold frozen or made fresh at home.
- Bake or air-fry frozen ones from the freezer; the microwave leaves them soggy.
- Homemade: coat breast chunks in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, then fry or bake.
- Give pieces space so they crisp instead of steaming, and cook to 165°F (74°C).
- Reheat leftovers in a hot oven or air fryer to bring back the crunch.
What are chicken, nuggets?
Chicken nuggets are bite-sized pieces of chicken, breaded or battered and fried or baked until the outside is crisp. They come two ways: frozen from a bag, made from ground or chopped chicken pressed into shape, or homemade from real cuts of breast.
The appeal is simple. They cook fast, kids eat them without complaint, and they turn a plain piece of chicken into finger food you can dip.
How to Use Them
Frozen nuggets are a heat-and-eat shortcut. Bake or air-fry them straight from the freezer until hot through and crisp; skip the microwave, which leaves the coating soggy.
Homemade is the better eat if you have ten extra minutes. Cut chicken breast into chunks, coat in seasoned flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, and shallow-fry or bake. Hot & Spicy Chicken Nuggets works this way, building the heat into the coating.
Serve them with something to dip. Honey mustard, barbecue sauce, ranch, sweet chili, or plain ketchup all suit them, and a squeeze of lemon cuts the fry on a plainer batch.
Cooking Notes
The coating is the whole point, so keep it crisp. Bake or fry on a rack or in a single layer with space between pieces; crowd the pan and they steam instead of crisping.
Whatever the size of the piece, cook chicken nuggets through to 165°F (74°C). Homemade nuggets from raw breast especially need to hit that, since a thick chunk can look done outside while the center is still pink.
The usual mistake is overbaking to chase crispness.
Push it too far and the small pieces dry to little pucks before the coating ever crisps. A hot oven or fryer and a short time beat a slow, long bake.
Buying and Storing
For frozen nuggets, whole-muscle or breast-meat versions eat better than the reformed, finely-ground kind. Keep them frozen until you cook them.
Cooked nuggets keep three to four days in the fridge, and crisp back up best in a hot oven or air fryer rather than a microwave.
Quick facts
Where to find chicken, nuggets: Chicken, nuggets are usually found in the frozen foods section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.
- In Chinese
- 鸡，鸡块
- British (UK) term
- Chicken, nuggets
- en français
- nuggets de poulet
- en español
- nuggets de pollo
Recipes using chicken, nuggets
There are 1 recipe that contain this ingredient.
Hot & Spicy Chicken Nuggets
Frozen chicken nuggets served with a spicy cream cheese and salsa dipping sauce with cumin, garlic, and cayenne. A quick party snack or kid-friendly appetizer.
