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You are here: Home / Dinner / Grain-Free Oven Baked Chicken Nuggets

Grain-Free Oven Baked Chicken Nuggets

March 21, 2016 By Taesha Butler 21 Comments

Chicken nuggets: the American staple of childhood just got a little healthier. And tastier…..if I do say so myself.

For some reason, most children go gaga over chicken nuggets. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I can speculate that it has something to do with their adorable, bite-sized, dunk-in-whatever-sauce-they-fancy ways. However, the kind of chicken nuggets you buy at the grocery store or that are served at restaurants are often full of sodium and additives. Perhaps worst yet is that these commercially prepared chicken nuggets are made with the ground up leftovers from the chicken butchering process….the part that no body else wants. I don’t know about you, but the last thing that I want to be serving my family is something is made from the throw-away parts of chicken that have been “seasoned” with preservatives and other chemicals that enhance the flavor, but certainly not the nutritional value of the chicken.

If all you mamas and papas are starting to freak out because your fussy eaters put up force fields around themselves when they see something OTHER than those processed chicken nuggets being served at  dinner time, take a deep breath and keep reading. Homemade chicken nuggets are ridiciulously easy to make. Not only that, but they freeze beautifully so that you can stock yourself up on rainy Saturday afternoon and have a stash of healthy chicken nuggets to call upon when an emergency dinner is needed. 

There are many ways to make homemade chicken nuggets, but they often call for bread crumbs or wheat flour. With many people opting or needing to omit grains entirely from their diet these days or others who are just trying to scale back on how many they consume (like my family), the universe seemed to be calling to me to to create a grain-free (and dairy-free) chicken nugget recipe that was not only healthy, but so tasty that those picky eaters would drop their guard and get on the healthy-chicken-nugget train.

Here is what I came up with. They go GREAT with my Homemade Ketchup, by the way! 

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound skinless chicken breasts (I strongly recommend buying organic, local, and/or pasture raised if possible)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup almond meal
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast (check to be sure it is gluten free. Here is a gluten free brand)
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

  1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F and line a large baking pan with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
  2. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
  3. In one small bowl, crack open the egg and beat it.
  4. In another small bowl, combine the almond meal,  nutritional yeast, garlic powder paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir to evenly mix everything.
  5. Toss a few of the chicken pieces in the egg and then transfer them over to the almond meal “breading” mixture, tossing again to evenly coat them with the pieces pieces and flours. Place on lined baking sheet. Continue this processes until all of the chicken has been “breaded.”
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy warm or store leftovers in fridge for up to 5 days or in freezer for a month.

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Filed Under: Dinner, Whole30 Tagged With: chicken, chicken nuggest, chicken nuggets, clean eating, dairy free, grain free, healthy chicken nuggets, healthy dinner, healthy kids, kids eating whole, oven baked chicken nuggets, paleo, paleo chicken nuggets, real food, whole food, whole30, whole30 chicken, whole30 chicken nuggets, whole30 dinner, whole30 kids

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Irena Macri

    March 21, 2016 at 5:42 pm

    Oh, I love chicken nuggets and these look super simple to make, especially as I don’t have to fry them.

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      March 22, 2016 at 2:45 am

      Yes! They are simple as could be and yay for oven baked glory!

      Reply
  2. Kim

    March 24, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    what is the purpose of the yeast in the recipe? I’m just curious if it’s ‘needed’ as I’m allergic to yeast.

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      March 24, 2016 at 7:52 pm

      The nutritional yeast adds a cheesy flavor to the nuggets and is totally fine to omit!

      Enjoy!

      Reply
  3. Amanda

    April 9, 2016 at 1:10 am

    These turned out tasty, however they stayed "powdery". The chicken was cooked perfectlt, but the breading was pretty loose. Any suggestions?

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      April 11, 2016 at 7:54 pm

      Oh no! The several times I have made them that has never been an issue! Perhaps adding an extra egg so that there is enough of a binding agent!

      Reply
  4. Anja

    May 6, 2016 at 6:53 am

    Healthier chicken nuggets – yes please! I need to try this 🙂

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      May 18, 2016 at 4:19 pm

      They area household favorite! Hope you enjoy

      Reply
  5. Aimee

    June 25, 2016 at 4:55 pm

    Is it 1/2 cup of coconut flour? Recipe just says "1/2". 😉

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      June 25, 2016 at 8:13 pm

      Whoops! Typo! Fixed now and yes, 1/2 a cup!

      Reply
  6. Simo

    June 21, 2017 at 3:20 pm

    My son is allergic to tree nuts, including almond and coconut. Any suggestions on an alternative grain free breading?

    Reply
  7. LEANNE

    May 9, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION ON ESTIMATED CALORIES? MY DAUGHTER AND I MADE THESE LAST NIGHT. DELICIOUS! WE ARE BOTH IN A FAMILY NUTRITION RESEARCH STUDY AND HAVE TO TRACK ESTIMATED CALORIES OF EVERYTHING WE CONSUME.

    Reply
  8. Tiffanie

    August 7, 2018 at 3:34 am

    Love this recipe!! My 2 and 4 year old loved them! So did my husband. Followed the recipe exactly except I added an extra egg to dip the nuggets in. Easy and Delicious! I will be making these on a regular basis. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      August 8, 2018 at 8:10 pm

      I am so glad they were a hit!

      Reply
  9. Nanz

    November 1, 2018 at 5:45 am

    Hi Taesha, these look great. Any suggestion on what to use instead of almonds as my daughter’s school is nut-free? Thank you!

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      November 3, 2018 at 9:29 pm

      You could use oat flour instead!

      Reply
  10. Jenna scott

    February 2, 2019 at 2:03 pm

    Good morning :). Can I prep these ahead of time and cook that night?

    Thanks!
    Jenna

    Reply
    • Taesha Butler

      February 5, 2019 at 3:10 am

      Hmmm. I’ve never tried and would worry that the breading would get soggy or fall off before cooking. I have made them ahead of time and frozen then for future use though, if that helps.

      Reply
  11. Jessica

    May 2, 2020 at 12:46 am

    Did you freeze them before or after cooking

    Reply
    • Taesha

      May 2, 2020 at 1:36 am

      I would do after

      Reply
  12. ปั้มไลค์

    July 21, 2020 at 1:31 am

    5 stars
    Like!!

    Reply

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Hi! I'm Taesha! I help busy people fall in love with healthy eating with my simple, family-friendly, veggie-loaded recipes. I believe that real food should taste amazing AND be easy to make!

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