Betsy used to have a serious McDonald’s addiction. I find most things at McDonald’s to be pretty horrible. So it’s been my goal over the last decade to bring her back from the dark side. This Baked Chicken Nuggets recipe is my best effort to easily improve on the fast food version without busting out the deep fryer!
My loving wife really only ever orders two things from there so it means that I make a lot of fries (or she’ll allow a tater tot substitution) and nuggets. The girl loves her nuggets. Luckily Betsy is far from picky so I get the chance to play around with how I make them. If I fry them, I call them NickNuggets because they taste the same (but better) as the McDonald’s variety.
This time though, I decided to make these baked chicken nuggets. Worked like a charm thanks to a simple Parmesan breading!
I made these for our kiddos recently and they were absolutely demolished!
- This recipe was updated March 19, 2019 to add images and improve directions.
Baked Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless chicken thighs, cut into, well, nuggets
- ½ Cup all-purpose flour
- 1 Cup breadcrumbs
- 1 Tablespoon dried basil
- 1 Cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- A good pinch of salt, pepper, and any kind of Italian seasoning you want to use.
- 3 Eggs, whisked
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (optional I guess)
Instructions
- Grate Parmesan and mix with breadcrumbs, dried basil, and a big pinch of salt and pepper.
- Whisk eggs with milk to form an egg wash.
- Trim off fat from chicken and cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces.
- Toss chicken in flour to dust it and dry it out. Then dredge each piece in the egg mixture and finally the breading mixture. Make sure to really press on the breading so it sticks well.
- Lay all the nuggets in a baking dish and drizzle melted butter over the nuggets.
- Bake these at 425 degrees F. for about 25 minutes, turning them halfway through.
- Serve finished nuggets with ketchup, honey mustard, or BBQ sauce.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Making the Parmesan Breading
I decided to use basil for this variety because I had some laying around the house, but you could sub out parsley if you wanted to make these more like chicken parmesan in nugget form.
Add the basil, grate the Parmesan, and mix everything in with the breadcrumbs. The Parmesan is very important. Use good parmesan and pile it high. It forms a great crust after baking.
You’ll also want to set up your egg wash which is just a few eggs whisked together with either water or milk.
Prepping the Chicken Nuggets
You can use either boneless skinless breasts or thighs for this. My personal preference is thighs, but I used breasts on this particular day. Regardless of what you use, try to trim off as much fat as possible and cut your chicken into bite-sized bits.
Once all your chicken is chopped up, toss the nuggets with a light dusting of flour just to dry out it out a bit so everything else sticks to it.
Next, dredge each nugget (or you can do a handful at a time) into the egg mixture and then into the breading mixture. Be sure to really press the breading mixture into the nuggets so it sticks nicely.
Making the Baked Chicken Nuggets
Once your chicken nuggets are breaded, layout all the nuggets in a baking dish. You can pack the nuggets pretty close, but just try not to have any that are overlapping. I like to brush mine with a little melted butter before baking, but that’s optional.
Whether or not you do the butter drizzle, bake these for about 10-12 minutes and then take them out and give them a turn. This just makes sure that they are browning and cooking evenly.
Another ten minutes or so in the oven and you’ll have some deliciously crunchy nuggets. They may not be as perfectly uniform as the fast food version, but that’s kind of weird anyway.
Be sure to test one by cutting into it to make sure that the juices run clear and the chicken is cooked all the way through before serving them. You could serve these with any kind of mustard or ketchup. Strangely, I hate ketchup and Betsy hates mustard. So we normally have to have both with meals like this. We both like honey though so that makes an appearance sometimes also.
These baked chicken nuggets are really easy to make and I’d put them up against the Big M variety any day of the week.
Someday, when I have children, they will think that this is fast food. It’ll be a good time. (UPDATE: Can confirm. Kids like these.)
Here are a few other great chicken recipes!
- Perfect Chicken Rollatini
- Chicken Hotdish
- Asian Chicken Noodle Salad
- Honey Garlic Chicken from Recipetin Eats
Jason Sandeman
I wish you the best of luck convincing your kid. You will be up against jingles, commercials, and peer pressure. My son has the battle cry "nuggets!" when he wants them. Impressively enough, he knows about the clown, the name of his castle, and even how to get there. LOL.
That would be my fault. :D
I love what you are doing here, but sadly, I am not sure I can have this type of stuff anymore. Panko is basically white bread without even the crusts, so it is like a big old bowl of sugar for me.
Now, give me that chicken roasted, and I'll even dip it into the mustard. Then all will be good.
Thank you for a great post!
Basic Living
YUM! Those look positively delicious!
kate
yum, those look so good! good for you for taking on the giant, i bet your's are waaay better! (ask betsy if she gets grossed out by the little bits of grisle like i did when i ate mcdonald's nuggets.)
Nick
Nah… she's a champ. I think she liked McDs because it was easy… which is true for probably 90% of their customers I'd say.
bachatatera
i really like your blog, but this post takes my appreciation to a whole new level. i'm with betsy, i sometimes crave chicken nuggets and french fries from mcdonald's (and always order the same thing). i can't wait to try this out!
Nick
Thanks ;)
Mimi
Wow! I've seen a lot of recipes for baked nuggets lately but these look delicious! I'll have to try them!
I read Jason's comment above. Aren't there whole wheat panko crumbs now? If not, he could make coarse ground crumbs out of sprouted whole wheat bread in the food processor, making sure to grind them coarse. Baked in the oven until just toasted, they would stand in pretty well for the panko but be lower glycemic.
Nick
Correct! They definitely do make a whole wheat Panko. I've tried it out and it's very solid. The white version just happened to be what I had on hand for this time around though.
Anne
Yummy!
I am a ranch dressing kind of girl. Or mustard. Not so big on ketchup.
lo
The best part is — it IS fast food.
These really do look good. And the fact that they’re not deep-fried is a big bonus.
LOVE the whole wheat panko. So good.
Olga @ MangoTomato
I like the use of fresh basil! Have several boxes of Panko crumbs, so might just have to do something like this, but with chicken breasts: not a fan of dark meat.
Salpy Kabaklian-Slentz
Hah! We do this, too! Well, so far we’ve only done it with one thing: the Egg McMuffin. I woke up one morning craving it SOMETHING FIERCE and we luckily had everything on hand (even the Kraft Singles cheese, which is rare in our household). It blew my husband’s mind that we could make this stuff at home. Though he kind of does his own thing with the eggs (he scrambles them; rather than frying or poaching or whatever it actually is McDonalds does). And I’m still working on getting my hash browns up to a level where I feel comfortable feeding them to someone other than my husband…fun post!
Sue
No comparison to how much BETTER these are for you than McDonald's(they look/sound delicious too)! I just read an article that McDonald's nuggets have 20(!) ingredients(MOSTLY preservatives)! Burger King was even worse-30 ingredients!
Stephanie
Do you think I could make them then freeze them? I hate to give my son processed chicken nuggets but he loves them…….
Nick
I think you could definitely freeze them. I could bake them first and then freeze them. Just make sure to let them cool completely then wrap them well in foil and put them in a freezer bag. They should keep fine for a few weeks.
Your best bet for reheating is probably the oven so they stay crispy, but the microwave would work in a pinch I guess.
Cortney
Made these for my roommates tonight! used italian bread crumbs (because I had them on hand vs Panko) and my roommates loved them! Thank you so much for this website! I love it so much, when I plan meals, this is where I turn!
Nick
Thanks Cortney! Glad you like the site!
Liezl
Ohhh I’m sooo full!! I just ate a mountain of these! For some reason, mine didn’t look as crispy as yours. Did you dry your chicken before adding flour? When I added flour, some of it ended up being batter-like. Does adding butter help brown it too?
Nick
Hmm… yea… if your chicken is really wet then just pat it dry with a paper towel. The flour should be a super-light coating just to help the egg stick to it.
Butter helps with the browning but is also just delicious. You could leave it out or drizzle with olive oil though also. Good luck!
Christie
I will have to try these! We’ve replicated them at home too ( for the same reasons) but I used cornstarch for the batter and it’s almost identical to McDonalds. I have fried them, but this gives me even more inspiration to limit that place from our lives!
Nicky
I’ve got a batch on the oven right now, my third time making these for my boyfriend. I’m vegetarian, so I’ve never actually tried them. But the reviews are fantastic. Last time I made these, I was out of eggs & I tried a ground flax-faux egg wash. He was none the wiser & they got gone just as fast! Your site is so bookmarked for awesome & healthy meat recipes. Thanks!
Anna
I just made these (happened to have all the ingredients on hand) tonight, and they were soooo good! The parmesan and basil were just the right touch. I was going to take a picture of it, but my family and I ate it too quickly. It was just that good! I dipped mine in honey.
Rob
Theses turned out great but I did have to alter the recipe because I did not have any Panko. In its place I used Corn Flakes. My family all said these are a keeper. Yum!
courtney
These were really good! My daughter also has a McD’s addiction, which we are trying very hard to break. We tried these on her tonight, and she actually ate one! She even said she liked it! I see a light at the end of the crappy-fast-food-tunnel.
toni deur
Tried it tonight. Loved it. Hey! I love ketchup, its a food group isn’t it? My son who hates dark meat even liked it. Impressive.
cindi
these are 5 star!!!!!!! love them!
allie
I lost my recipe for homemade chicken nuggets. I’ve looked through at least a dozen recipes tonight, and yours looks fantastic! I prefer thigh meat as well, so that caught my eye first-off. These are baked, which is also a very good thing :) I am making a huge batch and intend to freeze the rest. I’ve found that putting the frozen ones into the oven doesn’t work so well – I usually heat up the frozen ones in a frying pan with just a little oil so they’ll be crisp and more like when they were first done. Thanks for this great recipe!
AM
Didn’t have panko – quick cooking oats worked great as a sub. Thx!
Melly
Weird that I hadn’t tried this recipe yet! Yummy. Baby girl loved these too. Thanks, friend!
Jon
Definitely delicious. Definitely better than McD’s. Definitely called out by my 3 year old because “it’s not like the ones from the chicken nugget store.”
Ac
Sounds gross to us but if you Grind it up with a blender or food processor, then bread it, it tastes a LOT more like the nugget store. Lol.
John
This recipe would be great for crumbed brains too!!
Lorenzo
I’ve done this tonight…amazing result! Crispy outside and soft (but cooked) inside.
Elisa
What temperature did you bake these?
Nick
425 F. for 25 minutes. If you click show directions under the ingredients it shows you the step-by-step. :) Good luck!
Elisa Pehler
Thank you but that does not open. I will make them this afternoon for my grandkids.
Have a nice day,
Elisa
Becky
I’m wondering how these would turn out in an air fryer? Anyone tried?
Nick
Hey Becky, I think they would actually be better in an air fryer than in the oven, but I haven’t tested for time, etc… so you might have to experiment a bit! Good luck!