Homemade Goodness

I am so excited to share this dish with you. I had this for lunch just a few minutes ago and I can’t wait to blog about it:

I had some salad and chicken nuggets. Wait, these are not ordinary chicken nuggets. They are homemade, made from scratch chicken nuggets. This is the first time that I’ve attempted to make chicken nuggets and I’m very happy that they turned out really good.

I got the recipe from Yummy but you know me, I tweaked it a little.

You need some chicken breast fillet cut into nugget sizes. Marinate the fillets in 1 cup milk and 1T freshly squeezed calamansi juice. Put this in the ref for an hour or so. I think I left it for 2 hours.

In a bowl, combine breadcrumbs, grated parmesan, salt, chili powder and one crushed chicken cube. You might notice that the cubes tend to stick together and end up in globs. To remedy this, Coat the globs with breadcrumbs and crush them again with your fingers. It will be fine like breadcrumbs and will mix easily. After that, just mix everything thoroughly.

Get another bowl and put some flour. In another bowl, break two eggs and add 2T of water. Beat.

Dredge the nuggets with flour, then dip them in the egg mixture and finally, dredge in the parmesan mixture. Make sure that each nugget is evenly coated.

The recipe called for a nonstick/oil spray but I didn’t have any so I just drizzled some canola oil on the nuggets and put them on a wire rack and baked them at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes. The original recipe says 400 degrees but my mini oven can only do 250.

I kept an eye on the nuggets and turned them once in a while. The thinner the nuggets, the better in my opinion. I got one to try and oh, my…. They are absolutely the most incredible nuggets I’ve ever tasted (aside from McDonald’s on days when they do it right). It was a bit crunchy on the outside and soft and moist and juicy inside. You can actually see the juice dripping on the pan while baking. And I am proud to say that they are softer and juicier than McDonald’s nuggets.

The coating was light and the medley of flavors created by the breadcrumbs and parmesan and seasoning beats all those frozen nugget crap out there. The meat itself was a bit sweet with a little explosion of sourness from the calamansi and when you combine all these wonderful tastes, you get a chicken nugget that doesn’t need any sauce or condiment whatsoever. It was perfect. And we ate it straight out of the even. Yes, my sister didn’t care that it was hot. I  cut one in half and went upstairs and told her, “look at my pretty chicken nugget”. She snatched it and put it inside her mouth while I was left screaming, it’s still hot! She went down and asked for more before she and mum ate lunch. They also had the nuggets for lunch. She just had it for appetizers too.

The salad that I prepared was made up of mixed greens, olives, gourmet croutons (I think this was garlic and parmesan), oranges (I wanted Mandarin but we didn’t have any so I just cut one up) and the dressing was honey mustard vinaigrette. The sweet, sour, salty, a bit spicy was absolutely wonderful. It was a perfect light lunch indeed.

I used just half a tray of chicken fillets because I was worried that it might not turn out nice. There are only a few pieces left in the oven. I’m going to make some more later for dinner. I’m so excited for MB to try these. Homemade definitely beats frozen and fast food anytime.