These chicken bites have two flavor kings which set them apart. First, is the freshly grated Parmesan, because cheese makes everything better. And second, is the red and green chilies, packing heat and be-speckling the nugget. My bigggggest flex, after starting this blog, has to be, that I make fast food at home. Like I make my own street-style bun kebab, dynamite shrimp, and spicy potatoes. It helps me control soooo much! The type of oil I use, the quality of my ingredients, and the way I want to cook it.
Ingredients and Substitutes
The ingredients are very simple, and the highlight of the dish is the red and green chilies! They look super cool dispersed in the chicken mix.
Boneless Chicken – Don’t use store-bought ground chicken. It has a lot of moisture and won’t give you a firm nugget mix. Instead, use a food processor to process chicken breast or thigh. Seasonings – You need dried thyme, salt, black pepper powder, garlic powder, soy sauce, and vinegar. Chilies – The red and green chilies I used are jalapenos. They are de-seeded and de-stemmed to reduce their spice levels. You can use this as a placeholder to even use bell peppers instead. Cheese – This nugget recipe uses Parmigiano-Reggiano which is a hard cheese. You can substitute it with any hard cheese available to you, like Manchega or Gorgonzola. Egg – I add an egg to the nugget mixture and one to make the egg wash for coating. Breadcrumbs and flour – I used homemade breadcrumbs for this recipe, you can use panko breadcrumbs or even ground cornflakes to coat the nuggets.
Simple tweaks to make this recipe healthier
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
Method
I’ve put together all the steps in a simple pictorial for you to see how easy this is to make. PROTIP: If you find it hard to handle the mixture, freeze it for 20 minutes and then proceed to coating.
Expert Tips
Don’t use store-bought ground chicken. It has a lot of moisture and won’t give you a firm nugget mix. Instead, use a food processor to process chicken breast or thigh. Use the chilies as a placeholder to put in any vegetable you’d like to sneak in. Honestly, nuggets are a great way to get in some broccoli or cauliflower unnoticed. Parmesan cheese is a hard cheese and you can easily add more stringy cheese to this recipe if you’d like more of a cheese-pull kinda nugget. The best way to coat the nuggets is to keep one hand for wet ingredients and one hand for dry. This prevents any clumpy messes that we have all been into. Adding water to the beaten egg used for coating will give you crispier nuggets.
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Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!
