Homemade Chicken Nuggets (McDonald’s Style)

Who in their right mind would take perfectly good chicken breasts and toss them in the food processor with some “special” ingredients to make McDonald’s style nuggets? Me? Yes, me. I made these earlier this week because I was in the mood.

They are very similar to McDonald’s nuggets but not yet a perfect clone. The chicken needs to be a little more “foamy” texture. I don’t know how to achieve this. Maybe I should add a little flour and baking powder? Even with the lack of foaminess, the nuggets were really tasty.

3 large chicken breasts, slightly frozen but mostly defrosted and cut into chunks
½ teaspoon MSG
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt
pepper
Emeril’s Essence seasoning
2 eggs, beatened
1 cup flour
oil for frying

1. Add the chicken, MSG, onion powder, parsley, salt, pepper, and Emeril’s essence to bowl of food processor. Process until you get a nice paste. Refrigerate this paste until ready to use (but not more than like a day or so because it will get yucky.)

2. Heat a cast iron skillet and add enough oil for shallow frying. (Shallow frying is fine for this. You don’t need to get out a deep fryer.) In a flat-ish bowl, measure out flour. Prep the eggs in another flat-ish bowl.

3. Remove chicken mixture from refrigerator and roll into small balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter. Flatten the balls into McDonald-like shapes, dip in flour, then in egg and then again in flour. (This is called the three-step breading method.)

4. When oil is hot, add nuggets and fry until golden brown, flip and fry the other side until golden brown. Drain on paper towel lined platter. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.