Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets
Just like Chick-fil-A, but it tastes 10000x better! And the homemade honey mustard is out of this world!
I have always been somewhat of a late adopter in almost all aspects of life. I was one of the last people on earth to start wearing converse “chucks”. Or make the switch to skinny jeans. I was also very late on the iPhone adoption. And now I’m one of the last people to finally try Chick-fil-A.
The funny thing is, we didn’t even mean to go there. I was craving pancakes so we made our way to a popular waffle house just to find out that there was a 30-min wait on a Tuesday afternoon. So we drove back to our house and on the way home, we passed a Chick-Fil-A when Jason looked at me and said, “It’s time. We have to try this place at some point.”
So we pull up to the drive-thru and ordered 2 chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets and all of their dipping sauces. And boy, was I in for a treat. It was ah-mazing. All of it. The sandwich. The nuggets. Oh, the nuggets. We almost went back because there wasn’t enough nuggets to go around!
But as amazing as that was, I couldn’t help but recreate this at home. I was a bit skeptical because I was unsure if the homemade version could actually top the original but surely enough, it tasted a million times better. Not to mention the epic homemade honey mustard sauce. I’m not even a mustard fan but this – this I could slurp, drink, and gulp down in my sleep. And once you dip those crisp nuggets, you’ll never want to go to Chick-fil-A again!
Copycat Chick-fil-A Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 ½ cups milk, divided
- 1 cup peanut oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the honey mustard
- ¼ cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- To make the honey mustard, whisk together mayonnaise, honey, mustards and lemon juice in a small bowl; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine chicken, pickle juice and 1/2 cup milk; marinate for at least 30 minutes. Drain well.
- Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 1 cup milk and egg. Stir in chicken and gently toss to combine; drain excess milk mixture.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine chicken, flour and confectioners' sugar; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Working in batches, add chicken to the skillet and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve immediately with honey mustard.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Please come up with a recipe for hot honey mustard sauce. Thank you very much
Looks easy. I cant wait to try it.
Hello Chungah I m big fun of your recipes thank you so much! I m was wondering if I can make them ahead and freeze them and bake some when we crave them. If is possible how is the best way to do it. Thank you for your time
The chicken nuggets were very easy to make. I made them gluten and dairy free by using king Arthur gf flour and a non dairy milk. Delicious!
Excellent and easy!
My grown adults ask for this recipe at least once a month. I use Famous Dave’s Sweet ‘n Spicy Pickle juice and add about a table spoon of Emeril’s Essence to the floor mix. FYI both of my kids go to your website for recipe ideas and are never disappointed.
cant wait to try tonite!! thank you!!
have a great weekend!!
Can’t wait to try these, but I have a question. Is the 1 tablespoon of mustard you use a dry mustard or a
hot dog style mustard? I apologize for my ignorance.
Good going girl, both sandwich and nuggets were wonderful, keep up the great work.
Delicious!! I’ve only had Chick fil a once, the place is always lined up to get in and it’s very expensive for my budget. I think it’s overrated. So, regardless of what Chick fil A tastes like, this is a great recipe!! In the keeper box it goes! I made strips instead of nuggets so I had a lot of leftover flour. So next time I make it, that will be halved so I don’t waste so much. The only thing I had to change was peanut oil for Crisco. Patties would be great for a sandwich! Why go to Chick filA when you can make great, fresh chicken at home! Thanks for this! I think I’ll be searching more of your recipes!!
I made and loved this recipe. I didn’t have any plain dill pickles in the house (not a fan) BUT I DID have some polish garlic dill pickles 🙂 AH-mazing. I also like to add a little (like a tbs) of corn starch to the flour dredge (makes them a tiny bit crispier) As for the honey mustard dipping sauce? Outstanding. I just made a triple batch as I picked up some turkey and swiss cold cuts and I’m planning on using this batch on my sandwich and will be sending the leftover sauce home with my daughter who loved it as well
The cornstarch is a technique of Asian restaurants use to make any battered coating crispier.
My 6 year old declared “this is the best meal I think I ever had; it tastes just like Chick-fil-A”.
No he didn’t.
I had Chick-fil-A nuggets for the first time last month and loved them. I searched online and decided to tryout this recipe. I found this recipe to be bland. The honey mustard sauce was nice and made with the plain Greek yogurt. However, I don’t cook anything in oil, nor deep fry. Which is why I have a deep fryer. I tried these in that but it was a failure and took forever. I switched over to a skillet and olive oil. After all was said and done I felt the nuggets had zero flavor. I added more salt & pepper, tried garlic salt, nothing helped.
Thanks for the honey mustard recipe. I guess our search continues for the Chick-fil-A one though.
Let me preface by saying I’ve never had Chick-fil-A before. But this recipe was AMAZING. In a rush I actually missed step #4 (oops!), and we did this in the deep fryer @ 350 instead of on the stovetop. They came out beautifully light and crispy, and the flavor was delicious! My whole family loved it, my kids gobbled it up, and are asking when we’ll make it again. I also made the sauce – none of us are generally fans of honey mustard, but to my surprise, every single one of us loved it with the chicken, and there was none leftover (and I doubled it) lol. Everything I’ve made from your site has been a hit in our home, so I had no doubt this wouldn’t disappoint, but I was pleasantly surprised at HOW good these actually were! Thanks for another great recipe, Chungah!!
we made these with the juice from jalapeno slices instead of pickle juice. came out great! used the leftover nuggets in a chicken caesar wrap the next day
Any suggestions to use the Air fryer to cook?
btw they were great. Never eaten at a CoF restaurant..but we loved these.
Out of Dejon..so used Heinz Caroline mustard BBq sause with the mayo.. it was great.
Ugh I want air fryer recipe toooooo! It’s amazing but would love not to pan fry
The. Only. Thing. At. Chick-fil-A. That. Is. Marinated. In. Pickle. Juice. Is. The. STRIPS!!! The nuggets and the filets are NEVER marinated!!!
I plan to making this.
Oh good grief. Try the recipe or don’t. Your comment is unnecessary.
This recipe was amazing. The chicken was crispy and had a little twang from the pickle juice. My wife absolutely hates pickles, and loved these nuggets. The sauce was also great and very close to actual Chick Fil A sauce. I’d highly recommend this recipe and will be using it again.
My WHOLE family LOVED these! I have had bad luck with frying chicken in the past and was hesitant to try this, but it turned out to be easy and delicious! They are almost the same as Chick-Fil-A! I found a copycat Chick-Fil-A sauce on another website and it complemented these perfectly! Thanks for posting this recipe!
Chick-Fil-A Sauce
https://buildyourbite.com/copycat-chick-fil-a-sauce-recipe/
Soooo delicious! Almost better than Chick Fil A! 10/10 would make again. The honey mustard sauce was great too.