Baked Chicken Nuggets
The BEST crisp-tender chicken nuggets that are completely oven baked! Serve with ketchup, honey mustard or Ranch!
Chicken nuggets are loved by all. Toddlers, kids, teens, and all the grown ups (whether we like to admit it or not).
Nonetheless, I am all in here. And it’s a bigger plus that these are completely baked. The secret? Baking these bad boys on a cooling rack using cornflake crumbs, letting them get nice and crisp all around.
And yes, you can absolutely use chicken breasts or chicken thighs. Athlete’s choice. The most important thing is to serve these babies hot from the oven with all your favorite dippers.
Baked Chicken Nuggets
The BEST crisp-tender chicken nuggets that are completely oven baked! Serve with ketchup, honey mustard or Ranch!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
- 1 tablespoon Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing Mix
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ cups cornflake crumbs
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- ¾ cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat a cooling rack with nonstick spray and place on a baking sheet; set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine chicken, Ranch Seasoning and Salad Dressing Mix, cayenne pepper, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; let sit for at least 30 minutes.
- BUTTERMILK MIXTURE: In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg.
- CORNFLAKE MIXTURE: In a large bowl, combine cornflake crumbs, Parmesan and canola oil; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Working one at a time, dredge chicken in flour, dip into BUTTERMILK MIXTURE, then dredge in CORNFLAKE MIXTURE, pressing to coat.
- Place chicken in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet and coat with nonstick spray.
- Place into oven and bake until crisp and cooked through, about 13-15 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
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Could I freeze these? Would you freeze them before or after baking? Thanks!
Absolutely de-lish!!
Is there a substitute for the buttermilk? I cannot have any lactose.
Wow! I have *never* left a review of an online recipe (and I’m very into online recipes), but these are just so insanely amazing that I had to. I could hardly believe how juicy the chicken was, how crispy they were, or the flavor. Cannot wait to wow my nieces and nephew with these – nobody will believe they weren’t fried and from a restaurant!
can’t wait to cook my way through your work
Baked Chicken Nuggets are my idea of the perfect Fall breakfast! Great flavor and so cozy!
This recipe sounds delicious & easy.I made these last night. They were absolutely delicious.Very glad to see this.
I made these last night. They were absolutely delicious. Moist, crunchy, full of flavor! I used chicken breasts.
Hola, the nuggets were delicious! Mine got burnt at first, I guess because I used breadcrumbs instead of cornflake crumbs ah silly me. But for second batch I went to buy some cornflakes, it really came out so good though. The nuggets was so crisp and was golden brown too! Btw can I marinate the chicken for 24 hours to make it more flavorful? Thank you.
Great recipe!!! All picky eaters will even like these. We serve ours with BBQ sauce. I like sometimes just plain sour cream. I’ve combined Ranch and BBQ sauce, too. Whatever you fancy! So versatile.
Good job
Can someone explain what you are supposed to marinate the chicken in? No liquid? Just dry seasonings?
Yep! And it turns out great. When you let it marinate for 30 mine, the chicken juices come out & make it liquidy.
I’m trying this over the week. I like that the chicken marinates for some ti
me.
My daughter has enjoyed the breading in a number of recipes but she sometimes says that the chicken needs more taste. This recipe likely will have good taste on the chicken itself. Can’t wait to try it!!
MaggieB <– one way to do gluten-free is to buy gluten-free sliced bread, dry it up, and then blend it to use as flour substitute
*baking time
This recipe sounds delicious & easy, would bring time be the same if I used panko crumbs in place of the corn flakes ? Would textured be totally different ?
I’d like to know if you tried it with Panko?
I dont have any cornflakes on hand.
If you did, how’d they turn out?
Looks delicious. I will try it tomorrow. sure the kids will love it
Wondering what you would use in place of the regular flour to keep this gluten free? Thanks!
There are lots of 1-to-1 (meaning you can substitute it equally for flour in recipes) gluten free flour’s out there that I’m sure would be a great substitute. King Arthur Flour Company makes a really good one!