Foodie Friday: GF Chicken Nuggets

I was having a craving for breaded chicken, so I thought I'd try my hand at making gluten-free chicken nuggets. I based my recipe on this one from Gluten Free Cooking. It produces a panko-style breading which is crunchy and delicious.

These would be great for a healthy GF dinner for a kiddo, and sure to please a picky eater! They turned out really well in nugget form, and I made them a second time as larger chicken strips to cut down on the time involved in preparation. The process is simple but certainly a bit labor-intensive. It may be best completed with more than one person helping.

You will need:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup rice Chex or other rice cereal, crushed
¼ cup Parmesan cheese (optional, but delicious!)
⅔ cup gluten free flour (I used Bob's Redmill GF all purpose flour)
Seasoned salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper

• Preheat your oven to 350° F.
• Pound the chicken breasts between two sheets of waxed paper until they're about ½ inch thick, then cut them into nugget-sized chunks (or strips, or whatever you want):
  
• Prepare three bowls: the first bowl with the GF flour and spices (I just eyeballed the amounts to make a tasty, seasoned flour), 
  
• the second with the beaten egg mixed with the olive oil, 
  
• and the third with the crushed rice cereal and Parmesan cheese.
  
• Lay out a greased baking sheet, and you're ready to begin breading the chicken.
• Dip the chicken chunks first in the flour mixture, coating evenly, then in the egg wash, and finally in the crunchy cereal topping, then lay them on the baking sheet:
  
  
  
• Bake for 10 minutes in your preheated oven, flip them all over, and bake 10 minutes on the second side, then allow to cool just a bit before eating!
  

I ended up making a fairly large batch of these, and since the chicken breasts I used were big to begin with, I had to make more of the cereal coating and egg wash as I ran out. The measurements here are just for proportions. Towards the end, I had just a few chicken pieces left with a bit of the seasoned flour, so we pan-fried the stragglers in some olive oil to keep from having to make more batches of egg wash and cereal. The nuggets were delicious this way, too, and quite a bit quicker to prepare, although they're less crispy and use a lot more oil than the baked version.

I let the large batch of panko nuggets cool on a plate in the refrigerator for several hours, then put them in a large freezer bag and froze them to reheat in the toaster oven for lunches. It was really convenient to have such a delicious and healthy protein all ready to go for a quick meal. I will definitely be making this again soon!

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Linked up at Friday Food at Momtrends, Food on Fridays at Ann Kroeker, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade, Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten-Free and Food and Health Carnival at Lisa's Gluten-Free Advice and Healthy Living.