Homemade Chicken/ Turkey Nuggets

Saturday, I decided to try my hand at homemade nuggets in the hopes of getting Emma to eat some meat. She liked Ian's allergy-free chicken nuggets, but they are super expensive (almost $5 for 16 tiny things) and I am trying to have the girls eat the same things. So, I decided to make my own so that all my kids could eat them. Also, I am trying to avoid buying too many processed foods. Making them myself also allows me to control the ingredients and use organic and/or locally grown meat and remove corn syrup. Also, I could use olive oil instead of a soy oil blend, since Emma doesn't tolerate soy, at all.

You could just as easily subsitute regular wheat flour instead of oat flour and feel free to add veggies to the meat puree. The concept behind homemade nuggets is rather simple: puree the raw meat in the food processor, add a few spices (and veggies if you so desire) make little balls out of the puree. Then dip the pureed meat balls in flour, then egg, then flour. Fry in a sauce pan with 1 1/2 cups or so of oil. Nuggets are just glorified meatballs that are fried and tend to be made with chicken or turkey rather than beef.

This time, I used ground turkey and oat flour, so they were slightly darker. I also added a raw carrot. Claire and Emma liked them but Caroline refused to eat them. This is rather atypical of Caroline- she is usually the easiest kid to feed, but she wasn't feeling 100%. Also, she doesn't typically eat that many chicken nuggets since she eats lunch at school. Claire has them once a week at least, so I really wanted to make them healthier for her.

Once they are cooked, you could freeze them... I would have, but they are all gone. To freeze them you could place them on a cookie sheet, cover them with wax paper and stick it in the freezer for an hour or so and them place them in a bag or other storage container.

Ingredients:

2 boneless skinless chicken breast (or about 1 lb of ground turkey, chopped pork, etc)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp EACH of parsley and oregano,
1/4 tsp Each of Pepper and onion powder
1/4 vegetable of choice (carrots, broccoli, etc)- This is optional, but a good way to sneak some veggies.

2 Eggs- beaten (to dip)
1 cup or so of flour (I used Oat flour, but you could mix oat and rice and/ or add some corn meal for texture)
about 1 1/2 cups of oil

1. Heat oil in a heavy duty skillet or sauce pan on medium-high heat while preparing the nuggets.

2. Cube meat (chicken, turkey or pork)- skip this if you already have ground meat

3. Place meat, spices and vegetable (if using) into a food processor and blend until it is a fine paste.

4. Place the flour on a large plate and the eggs in a small bowl, ready to work with.

5. Roll the chicken/ turkey/ meat paste into 30 or so small balls (smaller than golf balls- the smaller the easier they are for a toddler)

6. Roll the chicken balls into the flour, then the egg and then the flour again. Press the ball down to make a nugget. Repeat with the rest of the chicken/meat paste.

7. Test the oil to see if it is ready. To do this, sprinkle a bit of flour into the oil. If it bubbles quickly and right away, the oil is ready. Place as many of the little balls as possible into the pan. Fry until the bottoms are golden and then turn and fry again. Each side will t ake about 4-5 minutes.

8. Remove the nuggets from the oil and place them on a towel lined plate.

9. Enjoy. They are great with some homemade ketchup!