Too old to eat chicken nuggets?.. think again!

Here at H&T Kitchen, we’ve updated the recipe for chicken nuggets to better suit the palates of both kids and adults. It’s also reassuring to know that you can sink your teeth into a golden nugget which actually contains quality meat…minus all that icky stuff found in commercially produced chicken nuggets.

In my younger years…cheesy was a term used to describe my friend’s collection of Michael Bolton music and other associated memorabilia. Nowadays, it’s a term applied liberally to my kid’s dinner menu. It’s pretty much a case of…if you add cheese…they will eat it!

These simple Cheesy Chicken Nuggets are great for Movie night, or can be sandwiched in a nice burger bun with the usual tomato, lettuce and mayo. We like to make a large batch and freeze them. It makes for an easy ‘go-to’ meal for the kids. Too easy!!

You can choose to deep fry..shallow fry… or drizzle lightly with oil and grill or bake them. Obviously, deep frying will produce and crunchier and tastier nugget, but sometimes you just need to avoid the extra calories.

You will need:

2 slices bread

1/2 cup milk

500g chicken thigh fillets, minced *

100g tasty cheese, coarsely chopped

salt and pepper

3/4 cup bread crumbs

Cooking oil (such as refined olive oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil etc.)

NOTE * I prefer the thigh fillet because it is juicer and tastier than the breast fillet.

How to prepare:

Place the bread in a food processor and blitz into course crumbs. Add the milk and allow to steep for a minute or two. Add the cheese, mince and seasoning. Pulse until the cheese is chopped into grain size pieces.

Take a spoonful of the mixture and roll into the breadcrumbs. Flatten slightly, so that the nuggets are about 1cm high. Continue to shape the remainder of the mixture into nuggets.

At this point, you can place the nuggets in a freezer, for future use.

I like to drizzle a little olive oil in a fry pan, cooking the nuggets for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden.

If you are cooking these nuggets from frozen, ensure to take the nuggets out of the freezer 10-15 minutes prior to frying. They may take a little longer to cook, therefore ensure the chicken cooks straight through.

Serve them with a Sweet Chilli Mayonnaise (combine equal quantities of Mayonnaise and Sweet Chilli Sauce).