Easy Baked Chicken Parmesan Nuggets

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Easy, baked homemade recipe, coated in a delicious mozzarella and tomato sauce. Simple made from scratch dinner for all the family to enjoy. Who doesn't love chicken nuggets! They're child-friendly, and great to serve as a main meal, along with the delicious cheesy tomato sauce, or you can serve these nuggets without the sauce, for example, if you're having a buffet or party.

You can even add the nuggets to a lunchbox or picnic. This recipe is made from scratch, and a great family favorite. 

The chicken pieces are coated in a combination of cheddar chips, garlic parmesan Triscuits, garlic croutons and parmesan cheese. As you can imagine, there's heaps of flavor and crunch to these. The tomato sauce is a rich, cheesy sauce, made up of canned tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.

Of course, if you have fresh tomatoes, you can always make up your own fresh tomato sauce. Do whatever is convenient for you! 

As for the chicken, you can use any cut. Breast meat or boneless chicken thigh is the best. 

This recipe is done in a few stages, so you need to cook the pasta (if you are serving these nuggets with pasta!), coating the chicken and baking, and then making up the quick tomato sauce to go over the pasta. Feel free to do all of the recipe or just the sauce or chicken nuggets to suit. 

This recipe is also very popular with kids, young and old! Of course, kids always love chicken nuggets! 

This recipe has been kindly shared by one of our Lovefoodies supported, Peggy Mitchell. Peggy is always looking for new and creative ways to feed all her children and this recipe got the thumbs up from all her family so it's definitely a keeper recipe!

Prep time

15 minutes

Cook time

30 Minutes

Serving size

6-8 persons

Ingredients

• 2 lbs / 1 Kg chicken, cut into bite sized pieces

Dry Rub

• 4 TBS of onion powder
• 2 TBS of pepper
• 2 TBS of garlic powder

Wet Coating

• 6 eggs

Dry Coating

• 1 cup / 150 g of sour cream cheddar chips, crushed
• 1 cup / 150 g  of garlic parmesan triscuits, crushed
• 2 Cups / 300 g of garlic croutons
• ½ cup / 60 g of corn meal
• ¼ cup / 30 g of Parmesan Cheese

Tomato Sauce

• ⅓ cup/ 65 g  sugar
• 2 TBS onion powder
• 2 TBS pepper
• 2 – 32 oz / 900 g cans of crushed tomatoes
• 16 oz / 450 g can of tomato sauce, such as Passata
• 2 Medium size mozzarella cheese balls

Pasta

• Enough pasta for 6 - 8 persons

Instructions

1. Cut the chicken of choice into bite-sized pieces.

2. Combine all ingredients for dry rub into a bowl. In a separate bowl, add all the dry coating ingredients.

3. Make the wet coating by beating  6 eggs in a bowl

4. Add the chicken pieces, then transfer the chicken to the dry rub, coating them thoroughly.

5. Take each chicken piece and dip in the egg mixture once again, and then into the dry coating mix.

6. Continue to do so till all your chicken is coated. 

So the coating order is as follows:

A - Dip chicken in beaten egg

B- Coat in Dry rub

C- Dip chicken in beaten egg

D- Dip chicken in Dry Coating mix.

7. Put them on a greased baking sheet in the oven on 350 F / 180 C / gas 4 for 30 minutes.

8. Combine all your ingredients for the tomato sauce in a medium saucepan, heat until the mozzarella balls are completely melted.  

9. In the meantime have your Ziti pasta cooked and drained.

10. When your chicken is done you can assemble. 

Top tips

Do not add chicken to the sauce as the coating will lose its crunch. Add the chicken to the top of your pasta and sauce when getting ready to serve.

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