Tender Chicken Nuggets

This week has been a rough one for me. I was sick for a few days and couldn't get a day off, so I had to go into work and sweat through the nausea and cough. Not fun. Although it wasn't something that a lot of Emergen-C and orange juice couldn't fix. So I was good in a few days. Of course I had to lay off of the cooking, but it's a good thing I have a stock pile of recipes growing!

These are a great fast and healthy snack. They could be for your kids, or just the little kid inside of you. No matter how old we get, chicken nuggets always bring us back to those days when we had nothing to worry about other than which toy to play with that day. Besides, who wouldn't want these over those frozen things you get at the store, or the greasy ones from fast food joints? Personally, I would gladly go through the extra effort to get a delicious and nutritious snack. For my dipping sauce I combined a little BBQ sauce and hot sauce. Both were Chipotle, purely coincidence, but a fortunate one at that. This snack, or light lunch, is great because you can season it how ever you want, and dip it in anything that sounds good! :)

The recipe mentioned using a plastic bag to easily coat the chicken, but I didn't have one that was big enough, so I resorted to a large bowl.

My own little recipe. I like things spicy, and I just couldn't resist adding a little heat to these yummy nuggets! So I added just a few drops of hot sauce into my choice of dipping sauce.

Tender Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg white

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º.
2. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese. In a shallow bowl, beat the egg white. Dip chicken pieces in egg white, then place in bag and shake to coat.
3. Place in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 400º for 12-15 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, turning once. 

Makes 4 servings

Nutrition: (6 nuggets) Calories 194; Fat 3g; Cholesterol 68mg; Sodium 250mg; Carb 10g; Protein 30g

Tip: The chicken breasts are easier to cut if they are partially frozen. Also, if you would like to add any type of seasoning (red pepper flakes, cumin, Italian spices...etc) add them to the bread crumbs, to your preferred taste, before coating the chicken