Every time we go out for dinner or lunch and my kids ask for chicken nuggets, it makes my toes curl. I really don’t like them eating the super processed ones, but they do seem to really love them.

So I was determined to make some home-made ones for them that snuck in a bit of extra goodness on the side.

These ones are packed with veggies but my kids didn’t notice in the slightest – Mummy win!!

• 800g Chicken thighs

  

• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1.5 tbsp coconut aminos (or soy sauce)
• 1 tsp Massel chicken stock powder
• 1 large carrot
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 420g tin corn kernels, drained and rinsed
• 2 large field mushrooms
• 1 400g tin chic peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 heaped tsp of no egg powder
• 1/3 cup cornflake crumbs
• 1/3 cup oat bran(omit these to make them totally gluten free)
• 1/3 cup rolled quinoa
• 1 tbsp Nutritional yeast flakes
• Oil to cook

Place the carrot, zucchini, corn, chic peas and mushrooms in the food processor and blitz well until quite fine. (For a Thermal Cooker: Do carrot first on speed 9 for 7 seconds, then add other veg and use speed 8 for 20 seconds. Scrape down sides)

Add in garlic, stock, no egg and aminos then process again. (Speed 7 for 15 seconds).

Place veggie mix in a bowl on the side.

Add in chicken thighs and process until thighs are very finely minced (Speed 8 for about 20 seconds)

Return veggie mix to the chicken and process until mix is evenly distributed.  (Speed 6 for about 30 seconds, then scrape down and again on speed 6 for another 10 seconds)

Then mix together the cornflake crumbs, yeast flakes quinoa flakes and oat bran.

Place a spoon of the chicken mix at a time into the dry mix and roll until well covered.

Either heat oil in a fry pan and cook over quite a high heat for about 3 minutes on both sides, or until golden brown and cooked through.

Or if you prefer less oil (and fewer calories … about 53cal each for this method) place them on a lined baking tray, spray with a little oil and cook in a preheated 200C oven for 25 minutes, then turn and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Serve with more salad or veg if you like … we took ours out to share at a work party … so it was taken with just tomato sauce and there were no complaints 😉

I cook in bulk as often as I can, in order to have meals to freeze, so this actually makes quite a large batch – 40 large nuggets… I made them bigger than the store bought ones too by using a dessert-spoonful of the mix – told the kids that they were ‘Monster Nuggets’. If I don’t have time to cook them all, I freeze half of the meat mix to defrost and crumb next time there is a nugget demand! The left overs also re-heated well for lunch the next day.

Enjoy 🙂