Animal Based Chicken Nuggets.
Animal Based, Carnivore and Keto friendly. Gluten-Free.
These Chicken Nuggets are supper crunchy and delicious. You can eat them plane or with your favorite low carb dipping sauce. We love to dip these in our Animal Based Alfredo sauce, The Date Lady BBQ Sauce and Primal Kitchen has low carb clean ingredient sauces like ketchup and mustard. Kids will absolutely put these away. They are better tasting and better for you than any store-bought nugget that is full of fillers and bad oils.
There are three ways to make this recipe, both are great. Fresh Ground Chicken we think has a better texture, more like a premium chicken nugget. Canned Chicken is easier to store in the pantry and bring out when you need it. It also is precooked and you don’t have to worry about cooking to 165 degrees. Sometimes convenience is a good thing. You can also boil 2 chicken breast to 165 degrees then let cook and shred like the can chicken. They all taste the same but we just think the fresh has better texture. You should try both ways and see which one you like best.
You will need:
1 LB of Ground Chicken or a 10 or 12oz can of Chicken Breast or 2 Boiled fresh Chicken Breast.
1 to 2 Egg.
1-2 Cups of Pork Rhine Panko. Start with 1 Cup and add more as needed. You can’t reuse so don’t add more until needed so you don’t waist too much.
1 Cup of Cheese finely shredded. Cheddar, mozzarella or parmesan are great choices.
1/8 tsp of Salt.
1/8 tsp of Pepper (optional).
1/8 Garlic Powder (optional).
A Food Processor, Blender, Stand Mixer with Beaters or a Sharp Knife.
A Medium Mixing Bowl.
A Small bowl.
A Thin Spatula.
A plate to lay your prepared nuggets on.
Latex free gloves to mix with your hands (optional) You can always wash your hands.
Kitchen Scale (optional)
Kitchen Food Thermometer if using raw chicken.
(Option 1) 2 Cups of Bacon grease or Beef Tallow to fry in a deep skillet.
A Large high walled Skillet. This is our preferred way to cook them, but all methods will work.
(Option 2) Air Fryer.
(Option 3) Baked in the Oven.
A Baking Sheet and parchment paper to line it with.
Let’s get Cooking!
Canned Chicken or 2 Boiled Fresh Chicken Breast:
If you are using the canned chicken or the boiled fresh chicken breast you want to shred it or chop it up into fine smaller pieces. Use a food processor with the S processing blade, a Blender or Stand Mixer with the beaters to shred or chop the chicken pieces up to a fine consistency. If you don’t have those you can always use a sharp knife and chop the chicken up very fine.
In a medium size mixing bowl Combine your Finely chopped Chicken and 1 Egg.
Next add 1 Cup of Cheese, 1/8 tsp of Salt, 1/8 tsp of Pepper (optional) and 1/8 Garlic Powder (optional) and combine well with your hand. The mix is going to look like cookie dough when well combined.
Add 1 Cup of Pork Rhine Panko to a small bowl to bread your chicken nugget with. Start with 1 Cup and add more if needed.
Pinch a small portion of chicken mix out of the bowl and form it into a chicken nugget shape. You can use a scale and weigh out the ounces, we recommend ½ and ounce (0.8oz) or just make them all the same size as possible. As you form each nugget you need to bread them with the pork Rhine coating. Lay the nugget in the panko mix and with your fingers pinch some panko or use a spoon and apply a good coating of panko on top of the nugget. Press lightly and coat the entire nugget with panko. Lay the chicken nugget you just formed and breaded on a plate till they are all done and ready to cook.
Raw Ground Chicken:
If you are using raw ground chicken, you will make a few more nuggets than with the can because you are going to be using a pound of ground chicken. Add in 2 Eggs and 1 Cup of cheese of your choice. The optional spices and because the mixture is raw chicken and wetter than the cooked chicken, we are going to add a ¼ Cup of the Pork Rhine Panko directly into the chicken mix. Combine well with your hand and roll up into nugget size balls all the same size. You can weigh them out in your kitchen scale, we recommend half and ounce (.08oz) nuggets. Lay the nugget in the panko bowl and lightly press down, cover the entire nugget with panko and remove laying on a plate till all nuggets are done and ready to cook.
A few options you have that we have experimented with are using two different Cheeses and adding parmesan cheese to the panko mix. Check out our YouTube Videos to get a visual demonstration.
If frying add your bacon grease or beef tallow to your skillet and turn on medium high heat. You never want to use any type of vegetable or canola oil. These are seed oils and are very bad for your health. Vegetable oil contains no vegetables by the way. They use that name instead of soybean, sunflower or canola most of the time. Even Peanut oil is a seed oil. Seed oils were made to lubricate machinery in factories. One day someone got the bright Idea to bleach and deodorize them with harsh chemicals to make them palatable for us to consume. Not only are the byproducts of the harsh chemical bad for you, but seed oils contain lectic acids that cause major inflammation throughout your body. The medical industry is now learning the long-term effects of these seed oils is a leading cause in hardening of the arteries and overall inflammation of the rest of your body. Even Cancer is your own mitochondria in your cells mutating from inflammation. Something to think about if not using Animal fat to cook with.
Once your grease is hot enough scoop up a nugget on your thin spatula and slowly lay it down in the grease. If it sizzles your good. If it doesn’t bubble and sizzle around the nugget you need to turn up your heat. Do the same with all your nuggets leaving enough room in the skillet to be able to get the spatula in and flip them over when brown on the bottom.
In about 3 to 4 minutes, you will see the edges of the bottom of the nugget getting brown. This is when you know it is time to flip them over. Cook them as dark as you like. They will get crunchier as they cool. Important note here: If you are using the raw ground chicken you need to make sure it is done and reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees minimum. You do this with a Kitchen Food Thermometer by poking the end into the center of the nugget while in the pan and if it is at least 165 degrees you can take them out when they are as brown as you like. Take them out with the spatula and lay on a plate lined with a paper towel to soak up the excess grease. When they are all out of the grease and laid on the paper towel let them sit for about a minute and serve.
Air Fryer method.
Prepare the same way as cooking in grease but when breaded lay the nuggets in the bottom of the air fryer and cook at 375 degrees till golden brown. If using raw chicken be sure and check that the internal temperature is 165 degrees minimum. You shouldn’t have to flip your nuggets in the air fryer.
Oven Method.
Prepare the same way as cooking in grease but when breaded lay the nuggets on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees on the middle rack. Bake about 15 minutes but you might want to flip them halfway through.
These will keep in an airtight container for five days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer. To reheat use air fryer, oven or a skillet with a lid on low or warm heat setting.
We hope you enjoy these gluten-free and so delicious Animal based or Carnivore Chicken Nuggets.
