Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains
Carnivore chicken nuggets
Soft little nuggets of ground chicken and egg, pressed into finely grated parmesan and baked until the cheese turns into a golden, salty crust. No flour and no crumbs, and they dip just as well.
- Time
- 43 min (25 prep + 18 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 307 kcal
- Protein
- 39 g
Ingredients
- 2/3 lb chicken breast, ground chicken breast and thigh, or boneless pieces pulsed together to a coarse paste in a food processor
- 2/3 lb chicken thigh, boneless and skinless
- 1 large egg
- scant 1 cup grated parmesan, finely grated, divided
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)
- 1/2 tsp onion powder (optional)
Steps
- Heat the oven to 400°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. In a bowl, mix the chicken, egg, 1/3 cup of the parmesan, the salt and pepper, and the garlic and onion powder, if using. Stir just until combined; the mixture will be soft and sticky.
- Put the rest of the parmesan in a shallow dish. With wet hands, shape heaped tablespoons of the mixture into flat nuggets about 1/2 inch thick; you should get about 24. If it is too soft to shape, chill it for 15 minutes first.
- Press each nugget into the parmesan on both sides and lay them on the sheet with space between them.
- Bake 8 minutes, flip with a thin spatula, and bake 4–7 minutes more, starting to check at 12 minutes, until the cheese is golden and a nugget from the middle of the pan reads 165°F.
- Let them sit on the pan for 3 minutes so the crust firms up before you lift them. Serve right away.
Good to know
Can I freeze them?
Yes, baked. Freeze them on a tray, then bag them for up to 3 months. Reheat from frozen at 400°F for 10–12 minutes.
Can I use all thigh, or regular ground chicken?
Yes. All thigh is softer and richer, at about 62 instead of 70. All breast is leaner but dries out sooner, so mix it lightly and take the nuggets out as soon as they reach temperature.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 214
- Protein
- (53%)
- 27 g
- Fat
- (43%)
- 10 g
- Carbohydrates
- (5%)
- 3 g
- of which sugar
- <1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 559 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1230 kcal goes into the pot and 747 g of ingredients comes out as about 574 g of food: 214 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.