I’ve marinated and battered and rolled my way through a few (okay A LOT) of chicken nugget recipes over the years. They’ve all been delicious, but not necessarily practical when I’m pressed for time. So a few months ago I “cheated” by skipping several steps in one of our favorite recipes. And you know what? No one noticed. They gobbled them down and asked for more.
I’m always looking for ways to save time in the kitchen, so I made some minor adjustments to my “cheat” experiment and voila! We had a new, faster family favorite. If you have a big, well-seasoned cast iron pan, you can probably have the whole batch done in about 15-20 minutes.
My kids love dunking these homemade chicken nuggets in this five minute homemade ketchup recipe or homemade ranch dressing. I usually add some extra veggies to their plates to dip in the ranch along with a small baked potato or something similar and dinner is done. Cleanup is easy, too!
Homemade Chicken Nuggets (Gluten-Free, Paleo)
Equipment
- large frying pan
- sharp knife
- small mixing bowl
- tongs
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast (cut into 1 inch chunks)
- 3 tbsp arrowroot flour
- 2¾ tsp paprika
- ¾ tsp unrefined sea salt
- ½ tsp onion powder
- coconut oil (for frying)
Instructions
- Slice chicken breast into 1 inch chunks.
- Combine arrowroot flour, paprika, salt and onion powder in a small bowl.
- Add coconut oil to a large frying pan until it’s about 1/8 inch deep. Heat pan over medium-high heat.
- One-by-one, toss the chicken pieces in the flour mixture until fully coated.
- Add chicken to the heated frying pan using tongs. Fry until golden brown on each side and cooked through the center. I usually pull one out and cut it down the middle to check.
- Serve with ketchup or ranch dressing.
Tried this recipe? 
What do you do with the oil after the frying is done? I hardly ever fry things because I don’t know what to do with the oil after! Just toss it all?
New put it down the sink. I keep an empty Spaghetti jar in my freezer and put in my old used oil, let it cool, and put it back in the freezer. When the jar is full, put it in with your garbage, frozen.
Depending on how much oil is left – you can pour it down the kitchen sink – while Running Hot water – I do this when it is not very much oil. But if I have very much oil left – then freezing it sounds like a really good idea – always wanted to dump it in the trash, now I can.
Can these nuggets be frozen?
The batches I’ve made have been eaten so fast I’ve never had a chance to find out for sure, but I would think so.
Mmmmmmm…these are the REAL deal girl! Thanks for an awesome recipe! 🙂
So glad you liked it!
Scrumptious….my kids loved it alot!!
Will this work with tapioca instead of arrowroot?
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not 🙂
I have done it with Tapioca starch- works just fine! Just remember if you “experiment” don’t add dairy to Arrowroot! You get Slime! You can add dairy to Tapioca no problem.
What about dipping the nuggets into blue cheese (after they are cooked) if using arrowroot? Will it still turn to slime?
Since the nuggets will be cooked before you use blue cheese or any other sauce – you should not have any problems. The problem is when the arrowroot is a powder which can make a slime.
Hi Heather,
Firstly I just want to say I love your blog, you’ve helped me out with so many of your posts, I’ve tried all sorts of new things from food to coconut oil soap 🙂
Secondly, thank you for this recipe, I’ve very recently discovered I’m gluten intolerant so this is great, I love chicken nuggets! However I can’t have onions either, do you have any suggestions for what I could use instead or do you think it would still work without the onion powder?
Many thanks for all your hard work and wonderful posts!
Charlotte (UK)
Hi Charlotte, the recipe will definitely work without the onion powder, but I’m not sure what the flavor will be like. You could experiment with adding other seasonings like smoked paprika or chipotle powder and see if they round out the flavor.
Throwing everything into a ziplock bag and shaking the chicken around until coated works really well too! ((Five out of my five kids LOVED this recipe — I will definitely be making this again, thank you, Heather!))
SO happy to hear that, Beth! Thanks for taking the time to let me know. <3
The only reason I don’t usually do this is because of waste of a ziplock bag… I suppose it could be washed though.
I think I want more onion powder after the nuggets are fried, and maybe try bleu cheese as a dip! Thanks for the idea Heather!
Making this tonight! Thank you so much for the simple version – I’ve wanted to make Paleo/nourishing chicken nuggets for a while, but was put off by the complexity. My 4.5 year-old son has never had chicken nuggets in any form; I’m so happy these will be his first taste. Thank you Heather! (PS we both love your videos: he shouts “Hooray, Mommypotamus!” when I put one on!)
I’ve made this twice now and we all gobbled them up! I substituted coconut flour for the arrowroot and it turned out great both times. Thanks for the delicious recipe, Heather!
I had some chicken breast pieces thawed out and remembered this recipe and looked it up tonight. I’m so glad I remembered, these are great! My little boy and my husband both loved them too. I ran out of the arrowroot spice mix and had to quickly mix up two more tablespoons worth. So next time I’ll just start out with 5 tablespoons of arrowroot and add additional spices. Thanks so much for this post! Simple, gf, and paleo. I will definitely fix these again.
Great recipe! Lightly crisp and good flavor. I used tapioca starch because I was out of arrowroot. I also added some garlic powder and pepper to the spice mixture. I made these to take out on a picnic, but I couldn’t stop snacking on them here and there!
This recipe is awesome, and so easy! Thanks heather!
You make it look so delicious. I can’t wait to try to make it for my family. Thank you so much for sharing this awesome post!
I’ll try it for my family. Looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing this one!
Thank you for this awesome recipe! Made it 2 times kids loved it !!!
Yay, I’m so happy they liked them!
We’ve been making big changes in our diet at our house and these nuggets are the only meal my kids had no complaints about!!! Thank you, Mommypotamus!!! These are fantastic and quick and easy to make. I know they’ll be in regular rotation!
This is a great recipe !
I used Chen thigh and legs cut from bone and it was delicious !
Even my finicky family enjoyed them. No leftovers !
Hello! Will almond meal or coconut flour work instead of arrowroot? Unfortunately have everything at home except for arrowroot. :-/ Thank you in advance! Super excited to try these tonight. 🙂
This recipe is money. My son said, “This chicken is so good!” after his first 10 bites or so. He loved it! And I was surprised at how good it was, too. It’s so simple and delicious. This will become one of many Mommypotamus favorites in our home. Of course, we ate the nuggets with your Quick Homemade ketchup 🙂
Can I use olive oil? Also I am going to try it as chicken fingers. Thanks can’t wait to make them
Made these and the grand kids gobbled them up – thank you!!
Made these tonight. Delicious!!
Can I bake them instead?
Everything what is simple is the best!
Does anyone know what the carbs would be for these? My 8yr.old granddaughter is type one diabetic and has celiac,she loves chicken nuggets but need to make some like this ,which would be so good for her,but need to know the carbs count.Or is there a web site that I could go to and find out?
Hi Mel, I’m type 1. The only thing in this recipe that would have countable carbs would be the arrowroot flour. I looked it up and 1 tablespoon has 7.1g carbs. So 3 Tbsp. for the whole meal would be 21.3 then just dived her serving into that. It turns out very minimal. Just perfect for a diabetic! God Bless- Kathryn in QC Canada
This is a great recipe. My 14yo DD was recently dx with a gluten and dairy allergy and has been on an elimination diet that has been difficult. I wanted to make her a “legal” treat and these perfectly fit the bill. I did not have paprika or onion powder, so I used garlic powder and poultry seasoning. Perfection!
Has anyone tried baking these?
I haven’t but if you do please let us know how they turn out!
I made these tonight and baked them! I used casasva flour instead as well! They came out pretty good! I did add a little more paprika and onion powder as the comments suggested! Bake at 350 for 25 minutes flipping at 15 minutes! They don’t have the crisp of being fried, but great if you want a bit healthier!
Can these be made in an air fryer, have you tried it? Recently got one and trying to expand my very short recipe list….
Shaun
Hi Heather!
Any recommendations on how to bake these instead of frying?
Hi Check into using coconut oil to fry at high temperatures. Grape seed Oil or Avocado Oil maybe healthier.
This recipe is awesome….
Just want to thank you for sharing the
Delicious recipes, l made some nuggets
And tenders everybody like them , they were gone so fast, we all enjoy them
Thanks again Edda