Chicken Nuggets

Chicken nuggets are a great comfort food to make, especially when paired with a nice dipping sauce.

I quite like the chicken nuggets from Chick-Fil-A due to the spices and the fact that they are actual chicken breast pieces and not processed, so I like to use this recipe for Chick-Fil-A style nuggets. I've just made slight adjustments to the sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
• 3 cups oil for deep frying

Dry Brine

• 3 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp MSG
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Note: These amounts will produce a lot more dry brine than you actually need; however, it can be hard to find measurements smaller than 1/4 tsp for scaling down. Consider saving the remaining brine for next time.

Egg Wash

• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp milk

Breading

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp MSG
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika

Sauce

• 2 tbsp honey barbecue sauce
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

Directions

1. Combine the salt, sugar, MSG, garlic powder, and paprika to make the dry brine.
2. Coat the chicken pieces with 2 tbsp of the dry brine and mix until evenly coated. Let the chicken sit in the dry brine for 15 minutes.
3. Beat the egg and milk together in one bowl until completely combined to make the egg wash. Combine the flour, salt, MSG, powdered sugar, garlic powder, and paprika in another bowl to make the breading.
4. After the chicken brines for 15 minutes, rinse the brine off of the chicken and pat the pieces dry.
5. Working in small batches, dip several pieces of chicken into the egg wash until fully coated, then toss in the breading until fully coated. It's ok to leave the chicken in the breading.
6. Heat 3 cups of oil in a pot on high until it reaches 375 degrees F.
7. Tap extra flour off of the chicken pieces, and carefully deep fry in the oil until golden brown.
   • Deep fry in small batches to ensure the chicken pieces have enough space to deep fry without sticking to each other.
8. As you take the chicken pieces out, rest them on paper towels to absorb the oil.
9. To make the sauce, combine the honey barbecue sauce, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, and garlic powder with a fork. Serve with the nuggets.