Ready to Eat!

Growing up, chicken nuggets from McDonalds were my all-time favorite food. There was nothing better to me than those pieces of crispy fried goodness. Now that I’m older and have learned about the facts of nutrition, I had a big realization on how many calories I would actually consume from that single meal. According to their website, a 4 piece nugget contains 190 calories, 12 grams of fat, 25mg of cholesterol, and 360 mg of sodium. Now thinking back on portion size, I would consume 8 to 12 of these nuggets! WOW. Needless to say, I haven’t had a chicken nugget from McDonalds in about 10 years.

I decided to recreate this meal by making healthy swaps for my ingredients. The main change I’ll be making is lightly baking these nuggets in coconut oil, instead of frying them in canola that McDonalds uses. The coconut oil I use for this recipe is non-GMO, organic, and unrefined. Coconut oil doesn’t contain any cholesterol or sodium, so right there the dish already sounds better! I’ll also be using only the meat of the chicken breast for this dish, so I’ll know exactly what I’m consuming.

Coconut oil is a healthy fat created from medium chain triglycerides, so when consumed it’s processed in your body differently than other oils, and used for energy instead of being stored. The breading will be made up of gluten-free oats that are ground and then have some added spices in them. To make the oat breading stick, I’m going to use a whole egg, but you can use plain egg whites as well.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Kelapo Coconut Oil, melted

1 whole egg or 2 egg whites

½ cup gluten-free oats, ground

Sea Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cut chicken breast into 2 inch cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Spray a baking sheet with Kelapo Coconut Oil Cooking Spray and place chicken onto the sheet.
2. Bake chicken for 10-15 minutes, remove from oven, and set aside.
3. Next, place oats, salt, and pepper in a food processor, pulsing until completely ground. Place mixture into a bowl and set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, crack open your egg or egg whites, add in melted coconut oil and whisk for 15-20 seconds, then set aside.
5. Take chicken pieces, rolling them first into the egg mixture, then the ground oats.
6. Re-spray your cooking sheet with Kelapo Coconut Oil Cooking Spray and place back into the oven for 15-18 minutes.
7. Once finished baking, let your nuggets cool down and they’re ready to eat!

If you prefer your chicken nuggets to be fried, you can do the same process; just lightly fry the chicken in coconut oil on medium-high heat. Serve this dish up with reduced sugar ketchup, mustard, or Lani’s Vegan Ranch Dipping Sauce. Make sure to check out Jen’s copycat Chick-Fil-A nuggets for another healthy alternative to a fast food favorite.

-Kayla