Apple Chicken Nuggets
This past winter, I went to a cooking class hosted by the fabulous ladies of Mish+Mash Homemade to get some more ideas to feed my little guy. Little did I know that I would find some great ideas for the whole family! These Apple Chicken Nuggets are full of healthy and fresh ingredients that are sure to please even the pickiest eater in your family. Or if you are just looking for an alternative to a microwave lunch at work, these are for you!
Apple Chicken Nuggets
Author/Source:
Adapted from Mish+Mash Homemade
Ingredients:
- 1 pound ground chicken, preferably organic
- 1.25 cups onion, peeled and diced
- 1 cups apple, preferably organic, peeled and grated
- 1 teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 2 cups frozen spinach, preferably organic
- 1 cup dried bread crumbs, homemade or store-bought, or panko crumbs work as well
- 2 cups canola or grapeseed oil for frying
Directions:
1) Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Mix together with your hands or spoon. Shape into small patties.
2) Put bread crumbs in a shallow dish and press the pieces into the coating
3) Heat enough oil for shallow frying in a large frying pan. Add nuggets and cook about six minutes, three minutes per side, turning occasionally, until light golden and cooked through. Dry on a paper towel or rag and cool. Serve with a side of vegetables and fruit, and your favorite dipping sauce!
TO BAKE (instead of pan fry): Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch.
Freezing Directions:
Put 4-5 nuggets into pint size freezer bags for individual servings and freeze. To Serve: Microwave for about 1-2 minutes, may be a little mushy. You can defrost in the fridge, and heat them up in the oven, stove top or toaster oven until crispy again.
Servings: 4
This Post will be linked at:
- Cooking Thursday at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom
- Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage
- Recipe Swap Thursday at Prairie Story
- It’s a Keeper Thursday at It’s a Keeper
do they taste any good?
They sure do!! I was skeptical at first, but wow they are delicious. My 1.5 son loves them and even my husband likes to have them in his lunch! You can adjust the onion if you’re not a fan and just add a little more meat.
Love the addition of apple to these nuggets. Do you ground the chicken yourself?
If you have a moment today, please share this with my readers @Creative Juice Thursday. Hope to see yours among all the amazing projects!
I don’t grind the chicken myself but it can very easily be done in a food processor if you choose to do so! Thanks for the link up!
Mmmm, chicken nuggets! And it uses spinach too! So many great ideas, Kelly!!
These sound fantastic, thank you for sharing :)
Do you think these would do well baked instead of fried? Maybe sprayed with some oil or cooking spray? They look great!
I think you actually could. I was thinking of trying it myself! (Tricia)
is anyone else having problems printing? The recipe gets cut off on the right side. I have to manually change the margins for it to work. Let me know if you bake them how they turn out!
Hi Sarah, not sure about the formatting, that would be a good question for Tricia. But I will say that baking these will not have the same affect or taste. Frying them in this instance is okay since you’re eating them in moderation. If you do choose to bake them I would at least pan fry them to get a crispy outside and then bake at about 375 for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
Hi Kelly,
These little nuggets are just filled with lots of wonderful flavor. They really look delicious. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you next week!
[...] Apple Chicken Nuggets [...]
Thanks for linking to Creative Juice Thursday. Hope to see you back this week.
Sounds wonderful! I would also like to try them baked though. In the past I’ve used english muffin crumbs, and they toast great in the oven, and give a really crispy outside, so I’ll probably give that a shot.
Let me know how they turn out!
Just made these with ground turkey,(store I was at to get groceries didn;t have ground chicken)but the turkey wasn’t too bad, but probably better made out of Chicken! Have to try those next.
[...] that included spinach that the whole family would eat. We discovered quite a few things like Apple Chicken Nuggets, Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi, and Turkey Lasagna Roll Ups. I was doing Weight Watchers last year and [...]
Question – do you thaw and drain the spinach, or just thaw it out without squeezing it? And if I were to try these baked, how long would you bake them for instead of frying?
You do not need to thaw and drain the spinach it’s just fine in the recipe, still frozen. And I JUST baked some today actually! I would place on a greased cookie sheet into the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch. Enjoy!
Awesome! Thanks so much!!
Ok quick update – I made these in time to have some for lunch the other day. Wow are they good! I used ground turkey, breaded them with panko and baked for 20 minutes at 425 (sprayed the cookie sheet and the tops of them with Pam before putting them in the oven). They were so delicious, even my 22 month old gobbled them up! I’m thinking these would be great with grated carrot and apple, or grated zucchini, for those that don’t like spinach!
I’m thinking of making these with drained canned spinach (because I have it on hand) and using crushed fried onions instead of the bread crumbs. What do you think? Will it work?
Sure it will! :) Let us know the final outcome!
Ok. Yeah. These turned out great. However, next time, I’ll have to cut back on the onion. The older miss (3) is not a fan of onion. Period. Maybe I’ll still get her to munch a few. Oh, yum. I haven’t even finished cooking them and I’m going to attack them!
This sounds fabulous! I would agree I cut back on the onion sometimes just for my taste ;) Glad they turned out so well!
I made these w/ ground turkey and added some shredded zucchini (I also made zucchini muffins today). Turned out great! I baked them and finished off under the broiler to get them a bit more crisp. My picky eater actually ate one and a half of these and enjoyed it!! Thank you :)
So do you think that any of these would freeze well raw and then defrosted to cook afterwards (perhaps without the breading when frozen?)
It’s worth a try! You could do a small batch and see how it goes. But you could probably bread then freeze and be fine.
These were AMAZING. Really. I’ve tried to make various types of healthy chicken nuggets, and the addition of the apple makes them really tasty. My husband is VERY picky, and he was skeptical too. Especially because they looked so spinach-y. But even he said how great they were.
I posted a link in my Menu Plan Monday post this morning! (http://www.tmuffin.com/2011/12/menu-plan-monday-budget-shopping-and.html)
I hope other people try them. They are so good! And I do think they would freeze ok raw. I would leave the breading off so it doesn’t get soggy and watery as they thaw.
This recipe looks absolutely perfect for getting more veggies into my 2.5 y/o twins! I went out and bought all of the ingredients this evening and will be making them tomorrow. I’ve never done that for a blog recipe before (usually I just get around to them “whenever”). Can’t wait!
I promise they’ll be a hit!! ENjoy!
Mine seemed alittle bland… not enough apple maybe? Seemed heavy on the onions…next time I’ll cut back on the onion and add alittle more apple. I baked mine and used panko bread crumbs so maybe flavored bread crumbs would add alittle more? Just seem to be missing something…