Gluten Free Dairy Free Chicken & Veggie Nuggets

But a family has got to eat, right?  :)  These Gluten Free Dairy Free Chicken & Vegetable Nuggets are a great item to have in your freezer for busy nights.  They are delicious and quick to heat up for dinner.  I like that I can heat them and pack them up with fruit and veggies sticks for those nights we need an easy portable meal for my on the go family.  I also like to break them out on family game night, when I want a meal we can nibble on, but want to keep a hand clean to play our game.(Angela) When May rolls around and the school year finishing up, you would think that the schedule should be winding down for everyone in my house…  But with a high schooler, a middle schooler, and one in elementary school things seem to go into high gear!  There are concerts (band AND jazz band, orchestra AND chamber AND symphony orchestras), piano recitals, soccer practices and games, track practices and meets, dance lessons and the upcoming recital, etc., etc., etc.  Honestly, if it weren’t for food in the freezer, some days I am not sure when I would have time to make dinner.

I used a fruit juice sweetened gluten free crispy rice cereal for my bread crumbs as the breading.  I find that crushed crisp rice cereal mimics the lightness of panko bread crumbs (which contain gluten).  You can also substitute ground turkey for the chicken, if that is what you find on sale.  Enjoy!

Gluten Free Dairy Free Chicken & Vegetable Nuggets

Author/Source:

adapted by Angela from Emily @ fussfreecooking.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cups zucchini, finely grated
• 2.2 cups ground chicken
• 1 cups carrot, finely grated
• 1 large egg or egg substitute
• 1 cup gluten & dairy free dried breadcrumbs or crushed GFDF cereal (I like a crispy rice style)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a large baking tray with parchment. Oil the parchment.

Using your hands, squeeze grated zucchini to remove excess liquid. Places zucchini in a large bowl. Add ground chicken, carrot, and egg. Season with salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix until well combined. Wash your hands after this.

Place the gluten free breadcrumbs on a large plate. Use one hand to shape about a tablespoon of mixture into nuggets. With your other clean hand, sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the nuggets. (This is to prevent the mixture from sticking to your hand in the next step.) Carefully flatten the chicken mixture in the breadcrumbs and coat all side of the nugget in breadcrumbs. Lift the breaded chicken mixture out of the bread crumbs and smooth out the edges as needed before placing on the prepared baking pan. Continue shaping nuggets with the remaining mixture. Spray or drizzle nuggets with oil.

Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, turning the nuggets halfway during cooking or until golden and cooked through.

Freezing Directions:

Place cooked nuggets into a freezer bag.  Remove as much air as possible, seal, label and freeze.

To serve: Thaw. Heat through.

Servings:  8

**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 7:00 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.