Chicken Nuggets are one of life’s simple pleasures. They are fried or baked little pillows of deliciousness in a bite sized form. There is great debate over which fast food restaurant has the best chicken nuggets. Many say McDonalds while others say Chik-fil-a. I am more of a Burger King and Wendy’s guy myself. Nuggets are the one food that is guaranteed to please, but why spend the money to get them from somewhere else when you can stay in your PJs and make it yourself. At this point, we all know that everything homemade tastes better. That’s what I call science, but you may not know the first thing about making a quality and original chicken nugget that will make the crowd go wild. Well, it is a good thing that you are here because this recipe will knock everyone’s socks off with a blast of flavor that is beyond this world, and it is sooooooo EASY to make the best chicken nuggets without much work.
I was randomly experimenting with recipes by throwing random things together, and I got something that worked really well. Plus, you get to know exactly what goes into your chicken nuggets. It contains common pantry items that you probably having laying around somewhere in your kitchen. Without further ado, let’s get into this recipe.
you will need…
- 1 ¼ cups of flour
- 4 tbsp of powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp of cornstarch
- 1 tbsp of baking powder
- 1 egg, beaten
- Favorite spice mixture (for mine, see notes below)
- Canola Oil Spray (if air frying) or Canola Oil (if deep frying)
best chicken nugget recipe
- Put your chicken pieces into the buttermilk, and let it marinate for one hour.
- In a large Ziploc bag, put in your flour, baking powder, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and spices.
- In another small bowl, whisk one egg until the egg white and yolk are fully combined.
- Get your chicken pieces, dredge them in the flour, then the egg, and then back into the flour.
- You are now ready to fry!
- If you are air frying, set your air fryer to 375°F. Fry it for about 8 minutes, flipping about halfway through.
- Spray with the canola spray before putting them and right after flipping them.
- You can deep fry these as well. It works rather similarly, but you would not leave it in the oil for the same length of time. You would realistically only leave them in for about 3-4 minutes with 375°F oil.
- If you are air frying, set your air fryer to 375°F. Fry it for about 8 minutes, flipping about halfway through.
- After they come out of the air fryer (or the oil), you will want to serve them not too long afterwards with your favorite sauce. I think that these nuggets pair super well with ketchup or a barbecue sauce with a little heat.




notes for having the best result
- The Ziploc bag method is my preferred method because you just add all of the chicken into a bag and shake, but if you have run out of Ziploc bags (or you don’t have any large enough), you can just use a bowl.
- Make sure the Ziploc back is tightly sealed when dredging in the flour. You do not want the flour to go flying all over you or your kitchen.
- I not only add my spices to the flour mixture, but I also add them to the buttermilk.
- My favorite spice blend for the chicken is…
- 2 tsp of salt
- 2 tsp of pepper
- 1 tsp of garlic powder
- 1 tsp of chili powder
- It is a good idea to preheat the air fryer for about 3-5 minutes, so I typically set the air fryer for 11-13 minutes. So, I put them in when there is about 8 minutes remaining on the countdown timer.
final thoughts
This is such an amazing recipe that is like any other chicken nuggets recipe that I have ever had. This is a super recipe because it is so simple for any level of cook to do. The nuggets have a slight sweetness from the powdered sugar, but it is not overly sweet. The taste is well rounded, and I cannot get enough of these.
The best part is that you do not have to spend super long to make these. The longest part is simply waiting for it to marinate properly. Everything else takes less than 30 minutes. Thirty minutes is the time it takes to go to a fast-food restaurant and back. But, this way you aren’t wasting gas. It would also take just as long to make a frozen bag of nuggets, but those can be a hit or miss. And there are a lot of mystery ingredients that do not give it that homemade feel. These homemade nuggets will bring smiles to the faces of whoever eats them.
This is the perfect recipe for any nugget lover in your family or friend group. Now the only question is “should we make a homemade sauce to go with it?” Let me know your suggestions in the comments below for the perfect sauce for nuggets and any suggestions for more recipes that you would like to see on the blog.
Until next time,

