Homemade Chicken Nuggets - McDonald's Copycat Recipe

Recipe: Homemade Chicken Nuggets Recipe »

These homemade chicken nuggets taste just like McDonald's but even better! Made with real chicken breast and coated in a light, crispy tempura batter, they are juicy, golden and so easy to make at home. With simple pantry ingredients and no mystery meat, this copycat nugget recipe is perfect for kids, snacks or dinner. Once you try these freshly fried nuggets, you'll never go back to takeaway!

About These Homemade Chicken Nuggets

These homemade chicken nuggets are a total dupe of McDonalds chicken nuggets.Everyone knows and loves chicken nuggets but did you know that they're so, so easy to make at home with chicken breast? Seriously, if you want freshly fried, crunchy, delicious chicken nuggets then I've got the perfect recipe for you! This is adapted from Chef Steve at Resto Vivaldi in Montreal, Canada. I was so curious to try them and when I did, I was so impressed at how delicious they were.

Why You'll love These Chicken Nuggets

You know exactly what is in them. There's no random chicken bits, just chicken breast or tenderloins.

They're made with ingredients you probably have at home or are easy to buy.

These taste just like the ones at McDonalds!

Video How To Make Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Video: How to Make a McDonald's Chicken Nugget Dupe!

Ingredients For Homemade Chicken Nuggets

Chicken - Chicken breast or tenderloin is great for this. You can also use chicken thigh or a combo of breast and thigh if you want it a bit juicier.

Cornflour - Aka fine cornstarch.

Salt - Fine salt.

Pepper - We use white pepper for this but you can also use black pepper.

Flour - Plain, all purpose flour.

Paprika - Sweet paprika, found in the spice aisle.

Garlic powder - Fine garlic powder, found in the spice aisle. Lorraine's tip: store in the freezer to prevent it clumping!

Club soda - Chilled soda water or club soda works. When combined with the rest of the ingredients it won't spit much if at all.

Tips For Making Homemade Chicken Nuggets

1 - The nuggets will seem small when you are shaping them but once you add the tempura batter that adds another thicker layer.

2 - Keep the nuggets a uniform size so that you know that they will all cook in the time specified.

3 - Allow the excess batter to drip off before adding to the hot oil.

4 - Do not fry too many at once - the nuggets are semi frozen so adding more than 8 or so will cause the temperature of the oil to drop too much.

5 - Let the temperature come back to 180C/350F between batches.

6 - These are best eaten freshly fried.

I love these chicken nuggets with Sweet Ray's BBQ sauce, my homemade honey mustard (another McDonalds dupe) or sweet and sour sauce mixed with mayo (is that weird?).

I love making copycat recipes and if you do too, try these ones next: Sizzler Cheese Toast, Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls, Crumbl Cookies and the Costco Chicken Bake.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott, adapted from Chef Steve at Resto Vivaldi

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 30 minutes freezing time

Cooking time: 4 minutes per batch, in 3 batches

Makes: 24 chicken nuggets

Ingredients Needed

• 500g/1.1lbs skinless chicken breast
• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper

For Tempura Dip

• 1/2 cup/75g/2.6oz flour
• 1/2 cup/35g/1.2oz cornflour
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• Pinch white pepper
• 175ml/6oz club soda/soda water

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 FILLING - Place the chicken breast, cornflour, salt and white pepper in a food processor and pulse until you get a smooth texture. Line a tray with parchment and scoop into small nuggets around 24g/0.8oz in size. You can shape them into the nugget shape too (not too big as the batter adds thickness). Freeze for 30 minutes.

Step 2 DIP - Whisk the flour, cornflour, paprika, salt, garlic powder and white pepper together in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the club soda until you get a runny pancake batter.

Step 3 FRY - Preheat oil to 180C/350F. Dip the nuggets into the batter - you can add 8 nuggets at a time to the batter bowl and fish them out individually. Fry for 4 minutes turning over halfway or until 71C/160F inside. Serve with tomato sauce, aioli, sweet and sour sauce, honey mustard or bbq sauce.

Personal Note

I've mentioned before my love of pyjama Sundays; you know days where you don't get out of your PJs all day. I am very protective of these days because some weeks are so busy I don't get to do it. But I made these chicken nuggets on a pyjama Sunday and it was so easy that it didn't really even feel like cooking.

This Sunday leaned into pyjama Sundays even further. I haven't been sick so far this year and I just needed a day where it was like I was sick but I wasn't sick so that I could enjoy it, if you know what I mean!

Mr NQN was in his office working (he loves making things in his spare time and by making things I mean building fun website things) with Teddy by his side and I was upstairs watching The Pitt which is a tv show I am completely obsessed with. I had my iced matcha latte, Milo on the bed next to me snoozing, the heater was on and my humidifier was also going and I was in my pyjamas. I treated my body like I was sick but I wasn't so I got to enjoy it all. I even did something I haven't done for years - I turned my phone off completely for the day! It was the best day ever and then we got to eat this for dinner :)

So tell me Dear Reader, how often do you eat chicken nuggets? And do you ever turn your phone off entirely?