The best and healthy dairy-free chicken nuggets recipe
Kids friendly and dairy-free healthy chicken nuggets with hidden vegetables that no one will notice if this nuggets has lots of fiber on it.
Who doesn’t like chicken nuggets? To be honest I have never found anybody who doesn’t like chicken nuggets. How about you?
My little one is a big lover of chicken nuggets. Wherever we go and need a quick lunch at the restaurant or fast food, she always requests some chicken nuggets on the menu.
While we are not sure what ingredients they use on it and how they prepare it, I mostly refuse to order it for her because I am worried it contains dairy on it.
After trying to come up with chicken nugget recipe the healthy way and no dairy on it, here I share you how I prepare it. My little one agreed this Healthy Chicken Veggies Nuggets is tasty and satisfy her taste bud.
I trust her because she is the recipe tester, food critic, and cooking judge of my own. How I describe this chicken veggies nugget is :
- Healthy, steamed and then baked, no deep frying.
- Has the hidden veggies in it.
- Tasty.
- Easy to make.
- Great for meal prep.
- Kids friendly meal.
- Dairy-free.
- Can be customized with a gluten-free ingredient.
- Can be customized with veggies you like.
First, you have to mix veggies, chicken and the seasoning in the food processor until it looks like a paste. Then steam it for 30 minutes before bake it. There is no frying involved, and only little bit oil needs for baking.
Healthy chicken nuggets with hidden veggies, steamed then baked, no frying involved.
- 2 chicken breast
- 1 small onion
- 1 carrot
- 4 cauliflower florets , about 1 cup
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp breadcrumb
- 1 tbsp water
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 2 cups breadcrumb
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cooking oil
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Prepare the steamer, let the water boiled.
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Prepare the springform baking pan (or any heatproof dish), layer it with parchment paper.
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Cut the chicken, onion, carrot into smaller pieces.
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In a cup or bowl, put water and breadcrumb, let it sit until the breadcrumb moist.
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In the food processor, put onion, cauliflower florets, and carrot, pulse it until becoming tiny bit pieces.
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Add chicken, moist breadcrumb, egg, salt, black pepper, garlic powder. Process it until becoming a paste.
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Pour the chicken paste into the springform baking pan. Put the pan into the steamer basket, cover it with a clean kitchen towel (to prevent water dripping into the paste), put the steamer lid on.
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Steam it for 30 minutes, take the pan out of the steamer then leave it cool for 30 minutes then cut it up into square or rectangle pieces. While waiting for it cool down, preheat the oven to 400 deg F.
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Prepare the coating ingredient, in two separate bowls, whisk the eggs in one bowl, and breadcrumb with garlic powder and salt in the other bowl.
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Prepare the baking sheet pan, layer it with parchment paper.
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Dip one square nugget piece into breadcrumb then on the whisked egg, then back to coat it with the breadcrumb. Repeat the process until all nuggets pieces coated.
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Put the coated nuggets on the baking sheet, drizzle the cooking oil on top of it.
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Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes, turning halfway done.
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Take out of the oven, ready to serve.
Parchment paper is great to make cleaning easier.
I use grapeseed oil for it, feel free to use any oil you like.
It seems like a lot of work, but it is actually not. It is simple enough to make and no labor-intensive required in the kitchen. The cooking time is 95 minutes, that is including preparing ingredients, steaming, cooling period, the coating process and baking.
If you are like me, having a real picky eater who will turn their nose to veggies other than carrot then please try this recipe. They won’t realize if they actually having protein and veggies at the same time.
Serve it with ketchup or your favorite ranch dressing complete with the veggies sticks, there you go, you have a complete meal. For anyone who doesn’t have a dairy allergy, you can add parmesan cheese on the breadcrumb.
You can prepare this chicken nuggets with veggies on a big batch. These nuggets are great for meal prep, few days worth of lunch box, party platter, play date meal, picnic meal, game night, or movie night meal.
Yes, there is such thing about movie night meal, we usually having movie dinner once a while in the weekend, instead of the classic popcorn, we have a finger food or pasta dinner while watching a movie.
I regularly make my own chicken nuggets because I’m Paleo. So even gluten free chicken nuggets at the store have ingredients I shouldn’t eat regularly. I love your idea of adding veggies to the mix! Definitely going to try that!
Thank you, yes please, add more veggies even better
I never even thought about trying this. It’s such a great idea! Hopefully my toddler likes it ?
Thank you, yes please try it, hope your little one like it, mine like it too, so it is a win win for us.
My son is obsessed with chicken nuggets so this is a great alternative! Thanks for sharing – I can’t wait to try this.
Your welcome, glad I can share this recipe, hope your little one like this too.
Woah! I’ve never thought about making my own chicken nuggets and adding veggies. I will be trying this for sure!
Yes please, if you have someone who doesn’t like veggies, this is one of a great way to get them eat more veggies, I hope you like it as much as we do.
Ina! These are genius! Do you put the chicken in the processor raw? I definitely would love to try it.
Thank you ? , yes I do, I put raw chicken and raw veggies together on food processor, yes please try it, I hope you like it as much as we do here ?
I am going to try this… My Grandson is so picky, he eats more chicken nuggets then anyone I know!
Having picky eater is so challenging, I hope he like this meal too!
In case of frying the nuggets can the steaming be skipped? Don’t have an oven handy to bake them but I love the idea of sneaking in veggies for my picky eater!
Yes you can skip the steaming. But the chicken nugget paste might be too mushy. You can skip “the dipping on the egg” part, shape the paste into nugget/little patties by hand while you holding some of breadcrumb to prevent it sticky on your finger. Then you can fry it on medium heat until it cook all the way through the middle of the nuggets.
I’m excited to try this, as I have quite a few picky eaters in my home. With 4 children ages ten and under though, spending 95 minutes prepping and cooking food while simultaneously helping with homework and instrument lessons sounds daunting. Do these freeze well so that they can be made ahead and used more efficiently?
Hi, Heather, I have never try to freeze it before, but feel free to try it and please let us know.
I can’t wait to try this, If I steam in my instapot is it still 30 minutes?
Hi, Mari, I haven’t tested on the instapot yet, so I can’t give you the exact times unfortunately.
Hi Dear
Can I skip the steaming step and put them directly into the air fryer?
Hi, I have never try it before so I am not sure what is the result. The steaming process is to make the chicken nugget soft inside. Let me know please how it turn out with the air fryer. Thank you.