Ad Hoc Chicken Nuggets

By Ellie

4 Person

360 Minutes

0 Calories

The famous Thomas Keller fried chicken recipe adapted for chicken nuggets. A bit of work, but worth every minute! This recipe starts like so many good fried chicken recipes – with a brine. I’ve tried out much brine over the years and this one was definitely different. It was loaded with lemon. The original recipe had basically a whole lemon tree in the brine.

Ingredients

Breading Mix

1 quart Buttermilk
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tbsp. Kosher salt
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tbsp. paprika
2 tbsp. onion powder
2 tbsp. garlic powder
4 cups all-purpose flour

Brine

1 gallon water
2/3 cup Kosher salt
2 tbsp. black peppercorns
6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. dried thyme
1 handful fresh parsley
6 bay leaves
3 lemons, halved

2 quarts neutral oil, for frying
3-4 pounds chicken breasts

Method

01

Bring the brine ingredients to a simmer in a large pot until the salt is dissolved and the flavors are mingling nicely. I recommend starting the brine with half of the liquid in the recipe and then adding ice at the end to top off the liquid. This will chill your brine so you don’t have to wait for it to cool before using it.
02

Once the brine is chilled, add your chicken breasts. I used about three pounds of chicken, but I think you could use up to six if you wanted to brine a bunch of chicken. You have to be a bit more careful with chicken breasts though. At a minimum, I’d say brine them for four hours, but no longer than eight hours. So you could brine them in the morning if you were cooking them that night.
03

Once you are ready to fry, you’ll need a breading mix. This version is fairly standard. Any breading mix you use for fried chicken should have a lot of spices and this one definitely does. Mix up the dry stuff and spices and then divide it between two bowls. Cut the chicken into whatever shape you want (I did some strips and some smaller nuggets). Then dunk them in the breading, then into a bowl of buttermilk.
04

Then back in the second bowl of breading mix. This will create a super nice crust of crunchy deliciousness on the chicken.Now fry time! Fry the chicken at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. They should be golden brown and I usually test a larger piece just to make sure it’s cooked through.
05

Once the chicken is fried let it drain on a few paper towels.

Related Tags

Chicken Recipes

Fried Chicken Recipes

Easy Chicken Recipes

Ad Hoc Chicken Nuggets

4.7

( By Ellie )

01 Information

Grade easy
Serving 4 servings
Prep Time 330 Mins
Cook Time 30 Mins
Total Time 360 Mins

02 Ingredients

Breading Mix

1 quart Buttermilk

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. Kosher salt

2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tbsp. paprika

2 tbsp. onion powder

2 tbsp. garlic powder

4 cups all-purpose flour

Brine

1 gallon water

2/3 cup Kosher salt

2 tbsp. black peppercorns

6 cloves garlic

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 handful fresh parsley

6 bay leaves

3 lemons, halved

2 quarts neutral oil, for frying

3-4 pounds chicken breasts

03 Method

Step 1

Bring the brine ingredients to a simmer in a large pot until the salt is dissolved and the flavors are mingling nicely. I recommend starting the brine with half of the liquid in the recipe and then adding ice at the end to top off the liquid. This will chill your brine so you don’t have to wait for it to cool before using it.

Step 2

Once the brine is chilled, add your chicken breasts. I used about three pounds of chicken, but I think you could use up to six if you wanted to brine a bunch of chicken. You have to be a bit more careful with chicken breasts though. At a minimum, I’d say brine them for four hours, but no longer than eight hours. So you could brine them in the morning if you were cooking them that night.

Step 3

Once you are ready to fry, you’ll need a breading mix. This version is fairly standard. Any breading mix you use for fried chicken should have a lot of spices and this one definitely does. Mix up the dry stuff and spices and then divide it between two bowls. Cut the chicken into whatever shape you want (I did some strips and some smaller nuggets). Then dunk them in the breading, then into a bowl of buttermilk.

Step 4

Then back in the second bowl of breading mix. This will create a super nice crust of crunchy deliciousness on the chicken.Now fry time! Fry the chicken at 350 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. They should be golden brown and I usually test a larger piece just to make sure it’s cooked through.

Step 5

Once the chicken is fried let it drain on a few paper towels.

04 Author