Crispy Baked Chicken Nuggets

Face it, you sometimes eat your kid's chicken nuggets. They're good! You know you're always buying the frozen variety to use in a pinch. Now here's your chance to make your own--and know exactly what goes inside.

Joey describes these chicken nuggets as the crispiest thing he's ever eaten. You don't even notice they aren't fried!  The chicken inside is juice and delicious, the outside is flavorful and the novelty of making mini chicken bites at home never gets old. This is a great recipe for kids to help with too! Get out your favorite dipping sauce folks!


Ingredients
(I made 20 nuggets with this list of ingredients, the original recipe with the same portions makes 12...)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
3 eggs
1 C panko bread crumbs (found in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores)
1/2 C flour
1/3 C parmesan cheese, shredded
1 t vegetable oil (the recipe actually calls for 1 T but I only used 1 t and it worked fine)
coarse salt
cooking spray
your favorite dipping sauce - we used bbq sauce
3 shallow bowls
1 cooling rack that fits (or generally fits, mine fits slanted) into a rimmed baking sheet

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spread the panko in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.  Pour into a shallow bowl. Add cheese, 1/2 t salt and oil and stir to combine slightly
2. Salt the chicken on both sides and then cut the chicken breasts in half and then into nugget sized pieces, set aside
3. Pour the flour into a shallow bowl. Pour the eggs into a separate shallow bowl and whisk to break the yolks and combine slightly
4. Spray the cooling rack with cooking spray and set inside your rimmed sheet. Increase oven temperature to 450.
5. Set up your dipping station--chicken, bowl of flour, bowl of egg, bowl of panko mixture, pan. Dip chicken into flour and shake to remove excess, then eggs *shake*, then panko and set on the rack.  I used tongs to do this so my hands wouldn't get all gross but it was slow going--this is the most time consuming part of the recipe.
6. When all chicken is coated, bake for 12 minutes, turning nuggets halfway through.  Serve with your favorite dipping sauce!

Watch the video for an even better idea of how to make this super simple dish!