Baked Chicken Nuggets

So, today I did hardly anything productive.  For instance, I didn't do my laundry (read: pick my dirty clothes off the floor, and get my little sister to wash them), clean my room (uuuugh), make a bracelet someone hired me to make, or wash the dishes.  I think I'll just stay up really late tonight and get up early tomorrow morning and get it all done so I feel better.

*snort*

No but seriously.  Don't underestimate my self-motivation.  I've stayed up 'til 4 am cleaning my room, just because I felt like it.

And it really needed it.

That's why it took until 4 am.

Another time, I was having some friends over right after school and I had to have my room spotless, so I stayed up until 6 am cleaning it, and got like, half an hour of sleep before school.  I probably took a nap at school though.  Man that was the nice thing about school.  I could stay up late and get up early because I could always take a nap during math class or something.  I hate taking naps at home though.

 

But I did make and drink a bunch of non-decaf coffee and clean the table and make supper and go thrift shopping and see my brand new nephew!!!

He's pretty cute, I guess, for someone with red, dry wrinkly feet and no eyebrows (hey, he must be related to me!!!).

But really, he's super sweet and precious.  He has the tiniest roundest little chin ever and looks so cute when he sleeps (which is pretty much all the time) and gets annoyed and squeaks adorably and makes funny faces when you tickle his feet to wake him up.  Also, when you hold him upright, his face is all saggy.  It's awesome and I love him.

Now, on another subject, I've decided something about this blog.  I need to be able to post recipes without acting like every single one is just uhhhhhmazing.  Granted, if it's disgusting and I hate it, I won't post it.  But as of now I'm implementing a law stating that I shall rate/give my entire honest opinion on all of my recipes.  Not that I've been dishonest.  I'm just not liking the thought of every single recipe I post having to be or having to be 'marketed' as the most amazing thing that you've ever put in your mouth.  Honestly, not all food is created equal.  Let me rephrase that.  Not even all GOOD food is created equal.  And people's tastes are different.  And I'm not going to not post a recipe just because it doesn't blow people's/my family's/my socks off.  And I don't want to sugar coat a recipe just so people will make it.  I'm a real person, and I believe you have a right to know exactly what is good and what is not so good about a recipe, and whether or not you should make it.

These chicken nuggets, for instance.  I could rave about how these are just so so delicious and if you make these you'll never even consider buying storebought chicken nuggets ever again and you can feed these to any small chicken-nugget loving children in your life and they'll love you forever and you'll be their favorite and blah blah blah.

But honestly, these are different than store-bought chicken nuggets, which I'm sure you can tell.  They're coated differently, baked, and just well, different.  Granted, if you're just looking for a healthy bite-sized chicken alternative, or an alternative to panko-breaded chicken bites, these will do the job.  But you will not, as an adult, swear to never eat anything but these amazing chicken nuggets ever again.  I mean, they're chicken nuggets.  Kid food.  Picky eater staple, although there are probably picky eaters who wouldn't eat these.  If you don't have kids or don't like kid food, you probably shouldn't make these.  Even though these are kinda like grownup chicken nuggets.

All that aside, I liked them.  I carefully and lovingly wung this recipe myself (don't say a word!  wung is the past tense of wing, as in wing it, which I like to do!), and then I ate a lot of them.  I dipped them in a mixture of barbeque sauce and ketchup, which is what I love to dip chicken in.  I was happy that they're healthier than most chicken nuggets.  And then I happily took pictures of them.  And then I went and ate almost half of a watermelon to round off my meal, and my tummy finished my meal with a nice helping of watermelon.

Here's the recipe.  I copied it from somewhere a long time ago when I was making my big old recipe book of recipes that I've been gradually going through and reviewing ever since.  So just so you all know, I didn't make up this recipe.  Although I did adapt it.  Majorlyish.  So yeah.

Printable Recipe Card

Crispy Chicken Bites

1 pkg boneless, skinless chicken breast, about 2.5 lbs
1/3 c wheat bran
1/3 c wheat germ
2 T ground flax
1/3 c crushed almonds
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 c hot water
1 t chicken bouillon granules
1 t rotisserie chicken seasoning
1 large egg
1) Preheat the oven to 400 and grease a baking sheet.  Or two, depending on how big your sheet is and how close you squeeze your chicken onto it.
2) Cut any fat off of the chicken breasts and then cut them into nugget-sized pieces, about 1 1/2 inches square.  Set aside.  Combine all dry ingredients in a container with a tightly fitting lid.  Shake well.  In another bowl, stir the chicken bouillon granules and rotisserie chicken seasoning into the hot water, so they dissolve a bit.  Add the egg and beat it good.
3) Dip each piece of chicken in the egg mixture, and then in the coating mixture.  Make sure they're well coated, and then place them on the greased baking sheet.
4)  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the meat is cooked through.  (my recipe said 10-15 minutes, but it took my chicken way longer.  so you could check it sooner)  Let cool a bit, and serve!

Yields 6 servings

Also, here are my opinions of the other recipes I've posted so far.

Strawberry Shortcake:  Mmmmm I really honestly thought that this was like, the best thing ever.  It was awesome and smooth and creamy and chocolatey and strawberry-y and the shortbread was awesome.  I liked it a lot. :)

Vanilla Bean Shortbread and Espresso with Cinnamon-Vanilla Foam:  I really liked this, too.  And I ate a lot of it.  For lunch.  Also, it was just perfect and awesome with the espresso.  Which I like.  But if you don't like espresso, forget it.  Actually, don't, because it would probably be really yummy with hot chocolate or something.  Mmmmm.  I should do that sometime.

Mocha Cheesecake:  This was good.  But I have this thing where if I know something is super high in calories, I kinda judge it by it's total tastiness per calorie.  And therefore I think I would have liked it a lot better if I coulda used low-fat cream cheese, etc etc.  Also, if you don't like coffee, you wouldn't like this, because it has an entire layer dedicated especially to the stuff. :)

S'mores Cake:  My first reaction was that I've made way better cakes, and that it was too dry.  However, during/after the aforementioned shoving-of-cake-into-my-mouth, I decided that I kinda liked it, and I think I would have liked it even more had I considered it a "snack cake" and downed it with several glasses of milk.  Mmmmm.  But seriously, this is no super-rich decadent melt-in-your-mouth delicate affair, so don't expect it to be.

Well, that's all!  As it turns out, I'm going to clean my part of the room at the same time as my little sister cleans hers.  Although mine will probably take longer.  Hopefully that will be tomorrow.  Hopefully before I go grocery shopping.  Hopefully before noon.  Yeah.

Bye-bye. :)