If the little ones — or big ones — in your life love Chicken Nuggets, but you'd rather not let them indulge in the mystery-styled meat, you could always do like TeamSugar member jennifer76, and make your own. Her recipe for Chicken Littles is based on an old Martha Stewart one and features actual chunks (aka nuggets) of chicken breasts that have been breaded and fried. It's like fried chicken, but nuggetized! To get her tasty recipe, read more.
Chicken Littles
Submitted by TeamSugar member jennifer76
The kiddos loooove chicken nuggets, and while I'll give them the Morningstar fake veggie nuggets, I'm not a fan of mechanically separated frozen sawdust. . . . I mean chicken nuggets. So, I adapted an old Martha Stewart fried chicken recipe to make them that nuggety goodness.
Marinade Ingredients
2 cups low-fat buttermilk
1 tbsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. cayenne
3 chicken breasts, nuggetized 
Frying Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp. salt
1 tbsp. pepper
Wholotta peanut oil
Mix together the buttermilk, coarse salt, and cayenne. Put chicken nuggets in a gallon Ziploc bag and pour in mixture. Put Ziploc bag in another Ziploc bag. Consider putting both Ziploc bags in a bowl. I have serious issues with possible chicken funk fridge spills.
Marinate overnight. Remember that buttermilk is acidic, so if you leave the chicken in the mixture more than 24 hours, it will start to toughen up the chicken meat. The cayenne will make the mixture reddish and spotty, so try not to look at it too much or you'll gross yourself out.
Heat up your wholotta peanut oil in a big saucepan over mediumish heat. Whisk together the flour, salt, and pepper. Because of the buttermilk, your flour mixture will get clumpy as you go. So, you'll want to take portions of that mixture and put them on a plate to bread the chicken, dumping the mixture when it gets clumpy and putting fresh flour mix out.
Drop a tiny pinch of flour in the oil, if it sizzles up, your oil is good to go. Bread the chicken in the flour mixture, covering each piece completely.
Cook it in the oil, turning frequently until golden brown. It takes about . . . for-ev-ver. I go totally by color and not at all by time.
Also, if you're smart like me, you'll scrub down your whole stove including all the burners and drip pans before you get a big azz pan of boiling oil going. Trust me . . . you will be so proud of your forethought. ![]()
They taste better than they look.
Be sure to pilfer some Honey Roasted
Sauce from Chick-Fil-A. 
I don't usually use a Spiderman plate, but I used all my little plates for breading . . . and, so I had to share.
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Tom Tailor
Bloch
Republic
Awww yum!
1I'm afraid of frying oil, could I bake them? lol
2princesskitty - you could definitely bake them, they won't be the same greasy goodness, but i'm sure you'll get a good result!
3I love homemade chicken nuggets. That's one naughty way to use my supposedly healthy boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
4Hehehe, my boyfriend saw a picture of the nuggets and said: "Whatever it is, it looks so good." I guess I'll have to try them.
5When I bake stuff like this, the last few minutes I spray them with pam and turn the broiler on. Makes it crispy.
Yumm! These look great!
6Ooh sounds yummy! I love cooking, especially comfort food
There's nothing like
comfort food!
7sounds yummy.
8I'm so making these!
9Looks good. Love the chick-fil-a sauce
10This looks tasty!
11if you dredge them in a light egg wash after flouring and then dredge them in a mixture of cornmeal and bread crumbs (panko is my favorite) they come out very crunchy when you bake them. I also add lots of spices (cumin, cinnamon, curry etc.) to the flour to add some extra flavor.
12I made these last night and they were a huge hit! thanks so much for posting the recipe!!
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