Adapted from Sodiumgirl.com
This recipe is your basic chicken nuggets, but a little fancier, healthier, and gluten free, made with quinoa.
Quinoa Crusted Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Quinoa cooked
- 1/4 cup Mustard no-salt-added
- 2 Tbsp Tomato puree no-salt-added
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper freshly ground
- 1/4 tsp Garlic powder no-salt-added
- 1/4 tsp Dried dill thyme, or oregano
- Pinch Red chili pepper flakes
- 4 Skinless boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- Olive oil cooking spray
Instructions
- Place the quinoa on a baking tray and broil on high for 4 minutes.
- Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Mix together all other ingredients, except lemon and fresh herbs, in a medium sized bowl.
- Once the quinoa is done, remove from oven and set oven to 400F.
- Place quinoa in a medium sized bowl. Dip the chicken pieces into the spice mixture first, making sure to coat all sides. Then place chicken into quinoa, covering all sides.
- Once all the chicken is quinoa-ed, spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and spread chicken out on sheet. Stick it in the preheated oven for 10 minutes and you’re done!
Notes
- Getting the right amount of cooked quinoa can be a little tricky, but I found that with 6 chicken tenderloins I needed a ½ cup of uncooked quinoa.
- While this recipe is egg-free, I also made a version with an egg in place of the mustard, tomato paste mixture. I kept the spices the same for both.
- The breading process was really easy, but wearing an apron might be a good idea. The dipping mixtures (both egg and egg-free) will get all over your hands, so just make sure not to accidentally scratch your nose or wipe your hands on your shirt.
- I tried using both parchment paper and aluminum foil. The toasted quinoa stuck some to the aluminum foil but after spraying it with a little cooking spray it worked perfectly.
- While you can definitely eat these as leftovers the next day, beware the quinoa will fall off a little in the microwave.
Notes from my family:
These were definitely a hit with my family. The only thing to be careful of is the mustard. Neither my dad nor my brother like mustard, and while the mustard in the egg-free version did not bother my dad, my brother admitted that he found the flavor a little too much. Of course he wouldn’t turn down a chicken nugget, but he preferred the egg version.
