"Popcorn" Chicken

Ever really looked at a chicken nugget? You know, that chicken flavored paste that's shaped into nugget form and breaded? We can do so much better and make it cheaper, too. With just 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (which are definitely recognizable as a part of a chicken), your family can have plenty for dinner and even a gallon size zip top bag to freeze for quick meals later. Seriously, this makes so much food that I've come to realize "popcorn" chicken from a restaurant at $5 an order is such a rip off!

"Popcorn" Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup buttermilk
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
a couple shakes of your favorite hot sauce

Breading:

2-3 cups AP Flour
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Also needed: oil for frying

Start with your chicken, a cutting board and knife. Prep your chicken breasts by trimming off any excess fat and other yucky bits. Slice  your chicken into small nuggets. I usually cut each breast into 4 or 5 strips and then slice the strips.

Aiming for bite sized pieces like these.

Place your chicken into a container with a lid and add the spices and hot sauce (don't worry, it won't make the end result spicy).  Now, GO WASH YOUR HANDS! Food born illnesses are really, really not cool. Then cover the chicken in the first cup of buttermilk.

After you've stirred the marinade mixture to combine and cover all of your chicken, stash it in the fridge. I like to give it at least 30 minutes to marinate, but this process can be done the night before you plan to cook. This same marinade process will make the best skillet fried chicken you've ever had, but definitely let that soak overnight.

Now it's time to get ready to bread and fry your chicken. Preheat your oil to 375 degrees. I have a pretty handy counter top fryer, but you could also do this in any heavy bottomed pot on the stovetop. Unless you have a way to save your oil, the stovetop can be a pretty pricey option, though, because you only use your oil once. Just be sure and keep a candy or frying thermometer in your oil, while you're cooking, as the temperature on the stove is much harder to regulate.

Mix together the other cup of buttermilk, two eggs and some of the marinade from your chicken in one bowl and then add flour to another bowl.

With one hand that you will use for the "wet" steps of the breading process, drain as much marinade off of several chunks of chicken as you can and place them into the flour. Turn them over a few times to coat them with the opposite hand you will use for the "dry" part of the breading.

The purpose of the "wet" and "dry" hands is to try to keep your hands from becoming breaded, too. If you reach into the flour with a "wet" hand, you'll end up with a glove you definitely don't want to cook with.

Once they're coated, pick them up with the "dry" hand and shake off any excess flour over your flour bowl. Dip each piece into your egg and buttermilk mixture  with your "wet" hand and allow the extra liquid to drip off before placing the piece back into the flour bowl. Turn your pieces over in the flour to coat them with your "dry" hand. This gives "popcorn" chicken its awesome slightly crunchy outside.

Your chunks of chicken should look something like this. I should also point out here that if you want your chicken with lighter breading, you can skip the second flouring. Just add 2 beaten eggs to your marinade and dip each piece into flour once.

Shake off the excess flour, make sure your oil is at temperature and fry away. Don't put too many pieces in at one time as this will drop the oil temperature too much and too much oil will transfer to your chicken. 12-15 pieces take 8-10 minutes depending on the size of your chicken chunks. Don't be afraid to cut a piece in half to check for doneness and establish your own times.

Now that you have some cooking, GO WASH YOUR HANDS! Yes....again. And probably 12 more times before you're done. Every time you handle raw meat, please, use soap on those germy hands!

Here's the first few batches.

Kid Approved!

The bonus to this recipe is that even though breading and frying all these little pieces is mildly time consuming, you get a ton of bang for your buck. 4 regular sized chicken breasts fed 7 people and I still had 3/4 of a gallon sized freezer bag full to freeze. "Popcorn" chicken freeze and reheat really well either in the microwave or in the oven at 350 degrees to keep a crunchier texture. This chicken is a great option if you're in a huge hurry to feed the kiddos on weeknights and find yourself grabbing processed chicken nuggets out of the freezer. And what's even better is there are only 4 ingredients (not counting the spices). You'll have chicken that actually looks like chicken with no preservatives or insane amount of processing. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.....it's fried. I'm not saying eat this for every meal, but if your oil is at the proper temperature, it doesn't transfer that much extra fat to the chicken and won't leave you feeling like you've eaten a ton of grease.

Enjoy eating chicken nuggets that are made of REAL FOOD!