Baked Chicken Nuggets

One of the biggest challenges after moving to Melbourne is the need to cook every meal everyday. Well, my family, especially the father, he doesn't really like to eat out. I have been cooking almost 3 meals a day, 7 days a week since I came. I could count with my fingers on how many times I've eaten out so far. But I am not complaining. My family is not complaining. In fact, EG is such a happy man that he could eat at home for most of the meals. Simple logic - he happy, I happy, kids happy, everyone happy. :D

Cooking here is simpler - ingredients are easily available, weather is good - I cook with my sweater on most of the time, like cooking in aircond room haha! (I'll soon share when I have to cook during summer). Because of the different culture here, I can find many different types of food - greek. asian, japanese, korean, etc. Some of the cooking websites, like www.taste.com.au or Jamie Oliver's website, have all their ingredients available in the major grocery shops here.

So I decided to document down some of my recipes in my cooking journey. I am a full time working mum, with two clingy children, so my recipe is not going to be the super canggih one - but mainly the simple, quick, and easy recipe that can whip up a meal in 30 minutes or less. Maybe slightly more complicated ones during weekends or holidays.

To start of, during the weekend, I found chicken breast in my freezer and decided to make baked chicken nuggets for my girls as a treat. I surfed around for the internet to find the easiest recipe and I found one in kidspot.com.au, with most of the ingredients available in my kitchen. I tweaked it a bit to suit the ingredients I have.

Ingredients:
1 pc of chicken breast (about 250g-300g)
1/3 cup of plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Method:
1. Whisk egg in a small bowl
2. Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese in another small bowl
3. Put the plain flour in a 3rd bowl.
4. Cut chicken breast into bite size pieces (not too thick).
5. Dip chicken breast pieces into the flour, dust off the excess, dip into the egg wash, and finally coat with the breadcrumbs and cheese mix. Press the crumb mix onto the chicken pieces. Place the chicken on the baking tray with aluminum foil (*Note 1).
6. Refrigerate the chicken pieces for 30 minutes.
7. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Put in the chicken pieces in for 20 minutes (*Note 2) until cook through.
8. Serve with ketchup.

*Note 1: The original recipe uses baking paper but I used aluminum foil. It still works, but the chicken pieces stick to the foil. I probably should have sprayed some oil on top to prevent them from sticking.
*Note 2: The original recipe only asked to bake for 10 minutes but I baked for 20 minutes as I worried the chicken pieces are not cooked through.

I am pretty happy with the final result. The Parmesan cheese makes the chicken pieces really flavorful. Girls love them so much that I have to keep it aside so they will eat the rice instead of keep biting on the nuggets.

Chicken pieces, flour, eggs and crumb mix

Ready to go into the oven.

Yum yum healthy nuggets!