Oven-Baked Chicken Nuggets

📝 Ingredients

• 400 g chicken breast
• 30 g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 60 g panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 150 g natural yoghurt
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• Salt, pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Frying pan
• 3 shallow bowls
• Baking tray and oven rack
• Baking paper
• Bowl

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 220 °C. Cut the chicken breasts into 3 to 4 cm pieces about 2 cm thick, all the same size so they cook at the same time. Pat them dry with kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper.
2. In the frying pan, mix the panko, oil and paprika, then toast for 3 to 4 min over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the breadcrumbs are light golden. Tip them straight into a shallow bowl: without this step, they stay pale in the oven.
3. Set up the breading station: in a second shallow bowl, the flour mixed with the garlic powder and a pinch of salt; in the third, the eggs beaten with a fork with 1 tbsp water to make them runnier.
4. Dip each piece in the flour, tapping off the excess, then in the egg, letting it drip off well, and finally in the panko, pressing it on so it sticks on all sides. Keep one hand for the dry ingredients and the other for the egg.
5. Place the rack on the baking tray lined with baking paper and arrange the nuggets on it without them touching. The hot air then circulates underneath: they stay crispy on all sides without needing to be turned.
6. Bake for 15 min at 220 °C, until the coating is nicely golden and the meat is white and juicy all the way through: cut the biggest nugget open to check, there should be no trace of pink.
7. While they bake, make the dip by mixing the plain yoghurt and ketchup in the bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Serve the nuggets piping hot, with the dip on the side for dunking.