Baked Chicken Nuggets (Video)
Low-carb and Keto Baked Chicken Nuggets are flavored with mustard, almond, and Parmesan and served with your favorite Ranch dipping sauce. These chicken nuggets are kid-friendly and delicious and this is a meal the whole family will enjoy!
PIN the Baked Chicken Nuggets to make them later!
For today’s Friday Favorites pick I am reminding you about these favorite low-carb and Keto Baked Chicken Nuggets that I’ve made so many times since I first came up with the recipe. Of course, I’m always updating older recipes with better photos that show off the food more effectively, and when I make an older recipe again I can’t stop myself from improving it! And that’s what happened when Kara and I worked on this one.
We discovered that using Parchment Paper (affiliate link) to cover the pan when we baked them made a big difference in keeping the chicken nuggets from sticking to the pan. We also used finely ground Almond Flour (affiliate link), which helped the coating stick better.
And although the baked chicken nuggets looked a bit messy when they were cooking, we absolutely loved these tasty pieces of chicken! And if you’re a mom who’s trying to follow a lower carb eating plan and looking for things the kids will eat, I promise, you’ll love this recipe! If you wanted to serve some raw veggies to go with the nuggets and dip, that might make a healthy and kid-friendly dinner!
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
- large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- mayo
- Dijon Mustard (affiliate link)
- white balsamic vinegar (affiliate link)
- water
- Garlic Powder (affiliate link)
- Poultry Seasoning (affiliate link)
- Parmesan cheese
- Almond Flour (affiliate link)
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
What Dipping Sauce did we serve with the baked Chicken Nuggets?
We served the low-carb Baked Chicken Nuggets with Grandma Denny’s Homemade Ranch Dip, which was perfect with the chicken.
More Ideas for Low-Carb Dipping Sauces:
If you wanted some more options for tasty dipping sauce for the chicken you could try Greek Yogurt Dip, Southwestern Ranch Dip, Tzatziki Sauce, Remoulade Sauce, Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Aioli Sauce, Double Dill Homemade Tartar Sauce, or Sriracha Dipping Sauce.
Want more options for low-carb baked chicken?
Check out Low-Carb and Keto Baked Chicken Recipes for lots more options for tasty oven dinners made with chicken.
How to Make Baked Chicken Nuggets:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe, including nutritional information.)
- Trim the chicken breasts and pound each one just until they are close to an even thickness and not much more than 1/2 inch thick.
- Cut the pounded chicken breasts into nuggets.
- Mix the mayo, Dijon mustard, white balsamic vinegar (affiliate link), water, Garlic Powder (affiliate link), and Poultry Seasoning (affiliate link) to make the marinade; then put the chicken into a Ziploc bag and let the chicken marinate 3-4 hours or all day in the fridge. (You could cut up the chicken and mix the marinade the night before and keep them in the fridge; then just add the the marinade to the bag before you go to work or leave for the day.)
- When it’s dinner time, dump the chicken into a colander placed in the sink and let the excess marinade drip off while the oven heats.
- Line the sheet pan with Parchment Paper (affiliate link).
- We used a Food Processor (affiliate link) together the Parmesan cheese, Almond Flour (affiliate link), poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, but you can probably just mix it with a fork if your almond flour and Parmesan is finely ground.
- One at a time, dip nuggets in the almond flour mixture and place on the parchment paper.
- Bake the nuggets without turning for 12-15 minutes or until they’re starting to get browned. Then turn then and cook about 10-12 minutes more. Total cooking time will be 20-25 minutes, depending on your pan and oven temperature.
- Serve Low-Carb Baked Chicken Nuggets hot, with Grandma Denny’s Homemade Ranch Dip, or another dip of your choice. (See more dipping sauce ideas above.)
Make it a Low-Carb Meal:
The baked chicken nuggets would taste great with Cucumber Salad with Avocado and Feta, Sweet and Sour Cucumber Salad, Marinated Zucchini Salad, Sugar Snap Pea Salad, or Spinach Salad with Bacon and Feta for a tasty low-carb meal!
More Tasty Baked Chicken Recipes:
- Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms
- Greek Chicken Bake
- Baked Buffalo Chicken with Melted Blue Cheese
- Salsa Verde Chicken Bake
- Easy Baked Pesto Chicken
Baked Chicken Nuggets
These tasty low-carb and Keto Baked Chicken Nuggets are kid-friendly and delicious and this is great for a family-friendly low-carb dinner! Serve with your favorite Ranch or dipping sauce.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 4 very large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Marinade Ingredients:
- 2 T mayo
- 2 T Dijon mustard (see notes)
- 1 T white balsamic vinegar (see notes)
- 1 T water
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
Coating Ingredients:
- 4 T Parmesan cheese (see notes)
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste (see notes)
Instructions
- Trim any undesirable parts from chicken, then put each chicken breast into a Ziploc bag and pound with a meat mallet (affiliate link)(or something heavy) until the chicken is an even thickness, not much over 1/2 inch thick.
- Cut the chicken breasts into nugget-size pieces.
- Whisk together mayo, Dijon, white balsamic vinegar, water, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning.
- Place chicken strips and marinade in plastic bag and marinate in refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours or as long as all day.
- When ready to cook, dump chicken into a colander placed in the sink so the excess marinade runs off and let chicken come to room temperature while you preheat oven to 450F/230C.
- If needed, use a food processor to finely grind the almond flour (affiliate link), Parmesan, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper, and put coating in large flat bowl. (If your almond flour and Parmesan are both finely ground you can probably just stir it together with a fork.)
- Cover baking sheet with Parchment Paper (affiliate link).
- Dip each chicken piece into coating, turning to coat both sides, and arrange in single layer on baking sheet.
- Bake without turning for 12-15 minutes, or until the chicken is starting to look a little brown on the top.
- Then use metal turner and go under each piece of chicken to carefully turn each piece.
- Cook 10-12 minutes more on the second side until chicken is well browned and cooked through.
- Total cooking time will be 20-25 minutes, depending on your pan and oven temperature.
- Serve hot.
- If you’re reheating this in the microwave, be careful not to overcook or it will get dry. It is definitely best reheated in a hot pan or toaster oven.
Notes
If you don't like Dijon, use any mustard that appeals to you.
Use slightly less than 1 T white vinegar if you don’t want to buy white balsamic vinegar just for this.
Freshly grated Parmesan is best, not the kind that comes in a can. Parmesan is salty so I didn't use much salt.
Recipe adapted from Cooking New American.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 293Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 3gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 382mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 3gSugar: 1gProtein: 30g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
I’d consider these Low-Carb Baked Chicken Nuggets to be a good option for any low-carb eating plan, including all phases of the South Beach Diet. For the South Beach Diet, be sure to consider the almond meal as your allowance of nuts for the day if you’re eating this for phase one.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Oven Dinners to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
The tasty baked chicken nuggets were first posted in 2008! The recipe was updated with new photos in 2016, and it was last updated with more information in 2022.
80 Comments on “Baked Chicken Nuggets (Video)”
How many grams or ounces would you consider to be “very large”? Portion size is important when calculating calories. Thanks!
I don’t ever weigh the chicken when I make a recipe, but I’m guessing the chicken breasts are close to 8 ounces when I consider them large. You could weigh the chicken you’re using and use that to calculate the calories if you really want it to be accurate.
I wish I knew how to cook this in the Airfryer…..
I’m sorry I can’t advise you on that. I’ve been hesitant to try it in the Air Fryer because of the way some of the coating sticks to the parchment paper when you make it in the oven. But if you do get brave enough to try it, I would love to hear how it goes!
Hi again! Any thoughts on this version of nuggets in the Air Fryer? Maybe not so much due to having been marinaded? Thanks!
I haven’t tried this in the Air Fryer. We did attempt Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets once (not exactly this recipe) and the breading fell off and made a mess, so I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Although I have seen recipes for it, let me know how it goes if you do try it!
That information is already in the recipe.
Any idea of what I could sub the Mayo with? Everything sounds great except the Mayo!!
You could try something like Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream, but truthfully I don’t know if it will hold the coating on as well as the mayo does. The mayo in this recipe is used to marinate, so most of it drips off before the chicken is cooked, and I don’t think there is much mayo flavor.
Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6
Amount per serving
Calories 117
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 4.5g 6%
Saturated Fat 0.5g 2%
Cholesterol 34mg 11%
Sodium 243mg 11%
Total Carbohydrate 2.7g 1%
Dietary Fiber 0.7g 3%
Total Sugars 0.4g
Protein 16.7g
Vitamin D 0mcg 0%
Calcium 7mg 1%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 13mg 0%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Thanks for posting that. I have talked many times about why I can’t take on the job of calculating nutritional information right now, but in case you missed it, more than a year ago I switched my site to WordPress, which created the need to edit by hand to add more than 2,000 recipes to the preferred format for google. I have been working on that (with three assistants) for more than a year, so there is no possibility of me being able to calculate nutritional information until that project is completed. And I know that once I start doing nutrition info on one recipe people will expect to see it on every recipe, which is why I have decided to keep these two projects completely separate.
Hi, can you please post the Nutrition label? That really helps to see why its considered low-carb.
Hi Kalyn! Do you still have the older version of this recipe on the blog? It was one of my absolute favorites!
Brianna if you will e-mail me (kalynskitchen@comcast.net) and tell me if you're talking about the recipe without Parmesan that had paprika, I can send it to you.
Made these tonight, boy were they yummy! This will go in my file for sure. Thank you!
Thanks, so glad you enjoyed them!
Thanks Olivia, so glad you're enjoying the recipes!
Thanks for all the low-carb/SB recipes. They can be a real God-send. I tried the chicken fingers today. Worked just great. Some crust loss, but not that much. I enjoyed it with a roasted red pepper-based, no-sugar BBQ sauce. Perfect for a late summer day.
Cornflakes would not be South Beach diet friendly, but I bet it would be tasty!
I tried making this for lunch today. Final result was tasty but despite being super careful I did lose a fair bit of crumb.
I have a recipe given to me by a family friend that is similiar but has a cornflake crumb with a yoghurt marinade (I don't know if thats South Beach friendly, I come here for the recipes and leave the diets for someone else)