Easy Baked Gluten-free Chicken Nuggets (Paleo and Keto Options)
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Looking for an easy meal that’s guaranteed to please? These Homemade Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets fit the bill.
These gluten-free chicken nuggets always get rave reviews, and are suitable for almost any special diet. They’re Egg & Dairy Free with a Gluten-Free & Grain-Free option, and they freeze well too!
If you’re tempted to go through a drive through when time is short, then this gluten-free chicken nuggets recipe is for you! It’s a super-easy recipe you can put together in almost no time flat that will make your family feel like you really went out of your way for them.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This just might be the best homemade chicken nuggets recipe ever for several reasons.
These nuggets are so much healthier than store-bought or restaurant chicken nuggets. They come together fast and require no special ingredients so it’s a frugal recipe as well.
They can be made in the oven or on the stovetop, and they taste amazing. The reviews say it all.
Move over Mickey D’s, there’s a new nugget in town.
Ingredients
boneless skinless chicken breast
almond flour (or gluten-free flour blend)
salt
garlic powder
paprika
cayenne pepper
black pepper
avocado oil
Directions
Cut chicken into chunks. (Photo 1)
Coat the chicken. (Photo 2)
Bake in the oven. (Photo 3)
Place on a plate with your choice of dip. (Photo 4)
Serving Options
Serve with rice or other grain of choice, in pitas, with or without a dipping sauce. These would also taste great with the homemade barbecue sauce from this Oven Barbecued Chicken.
As mentioned, this Homemade Vegan Ranch Dip or this Easy Marinara Sauce would make great dips as well.
This AIP Guacamole is another great option, but this Healthy Chick-fil-A Sauce is by far the best option.
Serving Suggestions
These nuggets taste great dipped in:
- Sugar-free No-Cook Ketchup
- Healthy Chick-fil-A Sauce
- AIP Guacamole: yes, nuggets taste great dipped in guac!
- Dairy-free Ranch Dressing
- Dairy-free Avocado Dressing
- Moroccan Vinaigrette: this is a thinner “dip” of course, but the nuggets still taste great with this.
Substitutions for Special Diets
- Flour Option: Any gluten-free flour blend should work fine. Organic almond flour is a good grain-free option. Use organic coconut flour or organic tiger nut flour for AIP. Note that coconut will absorb a lot of moisture, so blending it with another flour is best.
- Oil: You could use any other oil suitable for high heat instead of avocado oil.
- AIP: If you use cassava or tiger nut flour and adjust the spices, these baked chicken nuggets work for the AIP diet. Omit the pepper and paprika, and cayenne. There aren’t really any good substitutes for these, but this AIP Taco Seasoning would likely taste great on these nuggets.
- THM: This recipe qualifies as an “S” if you are on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.
- whole30: Use almond flour or other non-grain flours on their own or as a blend.
Recipe Notes
- Extra Coating Option: The recipe tastes great as it is, but you might want to increase the amount of the coating by half or two times for added flavor.
- Size of Cuts: The smaller you cut the chicken, the faster the chicken nuggets will bake. Don’t cut them so small that you have crispy bitty pieces of chicken, but not as big as commercial nuggets.
- Oil: I know that it seems odd to add the oil after the coating, but this recipe really works. Trust me! The original recipe recommended a spray bottle for the oil to coat the chicken. I recommend using a solid oil like coconut for this recipe as its smoke point is higher and you will not be creating free radicals by cooking at a high temperature.
- “Spicy-ness:” Experiment with the cayenne and pepper to adjust the “spicy-ness” to your taste.
- Meal Prep: For even faster meal prep, cut up chicken into chunks, coat, and store in small plastic bags in the freezer. Just take out of the freezer and bake in the oven for a ready-in-a-flash meal! The chunks will only take about 5 minutes longer to cook.
More Easy Healthy Dinner Recipes
Indian Lentils: A delicious meatless meal that’s ready in as little as 9 minutes!
Ground Beef Curry: This dish is so delicious, we serve it for guests all the time and have even had it for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter!
Gluten-free Chili Mac: An easy, hearty and delicious one-pan meal.
Gluten-free Hamburger Helper Beef Skillet: Another one-pan meal that tastes great.
Easy Baked Gluten-Free Chicken Nuggets Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 cup almond flour (or gluten-free flour blend)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons paprika (use onion powder for AIP)
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – omit for AIP)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (omit for AIP)
- avocado oil (use amount desired. About 1/4 cup should be enough)
Instructions
- Cut chicken into approximately 1 – 1½ inch size chunks. Place in bowl.
- Mix flour with seasonings.
- Sprinkle flour and seasoning mixture over chicken and mix well to coat thoroughly.
- Melt oil (if necessary). Drizzle over chicken and mix to coat lightly.
- Bake in preheated oven (425 degrees for convection / 450 for conventional) until chicken’s internal temperature reaches 180 degrees (about 10 minutes for a convection oven [I love my Hamilton Beach convection oven] and 14 for conventional).
Stovetop Option
- Cut chicken into small chunks, about 1 – 1½ inch chunks. Place in bowl.
- Mix flour with seasonings.
- Sprinkle flour and seasoning mixture over chicken and mix well to coat thoroughly.
- Melt oil (if necessary). Drizzle over chicken and mix to coat lightly.
- Cook in large shallow pan over medium heat, stirring often enough to prevent burning. Cook until chicken’s internal temperature reaches 180 degrees.
Notes
- Size of Cuts: The smaller you cut the chicken, the faster the chicken nuggets will bake. Don’t cut them so small that you have crispy bitty pieces of chicken, but not as big as commercial nuggets.
- Oil: I know that it seems odd to add the oil after the coating, but this recipe really works. Trust me! The original recipe recommended a spray bottle for the oil to coat the chicken. I recommend using a solid oil like coconut for this recipe as its smoke point is higher and you will not be creating free radicals by cooking at a high temperature.
- “Spicy-ness:” Experiment with the cayenne and pepper to adjust the “spicy-ness” to your taste.
- Meal Prep: For even faster meal prep, cut up chicken into chunks, coat, and store in small plastic bags in the freezer. Just take out of the freezer and bake in the oven for a ready-in-a-flash meal! The chunks will only take about 5 minutes longer to cook.
- How to Serve: Serve with rice, in pitas, grain of choice and with or without a dipping sauce. These would also taste great with the homemade barbecue sauce from my Oven Barbecued Chicken!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.
This recipe was inspired by a nuggets recipe in the book Simple Choices for Healthier Eating.
How about you? Do you have a quick and healthy “treat your family” meal?
Photo Credits: Naomi Huzovicova
I made these for my daughter tonight and they are a success! Thanks for the recipe. It is so hard to find a good breading recipe especially one that is gluten free and this one is so flavorful! I’m glad I doubled it so we could freeze some for later.
So glad to hear this! We love them too!!
Won’t the olive oil after the breading cause the breading to come off?
Hi Christina.
It doesn’t. It’s just applied lightly. I hope you like them!
Hello Adrienne,
I just wanted to get some advice, my 14 month old has FPIES it’s basically multiple food allergies. Her majors are all dairy, eggs, soy, rice, oats, ground beef, cherries, mangos, onions and cinnamon. We recently found some nuggets for her at fresh thyme but they since stopped carrying them. I seen your recipe on the chicken nuggets and wanted to know what a good substitute would be for garlic as we aren’t sure about garlic yet? Any other recipes you might have would be great, as you know soy is in EVERYTHING so I’m sure you would understand our frustration Thanks and Merry Christmas!!.
Hi there. Asafoetida is something you can use in place of onion and garlic. What other recipes are you needing? Merry Christmas to you as well. I know it’s hard!!
If she has mango alergies, be careful with avocado also. I have heard they are related in a way that the allergies often come together. I have sensitivity to avocado and am careful about mango too now.
Hi I’m new to all this healthy eating I have a granddaughter that has Celiac and my mom has kidney issues. Learning to cook for them I have found how much better we all feel. My question you keep referencing AIP could you let me know what that means please…… I really want to try these nuggets hopping the grandkids will like them……
thanks
Sure – AIP is autoimmune paleo. I hope to write more about it later. You can find info about it on the web. There are a few good cookbooks too :). Hope they like the nuggets. We made them last night and they were gone in a flash!
hey i made these for my daughter last night for a snack and OMG!!! i had to make more she loved them. thanks for the recipe! ill be using this more often.
YEA!!! I just was telling my friend she needs to make these. Thank you for taking the time to comment!
This looks like such a wonderful and easy recipe that I featured it yesterday on a Facebook page I curate called Cooking with Whole Grains & Real, Whole Foods. I know my grandkids will love this. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks for sharing!!! Hope they do enjoy it!
Hello ~ Questioning about Gluten Free Panko Crumbs as listed in your Chicken Nuggets Recipe, I have GF for years and have never seen GF Panko Crumbs. Many That see this listed will automatically think that Panko Crumbs are GF, which they are made from Wheat. I have even Googled Panko Crumbs Many times, looking for them, unless you make something similar to them ~ you cannot buy them, or I should say they are the Best Hidden Secret Anywhere …
Why List Something like that where Everyone can see this, and Newbies to Gluten Free Eating would go buy them thinking they are doing something right and become seriously ill all over again? I still have not found your notes were it explains how you are making them, So sorry for the blast, but this is a serious point for those that are Celias or Gluten Sensitive. After Spending 12 day in ICU and almost losing my COLON … I am quite alarmed at these kinds of things and everyone else should be too … not a good thing / unless people reading your blog are educated to read between the lines
Hi there. I am not sure where you saw GF Panko Crumbs listed in the recipe — is it possible it was an ad there? I didn’t use anything like that to make them — just GF flour. Thanks in advance.
Do you have recommendations for an almond flour replacement?
You could use any seed or nut – can you do any of those? Or are you looking for a grain option?
I have never seen any sweet brown rice – what brand do you use and where do you find it?
I love this recipe
Here is a link to one of the brands I typically buy. I am not sure what the other brand is — it comes from a local health food co op. But Lundberg is high quality. This is an affiliate link. I am hoping to make this this week as well. https://amzn.to/1DLzwlR
Thanks for the great recipe!
You’re welcome! I was just thinking I need to make these again!
Adding a little arrowroot powder is good too.
for your ranch you can try something newer to the market called (just mayo) it is an egg free mayo using yellow peas I believe. not to sure but many stores are now carrying this since it has topped the market as #1 mayo choice in only six months of it’s introduction to wholefoods markets which is why walmart and target are now carrying it as well!
I haven’t seen it but sounds interesting. Sorry for the delay in responding. I have been swamped and am trying to catch up!
Going to try these tonight – they sound yummy and easy! You drizzle the coconut oil over the chicken after it has the flour on it?
Yes, that’s what I do. Sorry I’m late – I was out. Did you make them?
I just made them for my picky four year old , who was just diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and dairy allergy .. He loves them so much , he wanted me to make them for dinner ! Lol I made these with almond flour and actually made two extra batches for quick baking in the future ????
YEA!!!!! So happy! Hope to see you around again!
Adrienne, these are amazing!!!
Hi Stacy – did you make them? Hope you’re well!!!
Yes, I did! And I posted them on Instagram and people were super interested. They taste better than Chick-Fil-A!
Yea- thanks for sharing!!!
I just made these for dinner tonight using thigh meat. I made about 1.70lbs of meat so I used your measurement plus a little more. I am gluten free, so I used a GF biscuit/pancake flour mix with a couple TBS of coconut flour and also added extra brown rice flakes to give it a nice crunch. These were sooooo good and my husband couldn’t tell it was gluten free!! Score!!
Woot! So glad to hear it!!!
I thought these looked good, tried them last night and they came out even better than I expected!
I used grapeseed oil, which is fairly new to me but is good for high-heat cooking and has a mild flavor. I was amazed at how the coating came together. I used a large spoon to stir the chunks in a bowl, I think a key may be making sure they are very well coated with the flour first (it looked like a lot of flour at first, but I kept stirring til all wet surfaces of chicken were well coated). Then drizzle oil (I didn’t have to use much) and stir til evenly moist.
I used these in a chicken salad this time, but I’m looking forward to using them in lots of other ways and mixing up the spices!
Thanks!
So glad to hear!!! Thanks.
How do you melt the coconut oil to drizzle onto the chicken? Thank you!
Just on low heat in a small pan. I don’t care for nuking anymore :). You can do high heat, but I prefer using lower.
I love itty bitty crispy pieces of chicken. I definitely want to try this with small pieces! Yummy
Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Adrienne! I’m new to some of these concepts of healthier eating. I’ve been doing the no sugar thing for years but recently dove into gluten free due to medical problems and my doctors recommendations! I was curious on this post with the chicken nuggets you suggest serving them with rice in a pita and grain of choice. What other grains do you use? I’m feeling lost! Thank you for this wonderful blog! It’s given me the confidence to keep going on this journey. Blessings to you and your family!
I use buckwheat, millet, quinoa and rice mainly. Sometimes amaranth but that’s mainly in baking and for a breakfast porridge that I hope to share. Thanks!