Easy Baked Gluten-free Chicken Nuggets (Keto and Stovetop 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 and dairy-free with a keto/grain-free option, and they can even be made on the stovetop!
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.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This just might be the best homemade chicken nuggets recipe ever for several reasons. They’re 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.
And my husband agrees with the stellar reviews as well. Every time I make them, he says, “How long do these take you to make?” which is basically him asking me to make them more often.
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)
Drizzle with oil.
Place on baking tray and bake. (Photo 3)
Serve. (Photo 4)
Serving Options
Serve with rice or other grain of choice, in pitas, with or without a dipping sauce.
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, but the nuggets still taste great with this.
- Sugar-Free BBQ Sauce
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 can 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.
- 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 simply double it.
- 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 itty bitty pieces of chicken, but don’t make them too large either. A bit smaller than typical frozen chicken nuggets is a good size.
- Oil: I know that it seems odd to add the oil after the coating, but this recipe really works; trust me! I like using avocado oil due to its high smoke point.
- “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 (flash freeze first on a baking tray). 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 Store
You can keep these nuggets in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
To freeze, let cooked nuggets cool, then for best results, flash freeze in a single layer on a baking sheet or in a shallow container. Freeze for 1-2 hours until frozen solid. Then place the nuggets in a freezer-safe bag or other container. To reheat, bake or air-fry around 375° for about 10-15 minutes until hot.
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)
- 1/4 cup avocado oil (About 1/4 cup should be enough to coat the chicken.)
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! I recommend using avocado oil as its smoke point is higher.
- “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.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
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
Thank you – these were a big hit, though my children feel calling them “nuggets” was misleading and next time they’d like me to say we’re having spicy chicken bits cooked in the oven. 🙂
Hi Kristen. I see your point. My kiddos haven’t ever eating the store bought nuggets….I guess it depends if you need your nuggets to be super chopped up and mixed chicken or not :-). I don’t know how “Baked Chicken Bits” as a title would sound…..:-)??
Just made for my husband, he really liked it-we devoured them! Thanks so much WholeNewMom! Follower for Life!
Yippee! Thanks, Marnay! Hope to see you around again! :-).
I made this tonight and it was excellent. I much prefer this breading technique (all at once) vs. doing one at a time.
Thank you! I am so glad! Now I’m thinking I should thaw out some more chicken!
Not to mention all the gluten free products that still contain Caramel Coloring and gum base and weird stuff like that…I’ve had to learn so many words that may just mean wheat, not to mention milk and all the others. It would be really easy if they would just say it plain jane on every package. Either way I plan on trying to make your nuggets and will let you know. I already printed off the recipe and the homemade rice milk…I’m really glad I found this web site…your really helping out a dad trying to cook one meal for all his allergies and yet the same thing with the regular ingredients for my other kids! So for this I thank you!!!
You’re right. It’s all a muddle. Making everything from scratch is for sure the way to go, in my opinion. At least it has worked the best for me. I try to do everything from scratch, easy, in bulk. You may even find with most of my recipes that you can make it “special” for everyone since I tend to not use expensive ingredients. That’s pretty much what I do here at least. I just use eggs for the rest of us when I have time for extra nutrition. Let me know if I can help with anything else. If I can I’d be happy to.
I guess we always thought gluten free meant wheat free but when we had bought some products that were gluten free we did some reading on the back and it still said contains traces of wheat. So we haven’t tried to use any of it for safety reasons
I always thought that “traces of wheat” would mean gluten free, but then I learned that “gluten free” meant at or below a certain level of gluten. 20 ppm, I believe, is the cut off. However, I have seen articles recently that state that the gluten free designation isn’t as accurate as it is supposed to be. I didn’t review the information thoroughly, but it seemed troubling. I should ask a friend of mine who is quite strict due to having celaic sprue. Please stop by to tell me how the nuggets worked out :-)!
My son is allergic to everything…eggs, milk, peanuts,soy, and wheat. I have found that even if something is gluten free that doesn’t mean wheat free. Is there a kind of flour that can be used to make these chicken nuggets that isn’t wheat??? I’m no Betty Crocker but I would like to be able to make and have my son enjoy chicken nuggets for once.
My son has the same issues, though he is gluten free due to having autism but no real diagnosis of an allergy and he also has a lot of nut allergies. I feel for you. Anyway, I am not sure what you mean about the GF foods not being wheat free, but perhaps you mean when a company will use wheat bran? The bran is gluten free so that is probably where the issue comes in for you. Technically the allergy should be to the protein in the wheat so your son shouldn’t have many issues with that, but you would need to check with his physician.
I just updated the recipe to show what flours I used. I’ll have to write a post about my flour choices. I am really not that particular most of the time. I should be, but this is real life and I am so busy that I make it and thankfully, they eat it :-). Hope that helps and I hope he likes them!
My kids don’t typically like chicken…it’s one of those texture things they don’t like the fact that it feels like they are chewing forever when they eat chicken. I thought I would give this a try and they LOVED it. There was nothing leftover 🙂
Thank you!
You are so welcome! We love them so much here too. My husband dislikes big cuts of meat and it’s funny -every time I make these he says, “Are these hard to make?” because he likes them so much.
HI, these delicious nuggets are being featured at Bake with Bizzy. These are truly a treat.
Thanks, Bizzy :-)!
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
My kids would love these!
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Great post! I like making my own nuggets for the kids too, can’t wait to try out the blend of seasonings you used!
Thanks so much for linking up to MomTrends this week! :o)