Happy Monday! Hope this is the beginning of an awesome week. Happy to be here sharing another great recipe. I’m excited about this Baked Spicy Chicken Nuggets and Sweet Potatoes. They are reminiscent of when I used to eat Wendy’s chicken nuggets. Those were a favorite of mine, and they were cheap haha. Grew up to not like them because they are filled with unhealthy ingredients and deep-fried. Honestly I rarely ever like deep-fried foods, I’m turned off by the taste of the oil. Look I’m not judging anyone who eats it once in a while. But I like to know exactly what’s in my foods, and I Like being able to pronounce the ingredients. This recipe is healthy, it goes in very light olive oil for mere seconds, then they are cooked in the oven. They come out tasty and crispy, with delicious sweet potatoes.
Marinade: The chicken nuggets are first marinated in nut milk and hot sauce, so its moist with a little bit of vinegar from the hot sauce. I used chicken breast so this process helps to soften up the chicken and not dry it out while it’s cooking. I also chose to make this egg-free, the coating is able to set better because if the chicken already being marinated, that liquid help the coating set.
Coating: For the coating in keeping it grain-free, Arrowroot or Tapioca can be used interchangeably. There is also Cashew Parmesan which I am obsessed with, it helps add a little crunch to the nuggets. Then there are all the spicy which gives it the spicy flavor without overpowering. The coated chicken then rests for a few minutes so the coating can stay on.
Pan-frying for a few seconds is an important step. In order to keep the coating from coming off the chicken on the baking rack, you need to pan-fry each side. This helps the coating crisp up slightly so we can cook it better in the oven. Results in a better coating.
When it comes to baking I use 2 different steps. The first is to bake to crisp the top, we flip it and set the baking rack directly on the oven rack, this will ensure that the bottom does start to get soggy. We want our nuggets crispy.
Sweet Potatoes: The reason they are baked on parchment then directly on the sheet is to not burn it in the first step. We want to try to get them done as close to the nuggets as we can. The sweet potatoes go really great garlic sriracha aioli.
I really hope you enjoy this as much as we do. This recipe is not hard to pull off, yes it requires steps but once you are able to enjoy them its worth the trouble. Cooking is an art that anyone can master :), and the more you do it, the better you get at it. Rate, comment, and tag. Thank you.
| Prep Time | 30 min |
| Cook Time | 40 min |
| Passive Time | 60 min |
| Servings |
people
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- 2 large chicken breasts cut into smaller pieces
- 1/4 cup nut milk compliant
- 2 tbsp hot sauce compliant like Franks Red Hot original
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
- 1/2 cup cashew parmesan like this one https://adashofdolly.com/vegan-parmesan-cheese/
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp cayannne
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- avocado oil spray for the rack
- 2 large sweet potatoes washed and cut thinly 1/4'' wide, seasone with below ingrediets
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Ingredients
chicken marinade
Coating
sweet potatoes
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- After cutting chicken, tenderize by poking with a fork. Place in a large resealable bag, add nut milk, salt, and hot sauce. thoroughly coat the chicken. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When ready Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place al the coating ingredients with the exception of the olive oil into a clean large resealable bag and shake. Coat the chicken, and place them on a cooling rack. Place a baking rack or crisping rack inside of a rimmed cookie sheet and set aside. Heat a large skillet with olive oil on med-high heat. When hot add chicken, do this in increments of 2-3. Pan fry 45 seconds on each side, or until the coating sets, remove promptly and place on a clean cooling rack for about 5 minutes.
- Spray the baking rack with avocado spray and add chicken, Bake 15 minutes, flip, then remove the baking sheet and place baking rack directly on the oven rack. Slide the baking sheet at the bottom of the oven to catch the drippings. Bake another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a clean cooling rack. Cool slightly and enjoy with a sauce of choice. BBQ or my honeyless date mustard sauce.
- Prior to baking chicken, bake sweet potatoes slightly. Heat a large baking sheet in the oven for about 10 minutes. Place sweet potatoes on parchment paper making sure they are not touching. Take the sheet out of the oven and slide sweet potatoes on top then return to the oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, flip sweet potatoes directly on the baking sheet and return to oven for 10 minutes, turning it sideways so you can also cook the chicken at the same time. Remove from oven and continue cooking the chicken nuggets. Sprinkle the sweet potatoes with more salt and optional chopped cilantro. Enjoy with garlic sriracha aioli.
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