My Rule-Blending Trick for Making the Best Meatballs (They’re Absolutely Incredible!)

Chicken nuggets are one of those foods that I fell in love with when I was a kid, and they have never fallen off my rotation — like grilled cheese sandwiches or stovetop mac and cheese. While I love the nostalgic fast-food version of chicken nuggets, sometimes I prefer to make them at home. 

Recipes for homemade chicken nuggets abound, but most of them take the approach of trying to “improve” the classic chicken nugget. They often call for breading chunks of chicken breast meat, and although the results are tasty, it’s more fair to call them bite-size chicken tenders than nuggets. No shade to tenders, but that’s not what I’m after.

I’ve tried a few different methods for making chicken nuggets at home and discovered a couple of tricks along the way to recreate actual nuggets in my kitchen. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Don’t @ me. If you think about it, you know I’m right. Chicken nuggets are essentially meatballs. Starting with chunks of chicken breast doesn’t deliver the textural experience of eating a chicken nugget because chicken nuggets are made with finely ground meat. You know, like a meatball. The best way to replicate a chicken nugget at home is to start with ground chicken. 

Unlike most meatballs, though, chicken nuggets have a crispy coating. So to make them at home, you’ve got to make chicken meatballs and then dredge them. I found the best way to do this is to first roll them in beaten egg, then panko breadcrumbs. Panko breadcrumbs are made with white bread and are lighter and airier than traditional breadcrumbs, which gives them a nice crunch when fried.

Just mixing up ground chicken with a little salt and pepper isn’t enough to get to true chicken nugget bliss. To get truly tender meatballs that mimic the unique, almost spongy texture of chicken nuggets, you’ve got to make a panade. A panade is a mixture of bread and liquid (typically milk, although you could use broth or water) that acts as a binder while also adding moisture to the meat mixture. The result is a meatball that is noticeably more tender. 

I tend to use more panko to make the panade for chicken nugget meatballs, but you could also use a slice of white bread, torn into pieces and mashed into a paste. Either way, it’s best to add the bread to a large bowl, add enough liquid to moisten it well, and then let it sit for about five minutes before adding the ground meat and seasonings. Another key step in making the most tender meatballs is to fold the mixture gently and avoid over-mixing. Mixing too vigorously can cause the proteins in the meat to form stronger bonds, tightening the final texture of the meatballs.

Chicken nuggets have a subtle but distinct flavor. Adding a bit of garlic powder and onion powder to the ground chicken mixture along with the salt and pepper mimics that restaurant-style nugget flavor nicely.

The chicken nuggets you get from a restaurant or fast-food joint have most likely been cooked in a deep fryer. Deep frying at home is a bit involved, and you can get a very similar result from shallow frying the meatballs in a skillet in neutral oil like vegetable or canola.