Wednesday 4 March 2015

Buttermilk Chicken Nuggets


What do you do when you have half a carton of almost expired buttermilk? And a piece of chicken breast that has been in the freezer since last year? No idea?

That's when Mr Toby Corn's recipe came in handy. Double Dipped Buttermilk Chicken Nuggets was the obvious answer and a God send I must say. Besides, I have been very curious about buttermilk fried chicken.



From what I read, the acidity of the buttermilk tenderizes the meat and what you get is very tender and moist fried chicken. So before I do a full blown buttermilk fried chicken, I think it is a good idea to do a trial run with chicken nuggets.


I defrosted the chicken breast and then placed it in a freezer bag with enough buttermilk to cover the meat. I did not have any pickle juice, so I left that out. I only added some Cajun seasoning. No salt was added because the seasoning is salty enough. This was left to sit in the fridge overnight.


The next day, I cut the chicken breast into small pieces. Then I dredged each piece with flour which has been seasoned with Cajun seasoning. All these coated chicken nuggets were place on a wire rack.


Then, each piece of chicken nugget is dipped into buttermilk (again, seasoned with Cajun seasoning) and then dipped into the seasoned flour again. What you get is a thicker coating of flour this time.


And very gunky fingers. I couldn't help taking a shot of my fingers just like what Toby did.


Then heat up the oil and fry the nuggets in batches until they turn brown. It doesn't take very long. I know. I did say that I don't want to deep fry anymore. But it was a necessary evil.


And so worth the effort. Just looking at the golden brown nuggets draining on paper towels made me happy. I tested one while it was still warm. Wow. So crispy. So tender. So juicy. Is this really chicken breast that I hate?


These would be great dipped in Ranch Dressing, just like the Chicken Crispers served at Chillis. But I don't have any Ranch Dressing and neither did I know how to make one. So sriracha it was. 


Could I taste the buttermilk? I could detect the smell and it was not a bad thing at all. It sort of reminded me of the sour cream dip at Chillis. 


I did not follow the recipe exactly as I was working with only one chicken breast. I just eye balled the ingredients as I went along. For the full recipe, please go to Toby's blog. And while you are there, I hope that you enjoy his wit and style.

57 comments:

  1. Mmmm.....yum! Bet it must be finger lickin good.

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    1. Mel, it's really good especially when eaten hot from the wok!

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  2. Love love love those chicken nuggets.. I can have 30 pieces of chicken nuggets if they are good, with my favourite honey mustard sauce.. I made chicken nuggets before, and Kz hated it, I don't know what went wrong.. I steamed and blended chicken breasts, then mixed with (steamed and mashed) potatoes with some broccoli, cheese and all, rolled into balls, dipped into egg and Nestum, fried them... I taste nice wor, hmmm... Anyway, your chicken nuggets with Cajun seasoning looks so so good, I think I want to get Cajun seasoning too..

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    1. Louiz, you chicken nuggets sound good leh. Maybe Kz don't like it because of the broccoli? Yeah, buy Cajun seasoning. I love it a lot because it is very tasty.

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  3. aaahhhh!!! I love chicken nuggets!!! it's something like I can pop into my mouth, munch munch munch and I will not have realise how many pieces I have fed myself with!!

    have not tried the homemade ones, but those from McD and the frozen ones from supermarket.. I tell you, I can probably finished the whole packet and likely feel "insatiable".. okay, now I think I sound like Princess Ribbon, muahahahaha

    of course those bought ones will never taste as good as what PH made at home!! one thing for sure, there is no meat fillers!! and you have used Paul's buttermilk and that really get me excited how the nuggets will taste like.. I can imagine a very aromatic buttermilk kick to the meat, and make eating the nugget even not jelak at all and hence can wallop even more!!! OMG, PH oh PH!!!

    and lastly I wanted to know how many pieces did PH had, muahahaha!! I tell you, give me the whole tray and I could help you done with it one shot!!! xD

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    1. SK, I used to love the McD chicken nuggets but later on it didn't taste good to me. I don't know why. I have not tried the frozen ones and probably never will hah..hah... since I know how to make nice ones on my own. OK, you want to know how many pieces I hantam? I didn't count because I ate everything up muahahahaha!!!

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  4. I can eat it alone without having rice to goes with it...

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  5. This one is a great snacks to go with some beers!

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  6. Look good. Love your snapshots with the blurred surroundings.

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  7. It is the same like me saying I will never have cakes anymore, or I will never have Pringles anymore. Never going to happen! XD

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  8. I've known about buttermilk fried chicken (for a long time) and heard that buttermilk is supposed to tenderise chicken (from TV) but have never tried it myself. Some say you can mimic buttermilk by adding lemon juice to milk! When I first saw you lining up the chicken nuggets onto a wire rack, I thought you were going to bake it....but (instead) you fried it! :D Go, girl!!!

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    1. The milk / lemon juice thing works well for baking... but not in this case. The enzymes and lactic acid aren't present to make the meat tender

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    2. Kris : Buy the real deal and make some buttermilk fried chicken!

      Toby : Thanks for the science!

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  9. Oh my ! Phong Hong, why no call me to you join leh ?!... I like chicken nuggets too ... hee.. hee.
    OK, I've not tried frying or baking home-cooked chicken nuggets from scratch while I do have bookmarked a few recipes though. Usually I settled for those frozen packs and for occasional quick fix weeknight dinner.
    Bet that the these buttermilk chicken nuggets tasted yummy ... oh goes well with cold beer too ! Thanks for sharing. Enjoy!

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    1. Alamak, Karen! I was so enjoying the nuggets I forgot about you hah..hah... In fact I also forgot about my ironing :(

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  10. Hi Phong Hong, I also like chicken nuggets. Yours look so addictive and sedaplicious, hard to stop munching. Thanks for sharing your recipe. Can courier some over for my Chap Goh Meh dinner.... hahaha...

    Happy Chap Goh Meh.
    Amelia

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    1. Amelia, sure can! This one can be served for Chap Goh Meh with beer! Happy Chap Gph Meh to you too :)

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  11. I kept seeing all there people popping in to Plate Fodder from your site... and I had to come check out why....
    What a fabulous job you've done with the nuggets! Gunky finger and all :). You'd do a southern granny proud with your deep fried goodness.

    Thanks so much for the shout out - you always make me smile.

    Oh, by the way... there's a recipe there now for ranch dressing... for the "next" time

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    1. Toby, thank you for stopping by! And thank you for the compliments, you sure made my day :) I'll be sure to make your ranch dressing the next time I fry up some buttermilk chicken nuggets. That would make it a doubly enjoyable experience!

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  12. They look simply scrumptious!

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  13. One wOrd says it all - Yummy!

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  14. Hi Phong Hong, I don't eat store bought nuggets cos' I find that there is more flour than chicken meat in it. This is a lovely recipe which I would love to make. I think the youngsters at home would finish them as and when they are fried.

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    1. Kimmy, the store bought ones are not good for us. Best to make our own and can adjust to our taste too. I hope you try this as it is really good!

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  15. Hungry ... hungry!! Love your nuggets...especially own homecooked ones! I normally do the diced prawn nuggets taught by my mom while she was around...

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    1. Claire the one with diced prawns sounds pretty good!

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  16. hello phong hong! long time nvr drop by here, i'm still in 'hibernating' mode..hehe. I do come across buttermilk fried chicken recipes but somehow, felt a little strange abt it. Your post today just changed my perception abt this dish...i believe you that it's good and worth trying :)

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    1. Hi Lena! Long time no see :) I also used to think it was weird but not anymore!

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  17. It looks so good ...im getting hungry now especially after a run.

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  18. can I sobs sobs and wink wink? Argh...sore throat and coughing liao...cannot eat. Wei...mau keropok lekor ka? I have borong a lot

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    1. Oi dah jadi tauke keropok :D hee..hee.. better don't eat fried food yet until you recover :)

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  19. I also want to learn to make this...just eat this for dinner is enough already.

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    1. Nancy, it is easy to make and good to eat!

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  20. Hi Phong Hong,

    I hate those chunky bites on my fingers when I used them to pick meat and dip into frying batter... Then, I developed my 3-chopsticks system for deep frying... One pair of chopstick for dipping the meat into the flour. One is for dipping into buttermilk or batter. Last one is to pick the food from frying oil... LOL! Too bad that you can't lick these fingers :p

    Zoe

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    1. Zoe, your system is very neat! But I am very clumsy with chopsticks, so I will have to stick with fingers LOL!

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  21. oohhh.... very dangerous if put a plate of this in front of me! They would be gone in no time! Looks so good! Yums!

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    1. hah..hah... It's the same with me, Joyce! I ate the whole thing by myself LOL!

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  22. Buttermilk chicken is so yum! Haha I usually just oven bake them but they're just as great!

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    1. Yen, I should do that too. Quite a lot of oil was wasted.

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  23. Wow. So crispy. So tender. So juicy.
    So irresistible!
    sounds good to eat , sounds bad I am on diet:(

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    1. Aunty Young, usually after CNY it is diet time. Oops! I haven't started yet hah..hah...

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  24. Must be super delicious! So will this dish be one of your favourite dish to cook from now on?

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    1. Mun, I'll cook it again but not so soon hah..hah..

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  25. I make the same thing, but don’t bake it for anywhere near as long. Ten minutes on one side, turn over, and five on the other. Make sure to spray some veg spray before baking, and when you turn them over. In my experience, the short baking time guarantees that they will be really moist.

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    1. Rajesh, I should bake instead of fry them next time!

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  26. Nak try jugaklah nanti PH....mcm sedap je tu

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