Chicken Nuggets
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
8 boned, skinned chicken thighs or 3 breasts
Sunflower or vegetable oil for deep-frying
8 tbsp plain flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper, pimenton, ground coriander, ground cumin or a spice of your choice
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
Instructions
Cut the chicken into pieces about 3cm across. Put a deep pan of oil on to heat up. Take three shallow plates and arrange next to the hob. Spoon half the flour into the first, add a generous seasoning of salt, pepper and your chosen spice and mix well. Into the second plate, lightly beat the eggs. Into the third (the one nearest the oil), put the remaining flour, seasoned only with a little salt and pepper.
Test the oil temperature by dropping a cube of bread into it. It should bubble fairly vigorously, and brown in 40 seconds. Taking a few pieces of chicken at a time, coat them in the spiced flour on the first plate, shake off any excess, then dip them into the egg, making sure they are completely covered. Shake off the excess and then roll them in the third plate of flour until completely coated. Shake off excess flour, then drop the chicken into the hot oil. Fry in batches, for 4?5 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper, then eat while they are still good and hot with a squeeze of lemon juice, a lemony mayonnaise or a shake of tomato ketchup.
To make breaded chicken nuggets, follow the method above but replace the flour on the final plate with fine breadcrumbs. As well as or instead of adding spices to the first lot of flour, you can pep up the breadcrumb coating by adding finely chopped herbs or, best of all, freshly grated Parmesan (use two-thirds breadcrumbs to one-third Parmesan).
Recipe from Waitrose.