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Curb your fast food cravings, without all the carbs! This recipe for easy keto chicken nuggets takes juicy pieces of marinated chicken breasts, encases them in a keto-friendly, gluten-free breading, and pan-fries them until golden and crispy. Includes a simple recipe for keto honey mustard.

A hand dipping a keto chicken nugget into a small ramekin of keto honey mustard sauce.

🍗 What Makes This Recipe So Good

  • This recipe for keto chicken nuggets couldn’t be easier or more delicious. Seriously. We’re using a handful of keto pantry staples to whip up a quick and super effective keto breading that’s seasoned perfectly and crisps up beautifully. The chicken breasts marinate in pickle juice for a little flavor and a ton of moisture. Even the honey mustard sauce is super easy to make – just whisk the ingredients together!
  • Once the chicken’s marinated – which you can do the night before or earlier in the day – then you can easily make (and cook) these chicken nuggets in less than 30 minutes. It just depends on how many you’re making, how quickly you bread them, and how many you can cook at a time.

👩🏼‍🍳 Chef’s Tips

  • The actual number of keto chicken nuggets you’ll end up with depends entirely on 1) the size of the chicken breast you use and 2) the size of the “bite-sized pieces” you cut the chicken into. Larger chicken breasts and smaller pieces will yield more chicken nuggets, giving you more nuggets per serving or more servings altogether. Keep that in mind when determining how many chicken nuggets you’ll need to feed your group.
  • I don’t recommend using coconut flour instead of almond flour. Coconut flour is much thirstier and will absorb quite a bit of liquid. It’ll also turn out dry and crumbly when you fry it.
  • If you don’t want to pan-fry the chicken nuggets, you can bake them in the oven or fry them in the air fryer. For the oven, preheat it to 375° Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with foil. Spread the chicken nuggets out on the baking sheet in one even layer, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Bake them for 15-20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. For the air fryer, preheat it to 400° Fahrenheit. Spray the breaded chicken nuggets lightly with spray oil, and air fry them for 10 minutes, flipping them over halfway through.
Close up of keto chicken nuggets, with one nugget cut in half to show cross section.

🥑 More Keto Recipes You’ll Love

Recipe By: Sam Guarnieri
4 from 1 vote

Keto Chicken Nuggets with Keto Honey Mustard Sauce


Prep 15 minutes
Cook 30 minutes
Marinate 1 hour
Total 1 hour 45 minutes
Chunks of chicken breasts marinated in pickle juice, breaded in a low-carb breading, and pan-fried until crispy.
4 servings

Equipment

  • Airtight container
  • Small bowl with lid
  • 2 whisks
  • 2 shallow bowls
  • 2 plates
  • Large skillet
  • wire cooling rack
  • Paper towels
  • Tongs

Ingredients

For the Keto Chicken Nuggets

  • 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts approximately 1 ½ pounds, cut into bite-sized pieces
  • ½ cup dill pickle juice from a jar of dill pickles
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup fine almond flour
  • ¼ cup grated fresh parmesan cheese
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
  • avocado oil for frying

For the Keto Honey Mustard (Optional)

Instructions

  • Place bite-sized pieces of chicken breasts in airtight container. Cover with pickle juice and seal container. Place in refrigerator and let chicken marinate in pickle juice at least 1 hour, up to 8 hours.
    Bite-sized pieces of chicken breasts in a glass mixing bowl filled with pickle juice.
  • Add mayo, Dijon mustard, keto honey, apple cider vinegar, and cayenne to small bowl. Whisk until ingredients are well-combined, then cover bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.
    Keto honey mustard sauce in a small white mixing bowl with a white silicone spatula.
  • When chicken has marinated for desired length of time, remove container from refrigerator. Crack eggs directly into shallow bowl and whisk until egg wash is pale in color and eggs are no longer streaky. Set egg wash aside.
  • Add almond flour, parmesan cheese, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika to second shallow bowl. Whisk ingredients together until well blended. Set aside.
    Breading mixture for keto chicken nuggets, made up of almond flour and spices.
  • Drain pickle juice from container and discard. Working in batches, take handfuls of marinated chicken and place in egg wash. Be sure to separate pieces of chicken so egg wash can coat all sides.
  • Transfer chicken pieces from egg wash to breading mixture, allowing any excess egg wash to drip back into bowl before moving to next bowl. Coat pieces of chicken in flour mixture, covering all sides completely. Shake any excess flour mixture back into bowl and place breaded chicken pieces on plate. Repeat until all pieces of chicken have been breaded.
    Keto chicken nuggets, breaded but not yet fried, on a white plate.
  • Heat large skillet over medium-high heat. When skillet is warm, add approximately ½-inch of oil to cover entire bottom of skillet. Continue warming pan until oil is hot and shimmery.
  • While pan and oil warm up, cover plate with 2 to 3 layers of paper towels. Place wire cooling rack over paper towels and set aside.
  • Once oil is hot, add breaded chicken nuggets to skillet, working in batches to avoid overcrowding. Pan-fry chicken nuggets approximately 3 to 4 minutes, then flip chicken over and pan-fry another 3 to 4 minutes or until breading is golden brown and chicken is cooked through.
  • When chicken is cooked through, transfer chicken to wire cooling rack. Repeat process until all chicken nuggets have been fried, adding more oil to skillet when necessary. Be sure to let oil reheat after each batch of chicken nuggets, or breading will come out soggy.
  • Once all chicken nuggets have been fried and excess oil has dripped off, divide chicken into desired portions. Serve warm with keto honey mustard sauce and any desired sides.
  • Parmesan Cheese: Use a block of parmesan cheese and grate it yourself, rather than buying prepackaged grated parmesan. Prepackaged shredded and grated cheeses have starches and fillers added to prevent clumping, which adds unnecessary carbs and keeps the cheese from melting like it should.
 
Actual number of chicken nuggets will depend on size of chicken breasts and number of bite-sized pieces cut.

Approximate Information for One Serving

Serving Size: 1serving chicken nuggets (without honey mustard)Calories: 414calProtein: 47gFat: 20gSaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 206mgSodium: 573mgPotassium: 880mgTotal Carbs: 6gFiber: 4gSugar: 2gNet Carbs: 2gVitamin A: 235IUVitamin C: 2mgCalcium: 169mgIron: 3mg
Nutrition Disclaimers
Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.
Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.
To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

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4 Comments

    1. Hi, Allie! No one has reviewed this recipe yet. If you make and enjoy these, be sure to let us know! 🙂

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