Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

These barbecue chicken nuggets are crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and made with a secret ingredient – potato chips! These sweet and spicy barbecue chicken nuggets are perfect for a fun dinner, appetizers, gameday addition, and so much more. 

Chicken nuggets are one of those foods that most of us were introduced to during childhood. Most of us never lost our love for them, either. I know I didn’t! I first had chicken nuggets when I was a kid, and through the years, I never grew out of my love for them. I’ll take them any way I can get them. The fast-food drive-through? Okay. Frozen nuggets baked in the oven? Sure. Homemade? Now we’re talking! 

I’m a cook, and I love chicken nuggets, so I think you can see exactly where this is going. I’ve been making homemade chicken nuggets for years. I love serving them at kids’ parties or bringing out tasty versions suited for adults on game days. I even bring big batches of them to potlucks. There’s never really a wrong time to serve them because just about everyone loves chicken nuggets. If you’re a chicken nugget lover, too, you’re going to be sold on these barbecue chicken nuggets. They are so delicious and fairly easy to make, too. It’s the perfect combo!

Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

These delicious chicken nuggets have a sweet and spicy sauce covering a perfectly fried, golden brown coating, and it’s all wrapped around tender, juicy, all white meat chicken. Oh, it’s so good. The great thing about these nuggets is that they have everything in them already. Even the sauce is already on them.

The secret ingredient to making these tasty nuggets is something you might not think of, though. I use potato chips! That’s right, potato chips make such a deliciously crispy coating on these nuggets, you’ll probably never go back to bread crumbs or other coatings again. 

Tips

This recipe takes a bit of cooking on the stovetop, but it’s not actually a difficult recipe. In fact, it’s fairly straightforward. That being said, there are a few simple tips to keep in mind that will have you making the absolute best barbecue chicken nuggets possible every single time. These tips are so easy, but they can make such a big difference in your final product, so be sure to read them over. 

Thoroughly Coat Your Chicken 

When dredging your chicken in the flour, egg, and potato chip mixtures, be sure you thoroughly coat every part of them. The flour is the base coat, and that’s what allows everything else to stick. Next, is the egg which sticks to the flour and in turn makes sure the crushed potato chips can stick to the nuggets. Finally, dredge the pieces in the crushed potato chips which will stick to the egg. 

During each step, thoroughly coat your chicken and really press the dry ingredients into the nugget. When dipping the nuggets into the egg, be sure to thoroughly drench the pieces to ensure that every part of the nugget is covered. 

Only Fry Until Golden Brown

A lot of people get confused when they see “golden brown”. I’ll often see foods overcooked because people lean more toward the brown side of things than the golden. The thing to remember about golden brown is that “golden” is the keyword. Whatever you’re cooking should be a nice sort of light amber color. If it’s any darker than that, you’re probably cooking it too long. That’s exactly the case with these barbecue chicken nuggets. 

Variations

This is a great recipe to toy with. Just by making a few simple changes, you can completely change the feel of the recipe. I love to switch things up with this one so I can bring several different kinds of nuggets to any event I’m attending. 

Add More Heat

If you love heat, you can kick the temperature up on these nuggets even higher by adding some cayenne pepper to the chip mixture. It pairs well with the Slap Ya Mama seasoning, creating a hot, spicy, flavorful breading. 

Get Rid of the Heat

If you’re not a fan of heat, simply leave out the Slap Ya Mama seasoning. You’ll still have delicious, crispy, barbecue chicken nuggets. You’ll just have them without the heat. 

Change the Chips

You can literally use any kind of chips you want in this recipe because you’ll be crushing them. Potato chips are great, but you could crush tortilla chips, as well. I’ve even made this recipe using crushed Doritos. That was a blast of flavor for sure. Get creative with your chips and see what happens. Of course, if you use something like Doritos, I recommend not adding the barbecue sauce. 

Serving Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

These barbecue chicken nuggets are classic comfort food perfect for game day, potlucks, birthday parties, and the like. They’re also perfect for a fun family dinner. As classic comfort food, I recommend serving them with the classic comfort sides. Think about things like mac and cheese, coleslaw, biscuits, mashed potatoes and gravy, french fries, and other such sides. They’re always a great combo. 

Storing Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

These barbecue chicken nuggets will keep in the refrigerator in an air-tight container for two to three days, although they’re best on the first day. For longer storage, you can freeze these chicken nuggets for up to two months. To freeze place them on a cookie sheet so that they don’t stick together. Then transfer them to an air-tight, freezer-safe container or heavy-duty freezer bag. 

Try These Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

These barbecue chicken nuggets are full of flavor and have a fantastic crunchy exterior that everyone loves. With just a few minutes of prep and a few more of cooking, you’ll have yourself some of the tastiest chicken nuggets you’ve ever made. Give them a try, and I know your family and friends will love them as much as mine do.

Ingredients to make Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

• Chicken breasts, diced
• Flour
• Eggs
• Heavy cream
• Barbeque sauce
• Potato chips, crushed
• Slap Ya Mama®
• Pepper
• Garlic salt
• Oil

How to make Barbecue Chicken Nuggets

• Set up your dredging station with three shallow dishes.
• In the first dish, add ½ cup of flour.
• In the second dish, add eggs, heavy cream, and ¼ cup of barbeque sauce. Whisk until combined.
• In the third shallow dish, add crushed potato chips, remaining flour, Slap Ya Mama®, pepper, and garlic salt.
• Preheat oven to 350° and line a baking sheet with foil or spray with a non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
• In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.
• Add diced chicken pieces into the flour, making sure the entire piece of each chunk of chicken is coated with flour. Press flour into chicken pieces, if necessary.
• Next, drop floured pieces of chicken into your egg mixture and toss to coat completely.
• After the egg mixture, place chicken pieces into the seasoned potato chip mixture. Press potato chip mixture onto chicken pieces, ensuring that the chicken is coated completely.
• Drop breaded chicken pieces into hot oil and fry for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
• Remove fried chicken pieces from hot oil, place on a plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess oil, then place chicken in a large bowl.
• Add the remaining 1 cup of barbeque sauce to the mixing bowl and toss chicken to coat in the sauce.
• Place coated chicken nuggets on a prepared baking sheet and bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes, then flip the nuggets and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
• Remove from oven and serve with your favorite dipping sauce, if desired.

Try These Delicious Barbecue Chicken Nuggets Today

Here are a few more delicious recipes that can be found on the blog:

• Bang Bang Chicken
• Soft Pretzel Bites
• Buffalo Chicken Sliders
• And these spicy Buffalo Chicken Nuggets from Great Grub Delicious Treats

Here are a few pics that are the perfect size for pinning to Pinterest.