Copycat McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets
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Copycat homemade McDonalds Chicken McNuggets recipe that taste JUST LIKE the real ones – but in your own kitchen. Learn how to make these crispy little fun nuggets from home right now!
This copycat TikTok recipe for McDonalds Chicken McNuggets may not be the same experience as going to McDonalds, but when you are stuck at home and cannot get out to your favorite fast food, is the next best thing! The main thing about this homemade chicken nugget recipe is to realize this is not a complicated recipe but does require some prep.
TikTok McDonalds Chicken Nuggets Recipe
I love keeping my eye on viral recipe trends and so when I saw these copycat McDonalds nuggets on TikTok, I was like YESSSSSSSS we just try that! And boy was it spot on!
Unfortunately people on TikTok do not always share the recipes in an easy way so we wanted to come back and share exactly how to make your own chicken nuggets in your kitchen. Obviously kid friendly, family friendly and a bit healthier to fresh oil (can I use that sentence when you are talking about fried food?), these nuggets are a fantastic dinner option.
✔ Copycat Recipe ✔ Kid Friendly Dinner ✔ Viral Recipe Trend
You will need to ground down the chicken as well as freeze the nugget shapes before frying, therefore its important that you plan this recipe so you are not scrambling last minute.
Overall this recipe is pretty spot on to the original and I hope you love learning how to make your own homemade McDonalds nuggets!
CHICKEN NUGGETS
- 2 chicken breasts
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
EGG WASH
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
EXTRA INGREDIENTS
- vegetable oil to fry
- ranch dressing, honey mustard or barbecue dipping sauce for serving if desired
Complete meal by serving one of these delicious side dish options: Roasted Potatoes, Mac and Cheese in a Mug, Roasted Parmesan Potatoes
Make it a McDonalds Night by adding this Big Mac Pizza recipe to dinner too!
Plan Ahead Chicken Nuggets
Like I mentioned above, with this McDonalds Copycat recipe you have to plan ahead. The nuggets need to freeze prior to coating them in the breading and need at least 30 minutes in the freezer, but its better to plan the day before just in case.
How to make McDonalds Chicken Nuggets
Cut chicken into small cubes.
Use a blender or food processor to chop chicken into small pieces.
Place into a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Place parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
Using wet hands, shape chicken into nugget shapes.
Place on pan and freeze for 30 minutes.
Mix flour, cornstarch, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and pepper in a shallow dish.
In a separate shallow dish, add eggs, water and cornstarch and beat well.
Take frozen nuggets and dip in dry mixture, wet mixture and then dry and wet again.
Heat hot oil in a skillet and cook chicken for about 7-8 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
Drain excess grease on paper towels.
Serve chicken nuggets hot with dipping sauce if desired.
Makes 40-48 nuggets
Common Copycat Recipe Questions
Best way to ground chicken to make chicken nuggets: I used my magic bullet to chop the chicken in small batches, but any food processor should be fine.
Best sauces to dip: As always, easy ranch dip, cucumber dip, cheese sauce, Copycat Chick-Fil-A sauce, or honey mustard work great!
I want to hear your thoughts! Did you make these nuggets and were they like the original? Often our readers can make things even better with suggestions so feedback, changes, and comments are always welcome!
McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets Recipe
Ingredients
Seasoned Chicken
- 2 chicken breasts
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
Egg Wash
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
Additional Ingredients
- vegetable oil to fry
- ranch dressing honey mustard or barbecue dipping sauce for serving if desired
Instructions
- Make space in freezer to freeze nuggets.
- Cut chicken breasts into small cubes.
- Use a blender or food processor to chop chicken into small ground pieces.
- Place ground chicken into a mixing bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Place parchment paper onto a baking sheet.
- Using wet hands, shape ground chicken into nugget shapes that resemble McDonalds.
- Place chicken nuggets on parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes.
- Mix flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, salt, onion powder, garlic powder and pepper in a shallow dish.
- In a separate shallow dish, add eggs, water and 1/4th cup cornstarch and beat well.
- Take frozen nuggets and dip in dry mixture, then wet mixture and then dry and wet again.
- Heat hot oil in a skillet and cook chicken for about 7-8 minutes or until browed.
- Drain chicken nuggets on paper towels.
- Serve nuggets hot with dipping sauce if desired.
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer: The nutritional data provided here is auto-calculated and intended for your convenience only. As it’s generated via automation, its accuracy may be compromised. For precise nutritional insight, please compute the values utilizing the actual ingredients in your recipe through your chosen nutrition calculator or application.
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Can I use air fryer
You probably could but without testing I wouldn’t know the timing.
Can i use self rising flour instead of regular flour?
Self rising flour and regular flour are not interchangable.
Why not get ground chicken and save time? Seems more logical to skip that step. Unless that’s all you have is chicken breasts. But if you have to go shopping, get it already ground up and save yourself some time.
Ground chicken in the stores tends to be made up of dark and white meat and doing it this way, you only get the white meat.
It’s different textures, if you don’t do it yourself, where as ground chicken at the supermarket is alot coarse than doing it yourself and also again you know that it’s just chicken breast meat, a bit more work but definitely worth it
Delish! Made them gluten free (just subbed gf flour). Couldn’t get them out of the fryer fast enough. Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
awesome, I am so glad the substitution was a hit for you! Thank you for coming by to let me know. 🙂
I made these with gf flour… omg.. thank you so much for this recipe!! Yummmm!!! Everybody loved it! Man, these were good!!
Thank you for leaving a comment that GF worked for this recipe!
Very delicious!!! :DD
The texture is on point, for the batter and the chicken!!!
Did it in the Oven + Air fryer, the batter tastes really goood! It was a hit! 🙂
Personnally, there wasn’t enough of the dry mix, I had to double it though! 🙂
So instead of doing dry mix, wet and dry and wet again, I started with wet mix and finished with dry mix!
I cooked nuggets for 15min in the oven at 400F on a wire rack. (Cooking in the oven, because the oven makes bigger batches than the air fryer)
Then, I froze most of it, but the ones I wanted to eat now, I put them in the Air Fryer, sprayed a generous amount of oil on it and continued to cook for 8-10min. (I think Air Fryer is better at “Frying texture”, hence the finishing in the Air fryer)
Just made these for dinner. Followed directions fully! I used my deep fryer. These are fantastic! So much like McDonald’s chicken nuggets!! The grandkids are gonna love these! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Made them today and they were so good ! thanks for the recipe
These are good, and they taste like McNuggets (or at least how McNuggets used to taste before they started not being as good), but the batter on these isn’t quite the same. McNuggets have more of a tempura-style batter, whereas this is closer to a country-style fried chicken batter. Still good, by all means, but if you’re looking for the McNugget texture, this won’t really get you there.
Also, I’d recommend hitting them with the dry mix before freezing to ensure good batter adhesion. I’d also recommend re-freezing solid after battering and before frying (if you’re slow at battering like I am). Otherwise, the chicken will have thawed enough that they will begin to puff up and overcook by the time the batter has enough color on it.
For anyone wondering, I tried with oil at 375 (dropping to 350 after adding), and 350 (dropping to 325 after adding), and the 375/350 worked the best. I did 6-8 nuggets at a time.
Some ideas for tweaks:
Add some white pepper in addition to black pepper; the white pepper helps bring out that classic chicken flavor even more.
Add some cayenne pepper to the dry ingredients, and some hot sauce to the wet ingredients for a spicy nugget.
Add some MSG in addition to the salt. It makes everything better.
Not sure why this recipe has 5 stars, the chicken is DRY. I lowered the cooking time after the first batch and still very dry. The breading is similar to McDonald’s, but not there and not as crispy. I was excited to try this recipe and planned ahead 🙁