Inspired by McDonalds, these healthy chicken nuggets are a delicious and fun recipe for toddlers and baby led weaning. Salt free and iron rich, these nuggets are a great alternative to store-bought!
Growing up, I had my fair share of children nuggets. My mom had two very busy girls, was a business owner (Montessori school), and we had activities literally every night.
My mom told me stories of how many parents were really strict about banning things like McDonalds chicken nuggets. She told me how if you ban something, those kids will want it more. She saw how the kids in her school who weren’t ever allowed to have fast food like McDonalds chicken nuggets, they would go CRAZY the second they were invited to a birthday party.
Just like adults do when faced with strict diet rules, the kids couldn’t help themselves but binge in fear that they would never get the alleged “bad” food again. So I always keep it in mind when feeding my kiddos. They can have a little bit of everything so they can learn that there’s no need to binge on “forbidden” foods. We go to McDonalds every once in a while, but these homemade healthy chicken nuggets are a big hit on the nights we stay in.
And if your family is plant-based, I didn’t forget about you! Try my vegan tofu nuggets and join in on the fun.
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
Kids love nuggets so it’s easy to see why this recipe works. We’ve packed it with extra healthy ingredients that they won’t even notice is in it!
- Easy to prepare
- Perfect size for toddlers to munch on
- Salt-free
- Baked, not fried
- High in iron
- Perfect for picky eaters
Key Ingredients
Chicken — We use a food processor to grind up chicken breasts so the texture is similar to the store-bought version. Perfect for toddlers who may not like the texture of regular chicken.
Veggies — Blending up the vegetables with the chicken is an easy way to get some veggies into your toddler’s meal without them even noticing there’s vegetables!
The Coating — To make a crispy coating like the store-bought nuggets, these healthy chicken nuggets are coated in baby cereal, then the eggs, and then into the almond flour.
Seasoning — These healthy chicken nuggets for BLW are seasoned with garlic, paprika, cumin, thyme, and pepper. No salt needed!
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1: Preheat oven to 450 F and grease two nonstick baking sheets. At the same time, heat a small nonstick skillet over medium high heat with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and sauté until lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
Step 2: In a food processor, puree the ground chicken with the sweet potato, cauliflower, onion, beans, thyme, paprika, pepper, cumin and 1 tbsp oil until smooth.
Step 3: Form into small nuggets, dip then dip into the baby cereal, then the eggs, and then into the almond flour. Continue with the remaining nuggets and spritz generously with the olive oil.
Step 4: Bake for 17-20 minutes until they reach an internal temperature of 165 F. Serve with your baby’s favourite fruity baby puree for dipping.
Expert Tips
Let’s talk a dipper. Dry meat is a choking hazard for baby, and we all know that chicken breasts aren’t the most juicy fatty meat options. So having some kinda dip on hand for meat is always my recommendation. Rather than a super sugary plum sauce, ketchup or sweet and sour sauce like they serve at McDonalds, I usually just bust out one of E’s favourite puree pouches and let him dip it in that. You could even do a plum flavoured puree (with no added sugar!), my healthy homemade ketchup, or one of my toddler dips.
Chicken is a rich source of iron, but considering most of my son’s food ends up on the floor, I like to be budget conscious and stretch his meat allowance with other cheaper sources of iron. So these chicken nuggets also contain sweet potato, white beans, eggs and fortified baby cereal for iron, plus almond flour for a healthy dose of good fats. So don’t skip these ingredients for your healthy chicken nuggets! If you’re low on chicken, feel free to add a little bit more of these other iron rich ingredients.
Want to make these chicken nuggets into fun shapes? You can use a cookie cutter to mold the chicken nuggets into fun shapes like hearts, stars, and etc! Like store-bought but better.
This recipe is great if you have leftover ingredients. If you don’t, you can always cook your sweet potato and cauliflower a few days ahead of time and store it in an airtight container until you make your healthy chicken nuggets.
Recipe FAQs
This toddler chicken nuggets recipe are easy to make ahead, freeze and pull out throughout the week for an easy fast meal for baby led weaning and toddlers. To freeze, simply lay them flat on a baking sheet and freeze for one hour, then transfer to a freezer bag for up to three months.
They technically are actually! Unlike in real McDonalds chicken nuggets, I like to use a rice-free baby cereal made of oats or quinoa, in which case these would also be gluten free.
You can definitely air fryer these healthy chicken nuggets instead of baking them. You still get that crispy exterior without using a ton of oil with deep frying. Air fryers will cook up your nuggets a little faster than the oven.
Your toddler friendly healthy chicken nuggets are good to go when the internal temperature has reached 165° Fahrenheit (75° Celsius). I recommend an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature.
More Recipes You Might Like
Want more BLW recipes or toddler friendly recipes? Here are a few that my family loves!
- Cheesy High Iron Baby Meatballs
- Baby Cereal Protein Pancakes
- Hummus Baby Meatballs
- Chickpea Peanut Butter Baby Biscuits
- Kale Pepper Baby Frittata Fingers
Now tell me parents, will you be trying these healthy chicken nuggets?
Healthy Chicken Nuggets (BLW & Toddler Friendly)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb chicken boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks
- ½ cup cooked sweet potato
- ½ cup steamed cauliflower cooked until soft
- ½ cup cannellini beans white beans
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp cumin
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1 cup fortified baby cereal
- 1½ cup almond flour
- Extra virgin olive oil in an oil atomizer
- Your favourite baby puree for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F and grease two nonstick baking sheets.
- Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium high heat with 1 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and sauté until lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
- In a food processor, puree the ground chicken with the sweet potato, cauliflower, onion, beans, thyme, paprika, pepper, cumin and 1 tbsp oil until smooth.
- Form into small nuggets, dip then dip into the baby cereal, then the eggs, and then into the almond flour.
- Continue with the remaining nuggets and spritz generously with the olive oil.
- Bake for 17-20 minutes until they reach an internal temperature of 165 F. Serve with your baby’s favourite fruity baby puree for dipping.
Video
Notes
- As a dip, I usually just bust out one of E’s favourite puree pouches and let him dip it in that. You could even do a plum flavoured puree (with no added sugar!)
- These chicken nuggets also contain sweet potato, white beans, eggs and fortified baby cereal for iron, plus almond flour for a healthy dose of good fats. If you’re low on chicken, feel free to add a little bit more of these other iron rich ingredients.
- Want to make these chicken nuggets into fun shapes? You can use a cookie cutter to mold the chicken nuggets into fun shapes like hearts, stars, and etc! Like store-bought but better.
- You can cook your sweet potato and cauliflower a few days ahead of time and store it in an airtight container until you make your healthy chicken nuggets.
Nutrition
Abbey Sharp is a Registered Dietitian (RD), regulated by the Ontario College of Dietitians. She is a mom, YouTuber, Blogger, award winning cookbook author, media coach specializing in food and nutrition influencers, and a frequent contributor to national publications like Healthline and on national broadcast TV shows.
Hyun says
I skipped the almond flour + eggs part cuz I was getting too busy with my baby crawling around the kitchen. and I don’t offer crunchy food yet so.
It turned out really great! I tried myself lots of them cuz they were yummy !
I’ll def try again and store them for easy snack/meal.
I did use bigger sweet potato I wanted to be soft (added little bit of peanut butter too..)
and they turned out soft inside and formed well outside as well.
Thank you for the recipe !!
Sass says
I’m lazy… and wasn’t too concerned about recreating a McDonald’s experience for my 10 month old, so I just threw some of the baby cereal and almond flour right into the mixture. May have made it easier to work with though it was still pretty soft. I plopped spoonfuls onto the baking tray and then flattened with an oiled spatula, seemed to work well. I thought it was pretty tasty, baby thought it was ok, 4 year old didn’t like it… but maybe she would have if I’d followed the recipe lol
Sean says
Followed directions to a “T” and they were Sahara Desert dry. Even used olive oil spray to crisp them up. Love the ingredients but definitely not a fan of how they turned out.
Leah says
This was great! My one year old daughter and I both enjoyed them. Had to use pinto beans as it’s all I had, used the whole can. Also had to skip the cauliflower bc I didn’t have any. I see a lot of people saying it’s hard to work with and mine was too but I set up my station and instead of using my hands I used separate utensils for every step. So two spoons, one to scoop and one to scrape off the other spoon, a fork to roll it in the cereal and drop into the egg, another fork for rolling in the egg, and a third fork for rolling in the Italian bread crumbs I used bc it’s all I had. Not sure if it’s the alterations I made or just the method I used to make them but I had zero mess and made about thirty chicken nuggets.
Gina says
My 9 month old loves them, which is almost a bad thing as the make such a mess, I don’t want to make them again! The texture of the chicken mix is so mushy that it falls apart often while dunking. By the end, your hands are covered, the almond flour is a mix of all ingredients and the egg is like paste. Luckily, I doubled the recipe so by the time we run out, I will have either forgotten the mess and will make more, or she will be old enough for regular chicken texture!
Justine says
Great recipe! I didn’t use the food processor because I hate washing it. Used ground chicken and a potato masher! Worked great
Lauren says
My Husband and I liked them almost more than the kids! These are great! As per other comments, the raw mix you shape into balls is a bit hard to work with, but if you persevere, the results are worth it! I doubled the recipe and am glad I did!
Abbey Sharp says
Awesome! 🙂 So glad you enjoyed them.
Amy S says
For the white beans – how much? It just says “1/2”. Like 1/2 cup? 1/2 a can?
Abbey Sharp says
Oh no! Not sure what happened! 1/2 cup!
Lili Kovatchev says
So excited to try these! Any substitute for the cereal? Thanks!
Abbey Sharp says
you could try oat flour! Havent tried it myself but I assume any flour-like substance will work.
Selenge says
made this following the instructions and got mushy stuff that were not forming into nuggets. Had a huge amount. Used half (maybe less) to fill 2 baking sheets. When dipped into the cereal then eggd then almond flower ended up using all of the almosd flower and eggs but maybe a third of the cereal. Maybe my one sweet potato was bigger than normal? Maybe the ingredients should be in cups or something more exact because one sweet potato can look very different in terms of size. Am I missing a step? So confused. They turned out to be something edible, but i wouldn’t call them nuggets. Please help with a more precise recipe and maybe review it a little to make sure no steps have been missed? I really like the idea of cauliflowers and sweet potatoes in the nuggets and that they could be tasty without salt. But these are not nuggets. And i still dont know what to do with half of it that is left over.
Abbey Sharp says
So so sorry to hear this. I have re-tested the recipe and made some slight changes based on your suggestions. I really hope you will try them again. So sorry for your disappointing experience.
Rana Kayrala says
I was so excited to try these, I followed the recipe, only I used ground chicken instead of the breasts. I had a huge quantity to work with and found it hard to make them into nuggets. It almost seems like the cannelloni and cauliflower and sweet potato are all too much. I’ve made 5 to test, but theres enough in my bowl to make another 35 – and Im not exaggerating! I just don’t know what to do with the rest of it.
Syl says
Same here. What a mess. Hope they taste good. Also “small food processor”? No way…need a full size one.
Vivian says
How do these freeze?
Angela says
What age would these be good for. I have a ten month old who isn’t into chicken and I would like to find a way to get him to eat it.
Abbey Sharp says
PERFECT for a 10 mo old! Anytime after 6 mo!
Kyla says
Any substitute for egg for an egg allergy?
Thanks!
Abbey Sharp says
You could try a flax egg.
Emily @Sinful Nutrition says
I’m ready to dive into a plate of these, haha! Such a simple and healthier recipe!
Abbey Sharp says
Aw yeah!
Christine says
Is there a substitute for baby cereal as an ingredient, where iron is not a concern? Thanks!
Rachel Browne says
I found once mixed everything together the constancy was very hard to work with and was very stick so couldn’t make into nuggets very well
Jan says
Is the chicken cooked before mixing with other ingredients?
Abbey Sharp says
No, it’s raw.
Sonali- The Foodie Physician says
What kid doesn’t love chicken nuggets! I think these are a fantastic healthier alternative!
Abbey Sharp says
Right! Thanks love
dixya @food, pleasure, and health says
i like your philosophy on flexibility with meals esp when traveling and such. i am not much of a nuggets person but i appreciate when recipes include veggies. these look pretty delightful!
Abbey Sharp says
For sure. Thanks love
Deborah Brooks says
what a great healthier alternative for kids! love it
Abbey Sharp says
Woo! Thanks Deborah
Nicole @ Fitful Focus says
hold. the. phone. these sound too good to be true! I know these are for kids, buuuuuut I must try them!
Abbey Sharp says
Very adult friendly too 🙂