Chicken & Veggie Nuggets

I don't know anything about the website I got this recipe from, but I'm assuming there are veggies in these nuggets to hide them from their children. It is genius. They would have fooled me! (Other than the fact that you can kind of see orange and green through the panko bread crumbs.) These chicken nuggets are so good, simple, and cheap (if the ground chicken is on sale). The ground chicken was $4.99/lb at Kroger last week. I'm not sure if that is normal, but it sounds really high to me.

Chicken & Veggie Nuggets

Cheeky Kitchen

Ingredients

1 (12 to 14-oz) package California veggies, thawed

1 egg

1/2 lb ground chicken

1 tsp onion salt (or other seasoning)

2 cups panko bread crumbs

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Put the veggies and egg in a blender or food processor. Blend until pureed. Pour puree into a large bowl. Add the ground chicken and onion salt. Mix together with a fork until well mixed. On a large cutting board, spread a thin layer of the panko bread crumbs, and salt and pepper them lightly. Spread the chicken mixture on top of the crumb mixture until it's about 1/2" thick. Lightly salt and pepper the chicken mixture, and sprinkle the last cup of panko on top. Use a cookie cutter to cut the chicken into shapes.**

Transfer to a greased cookie sheet. Bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 14-16 minutes, or just until the chicken is cooked through. Serve with ranch dressing or barbecue sauce.

**It got kind of messy doing this on a cutting board. Panko kept falling off the counter (and kind of grossed me out since it touched the raw meat). I think it would be easier to do it either in a 9 x 13" pan (using a circle or a not-so-detailed cookie cutter), or to form small balls in your hand and roll them in the panko. Then flatten them to 1/2" with your hand or a spatula. This is the method I am going to try next time.