So, I'm not really a veggie smuggler. I'm a veggie encourager. I encourage my kids to eat them. But every now and then I decide to get sneaky and mix up the situation. I live videoed my kids eating these on facebook last night and promised you all the recipe. If you haven't seen the video, go and have a look as it gives you some funny serving tips. Anyway, these are the tastiest hidden veggie panko coated chicken nuggets ever and they are so awesome the kids won't even suspect they are hiding veggies!
So these nuggets came about as I wanted to see how well I could hide veggies. I have to say, I have succeeded. It's the panko. It hides anything. And in the case of these, it makes them crunchy and anything crunchy always works better than anything not crunchy (according to Miss 5). I've filled them with day-before-the-grocery-shop veggies, you could play around with what you put in them, but the texture of the cauliflower with the chicken mince helps to give them more of a nuggets feel.
You could just serve these with some sweet potato chippies, or even rice, because they do contain more veggies than the kids will probably offer to eat normally. But...and here's the but...you want to make sure they don't get suspicious. So serve them with veggies. Because you can make a big fuss about them eating the other veggies on the plate...and they'll just eat the nuggets. GENIUS!
Give the kids some dipping sauce of your choice, we used mayonnaise at the taste test and homemamde bbq sauce when we had them for dinner. Dipping is such a great activity to include in dinner as it gives the control back to the kids. Plus they are less likely to spot any offending green or orange stuff in the nuggets if they are dipping. Because let's be honest...kids double dip.
Are you a nugget fun? Here are my other nugget recipes for you:
The tastiest hidden veggie panko coated chicken nuggets ever
Ingredients
Filling
- 300 grams chicken mince
- 1 egg
- ½ head caulifower chopped into florets
- ½ head broccoli
- 2 carrots grated
Coating
- 1 egg lightly whisked with ¾ cup water
- ¾ cup plain flour
- 1.5 cups panko crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Combine the mince, egg, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots into a food processor.
- Process until smooth and like a dough.
- With wet hands, form tablespoonfuls into nugget shapes.
- Coat in flour, then dip into the egg water then coat in the panko crumbs.
- Space them out on a lined baking tray and drizzle with olive oil.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then flip and bake for a further 20 minutes.
Nutrition
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Paige says
Can I freeze them raw and then cook from frozen. Like regularly chicken nuggets?
Kylie says
yes, you can!
Naisy says
Thanks for the recipe, do you know if it freezes well (raw)? Thanks 😊
Kylie says
I freeze them and then reheat in the oven.
Indianna says
Hey how come you mix the egg with water?
Kylie says
Just to make it thinner and to coat it easier.
Kylie says
So that I don't use 6 eggs! 😉
Cortney McDonald says
What sauce did you use in the photo? Do you have the recipe for that?
Kylie says
It's just mayonnaise! I make my own- egg, dijon mustard and oil...and blitz.
C says
I'm in the US and we don't have chicken mince here. Is it raw or cooked? Thank! This recipe looks great!
Kylie says
Chicken mince is uncooked raw chicken, basically ground chicken. 😉
Maxabella says
These look really good, Kylie. I'm adding them to the meal plan for next week. Great in lunch boxes too!!
Kylie says
They are so sneaky Bron! If you serve them for dinner, serve them with veggies, because then they won't suspect anything!