Keto Chicken Nuggets (Baked or Fried)

Keto Chicken Nuggets (Baked or Fried)

By the looks of it alone, you might think that this crunch and tasty recipe is packed full of carbs, but you’d be wrong! This simple recipe adds unexpected flavor and tons of crunch that plain ole breaded chicken nuggets just simply can’t deliver. Whether you are eating keto or not this recipe will delight, because it is delicious!

If you have been cooking keto for a while, you have probably come across some fried recipes that utilize pork rinds as the “breading”, and it is such a nifty substitution that it might even make the recipe better than the traditional one. We put a little bit of a spin on that method by adding in flavors to the meat prior to coating them in the pork rinds, and the ingredients list is commonly found in your household cupboard already.

Usually when you are looking at a recipe that has either a pan fried or a baked alternative you would feel inclined to think that the baked method would produce a more soggy result. If that was your expectation of this Keto Chicken Nugget recipe, you might be surprised by the outcome. We find that often times the oven baked method produced a crunchier nugget than frying it in a pan, and you obviously introduce fewer calories that way too.

KETO CHICKEN NUGGETS (BAKED OR FRIED)

Ease of Preparation: Easy

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cooking Time: 10 Minutes Fried / 35-40 Minutes Baked

Total Time: 20-50 Minutes

Keto Chicken Nugget Recipe Nutrition Label

Ingredients:

  • 2 Pounds Chicken Breasts or Tenders
  • 1/2 Bag of original pork rinds (unflavored)
  • 3 Tablespoons Mayonaise
  • 3 Tablespoons Dijon Mustard
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 Teaspoon Salt
  • 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
  • 1 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika
  • 1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 Teaspoon Granulated Garlic Powder
  • 2 Teaspoons Italian Seasoning

Instructions:

  1. Begin by preparing your raw chicken, and cutting it into roughly 1 inch squares. Food Scissors can help make this so much easier.
  2. Place chicken into a suitable dish, and season with the mixture of dry seasonings (Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, Paprika, Italian Seasoning, and Garlic)
  3. Open the bag of pork rinds and either transfer about half of the bag to a resealable plastic bag for smashing, or utilize the bag they came in carefully. Using the palms of your hands or a rolling pin begin to break up the large chunks of pork rinds until some of them are fine like powder and others are chunkier like the size of granola grains. Transfer the crumbs into a medium or large bowl.
  4. In a medium or large bowl prepare the seasoned dredge that we will use to coat the chicken pieces prior to coating them in the pork rind crumbs.
  5. Whisk together the mayo, dijon mustard, and egg until smooth.
  6. Now based on your cooking preference you will either need to heat up a frying pan with your choice of oil to around 350*, or you will need to preheat the oven to 425*.
  7. Take the chicken by hand and dunk it in the dredge of mayo and dijon and then transfer to the bowl of pork rinds.
  8. If you are baking, use a baking rack on top of a foil-lined baking pan to elevate the chicken nuggets off the bottom. This will insure a more crunch nugget all the way around. Place into the 425* oven on the middle rack for about 35 minutes.
  9. If you are pan frying, once the oil is hot enough (careful not to make it too hot!) place the pieces of chicken in to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, carefully turning them with tongs throughout the process so to evenly brown and crisp them on all sides. After frying, set the chicken nuggets on either a rack to drip, or onto a plate with paper towels on the bottom to soak up excess oil.

Optional: We like to serve these with a dipping sauce. Our personal choice is to make a simple and spicy sauce by mixing together Ranch Dressing and Sriracha Sauce. Just make sure that you read you labels on the sauces you choose to count those sugars too, because chances are there will be some.

Keto Chicken Nuggets (Baked or Fried)

KETO CHICKEN NUGGETS

Amanda Dawn
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Course dinner, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 4 people
Calories 480 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 2 pounds Chicken Tenders
  • 1/2 Bag Original Pork Rinds
  • 3 tbsp Chosen Foods Avocado Oil Mayo
  • 1 Large Free-Range Egg
  • 1 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
  • 1 tsp Black Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 tsp Granulated Garlic
  • 2 tsp Italian Seasoning

Instructions
 

  • Begin by preparing your raw chicken, and cutting it into roughly 1 inch squares. Food Scissors can help make this so much easier.
  • Place chicken into a suitable dish, and season with the mixture of dry seasonings (Salt, Pepper, Cayenne, Paprika, Italian Seasoning, and Garlic)
  • Open the bag of pork rinds and either transfer about half of the bag to a resealable plastic bag for smashing, or utilize the bag they came in carefully. Using the palms of your hands or a rolling pin begin to break up the large chunks of pork rinds until some of them are fine like powder and others are chunkier like the size of granola grains. Transfer the crumbs into a medium or large bowl.
  • In a medium or large bowl prepare the seasoned dredge that we will use to coat the chicken pieces prior to coating them in the pork rind crumbs.
  • Whisk together the mayo, dijon mustard, and egg until smooth.
  • Now based on your cooking preference you will either need to heat up a frying pan with your choice of oil to around 350*, or you will need to preheat the oven to 425*.
  • Take the chicken by hand and dunk it in the dredge of mayo and dijon and then transfer to the bowl of pork rinds.
  • If you are baking, use a baking rack on top of a foil-lined baking pan to elevate the chicken nuggets off the bottom. This will insure a more crunch nugget all the way around. Place into the 425* oven on the middle rack for about 35 minutes.
  • If you are pan frying, once the oil is hot enough (careful not to make it too hot!) place the pieces of chicken in to the pan and cook for about 10 minutes, carefully turning them with tongs throughout the process so to evenly brown and crisp them on all sides. After frying, set the chicken nuggets on either a rack to drip, or onto a plate with paper towels on the bottom to soak up excess oil.

Video

Notes

Optional: We like to serve these with a dipping sauce. Our personal choice is to make a simple and spicy sauce by mixing together Ranch Dressing and Sriracha Sauce. Just make sure that you read you labels on the sauces you choose to count those sugars too, because chances are there will be some.
Keyword Chicken

Amanda Dawn

HI! I'm Amanda. A trained chef, nutritionist, and writer who is passionate about helping people live a healthy lifestyle. I lost 75 lbs in my journey and I love to help others enjoy great, wholesome food!

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97 Comments

  1. You should add the option to print as a recipe card without all the other junk. Like the other recipe sites do.

    1. That’s a great suggestion. We will look into how to do that!

      1. People can always copy and paste, add instructions for that. I do it all the time.

        1. An add is covering the instructions. Unable to read part of them.

          1. I just adjusted the code. No clue why Google does that randomly. Thanks for letting me know!

      2. Any ideas on an alternative to pork rinds?

        1. Hot pork rinds and a blue cheese dip would taste like buffalo chicken! Yum!

        2. Crush them and use them as bread crumbs on chicken🍗

      3. So I was so curious on how this would taste so I just finished making it and OMG its AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!!!! I was hesitant about the pork rinds but you can’t even taste pork. It’s so crispy and a fantastic easy recipe. The flavor all comes from the spices and the Dijon Mustard. Great job for sharing this delicious recipe. Oops it’s already eaten y the kids!!! Now that’s a real good sign.

        1. Did you bake it?

        2. I do not like port rinds by them selves, but with the mus recipe they are perfect! Made them twice and my wife and I think they are fantastic! I baked them. For our tastes…. I will not change a thing!

      4. Use the Copy Me That App. It copies recipes without commentary or ads. Just the photo, ingredients and directions.

        1. I downloaded the Copy Me That app but not sure how to get this particular recipe. Can you help me.

        2. I downloaded the Copy Me That app but not sure how to get this particular recipe. Can you help me.
          NEVER MIND…I got it! Thank you.
          The app has great instructions.

    2. Just copy and paste in word 🙂

    3. Nelda D. Fairley

      All you have to do is right click somewhere in the recipe and when the print option comes up, click on print. Then click save.

      1. Thank you! Right Click then select print. Be sure to indicate which page or it will print all of them.

      2. LOL… That suggestion didn’t work (right click somewhere in recipe)…. It came up with 25 pages. I’ll just copy and paste, that’s worked before. Not sure I can eat pork rinds so hopefully I can find a substitute.

  2. Dredge in cooking means to run through a dry mixture; so you dredge the liquid coated chicken through the ground pork rinds (yes, I’m being pedantic)

    1. Maybe, but it threw me at first…. Words DO mean thongs, after all.

    2. Dredge in cooking means to coat in something wet.

  3. I am totally making these today!

  4. thanks for the great recipe 🙂 i like it

    1. I think I’m due for making this one again around the house too!

  5. Is there an alternative to pork rinds? We don’t eat pork in our house.

    1. Some people will make a version where they dunk it in parmesan cheese after the egg bath. Try that!

      1. I’ve been tempted to do that too! Was it salty?

  6. Yuk! Mustard and pork rinds? ????

    1. Mustard and pork rinds=delicious food! Pork and mustard were made for each other.

      1. So you put ketchup on hot dogs?

          1. You must be in the North . LoL you never had ketchup on a hot dog?? lolol. You can also buy sugar free ketchup too and besides the ads on your page covers up the the first 3 steps of your recipes , so annoying. YOU ARE

        1. Ketchup on hotdogs, well, that’s one way of messing up a dog!!! Next you’ll be putting mustard on hamburgers… Now that destroys a burger ????!!!

          1. Hahaha! I knew there was a reason I don’t put mustard on burgers.

          2. Y’all must be dang yankees than. I couldn’t eat a burger plain . Barf .

          3. Rednecks Lose Civil And Food War

            No ketchup on hot dogs. Go put Ranch on your Ranch!

  7. hi, could not read the nutritional facts clearly. Anyway to make it clearer? thanks

    1. Were you experiencing that issue on the phone or computer?

  8. Any suggested substitute for mustard? Can the mayo be substituted for heavy whipping cream?

    1. You can substitute for many different things. Sour Cream, Ranch Dressing, Thousand Island Dressing, etc.

  9. Nelda D. Fairley

    All you have to do is right click somewhere in the recipe and when the print option comes up, click on print. Then click save/ or PDF.

  10. These were FANTASTIC! The chicken was crunchy and juicy. You can add seasoning to the pork rinds as well, and they are amazing. We baked for 25 mins — our oven runs hot. We took the suggestion of ranch mixed with hot sauce (Frank’s ,no carbs) and it was great. This absolutely is now my go-to “friend” chicken for keto, and it’s even better than most non-keto “fried” chicken recipes. The pork rinds really hold up and stay crunchy.
    Eric, someone also made this with whey protein instead of pork rinds — mix the protein with spices, cook as directed.

  11. What kind of pork rinds do I buy? Can I get organic?

  12. Can I get organic pork rinds? Can you give me a name/photo?

  13. Instead of pork rinds I’m thinking maybe funyons or Cheetos would make a possible breading for a not keto version, do you think that might work?

    1. For a NOT Keto version, sure! Someone else had mentioned French’s Fried Onions too (non-keto of course).

      1. Hi. Im confused as to why pork grinds are keto but not funyons.

        1. Funyuns are made from corn, which is not Keto-friendly. Pork Rinds are made from pig skin, which IS Keto friendly. Pork Rinds are pretty much just fat and protein, two of the main fuel sources for a Ketogenic Diet. Funyuns are mostly Carbohydrates due to them just being pretty much Corn, Salt, and Sugar.

      2. Why aren’t frenchs fried onions keto?

        1. Because they’re coated in breading.

        2. There are some brands of fried onions are are not coated. just have to check the ingredients.

          1. Good to know. I’m going to read the labels at the store next time to see if my local stores sell any of them. 🙂

  14. Looks delicious. Please advise weight for half bag of pork rinds. I live in uk so will try with pork scratchings.

  15. I made these tonight for the family. Everybody LOVED them! Will definitely do these again.

  16. You could use a flavored pork rind. There are SO many – BBQ, maple bacon flavored, hot & spicy, garlic… whatever appeals to you. Would probably add to the sodium content I’m sure.
    Can’t wait to make these!

    1. Wait!!! Did you say maple bacon flavored pork skins???? I’ve not seen these in the south yet!!!

  17. I made this last night and LOVED it!

  18. Nyanza Lynn Riley

    I do not eat park, what can I substitute for the pork rinds.

  19. A bag of pork rinds? What size were your bags? Mine were 70 grams. I used 1 1/2 bags! Luckily I had bought a few once I found them 🙂

    1. Maybe they come in bigger quantities in the US. I’ve made them with some smaller bags and had to use 2 bags before. How did they turn out for you?

  20. I had a lot of chicken left over and used two backing dishes. Used chicken breasts, is this normal?

    1. Normally two baking trays will use up about 5 big chicken breasts. How many breasts did you use?

  21. Because there is a fried and baked option, shouldn’t there be two different sets of nutrition facts? Also, there are *’s on cooking temps for each option which usually indicates a foot note but I don’t see anything. Please advise

    1. The * denote degrees in the text. As far as the fried option, you would need to calculate for how ever much oil your chicken absorbs, that’s fairly difficult to do unless you weigh your oil before hand and afterwards. Frying will certainly give you more fat, which can be a good thing when eating keto as long as you use appropriate oils.

  22. I’m meal prepping with a friend and would love to make these. Wondering if these might freeze well or how they would taste a few days later.

  23. CANT RUN A COPY OFF WHAT IS THIS HAS PRINT A COPY DUH.

  24. A bag of pork rinds? What size were your bags? Mine were 70 grams. I used 1 1/2 bags! Luckily I had bought a few once I found them ????

  25. I’ll be trying this also, bought a bag of “hot and spicy” pork rinds to try instead of “original”…..we like it spicy in the house…lol

  26. These were DELICIOUS ???? Thank you for sharing this one!!

    1. Really happy to hear that you enjoyed them!

  27. Anybody try this recipe in an air fryer??

    1. I’m wanting to know about using an Air Fryer too!!!

  28. has anyone tried this with boneless chicken thighs? wondering if you had to adjust cooking time or any other ingredients?

  29. Arnold Huffstetter

    A half bag of rinds? What size would that be? 3.5 oz, 5oz, 6.25oz, 8.5 oz? A big difference. Inquiring minds want, nay, need to know!

  30. what can i use instead of mayo and mustard i dont eat either one i think they are gross sorry

  31. The ad pages covers half the steps of the recipes , so annoying ! And 425 degrees for chicken nuggets for oven is way to HIGH AND WILL BURN EASILY .

    1. Thanks for the heads up on the Ad. I think I was able to go back and resolve that issue successfully.

  32. is there any mayo made w/ out soy ? soy is first or second on the list

    1. Yes, I use Chosen Foods Avocado Oil mayo.

  33. Curious how you could do this in an air fryer?

    1. They are AWESOME in an air fryer, but they work best cooked in a single layer, because if you go tossing them around like I do when I make chicken wings in the air fryer you will knock most of the pork rinds off the chicken. Since I can’t fit many in a single layer in the air fryer I use the oven instead and make about 2 sheet pans at a time.

      1. What temp did you do for the air fryer? And for how long?

  34. So I made these tonight and they were delicious! I ended up using barbecued pork rinds and added some Parmesan cheese as well! Since I used barbeque, I left out all of the dry seasonings the recipe called for with the exception of garlic powder. It calls for mayonnaise but it doesn’t say how much? Anyone know this? My only complaint is the pork rinds did not adhere to the chicken nuggets very well? Maybe I need to grind them up even finer next time? Any suggestions? Thanks!

  35. I abhor Mayo and mustard. Any alternatives?

  36. Second time making this as my hubby is strictly keto and we all love it including both of my kids! Both times i used honey mustard dressing as i didn’t have the dijon mustard. I also baked it. Delicious!

  37. This has a lot of sodium what can I use in place of salt?

  38. Made this today using Chicken Thighs

  39. These are just like the real deal but soooo much better, we had them last night, thanks for the heads up…with love from lush London.

  40. Many, including myself, are using air fryers to cook their food. PLEASE also include cooking instructions for those too. Thanks in advance

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