Ryvita & Almond-crusted Chicken Nuggets

What's a girl to do when the wind wreaks havoc?

COOK!

Haha, I was naughty yesterday, I didn't practice yoga and my excuse is it's coz of the wind. It was too noisy and distracting and too many things were making too much noise I just couldn't concentrate (it was Full Moon too anyway). Instead, I decided to spend some time on dinner.

The recipe called for brown rice crumbs, but I decided to crush up some Ryvita crackers instead... they're starting to go a little bit soft and I don't like crackers that are not 100% crunchy. Since I wouldn't have finished them anyway, might as well grind them up to make into Chicken Nugget coating!


Close Up shot of the mixed dry ingredients:


The recipe calls for grilling in the oven, but I pan-fried them:

(This took too long though, next time I'll definitely put them on a baking tray like the recipe says. Except this time around I was roasting vegetables in the oven too and I didn't have an extra baking tray for the nuggets)

First batch of nuggets:

(I had to pan fry about 5 batches. Boring!)

Before serving, with roasted veggies:


Kelly says they're my best dish ever (but he hasn't tried the Chickpea Almond Veggie Burgers yet since he was away last week when I made them. Those are still the best yet I reckon). These nuggets are pretty tasty too, even without any salt in the recipe. Amazing! (of course I found it off the internet again.) Don't you just love the worldwideweb?

RYVITA & ALMOND-CRUSTED CHICKEN NUGGETS:
2 Boneless Chicken Breasts (4 halves)
1 cup of Brown Rice Breadcrumbs or Brown Rice Flour (I used crushed Ryvita Crackers)
1 cup of coarsely chopped Almonds
2 T of Dry Oregano
2 T of Garlic Powder (I used Garlic Paste, mixed together with the egg)
2 T of Dry Basil
1 stick of Unsalted melted Ghee (I used 1 egg instead)

Heat oven to 400F/ 200C and line two cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a shallow bowl. I ground the almonds to course pepper size by placing the almonds in a Ziploc bag and using the edge of my square casserole dish to pound them up (I really need a food processor or even a hand mixer!) Keep turning the bag and grinding. (It also counts as an aerobic workout.) Using this method stops them from just turning to powder like they would in a processor.

Place the melted butter or egg into another shallow bowl.

Cut the chicken into 1 inch chunks. Coat the chicken bites in butter or egg then roll in dry ingredients till coated.

Place them on the cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Cook for 12 minutes - check doneness by cutting one of these babies in half and eating it. Enjoy!