chicken nuggets

Strips or chunks of chicken (ideally white meat) that have been breaded with something and fried (or sometimes baked) in some fashion, small enough to be conveniently eaten with one's fingers. A very common, tasty meat offering at Western restaurants (usually under the name chicken fingers), either as an appetizer, main course, or both. Also available refrigerated or frozen to be thrown into a microwave or oven as a no-brainer lunch. Also easy to make from scratch once you've got a good recipe.

Chicken nuggets are best served with some kind of dip. Sweet & sour sauce, barbecue sauce, and various mustard-based sauces are common.

Chicken Nuggets

• 4 chicken breast pieces (the filets only; ie, pure meat. These are normally cheaper to make yourself than to purchase pre-made, even if you throw away the rest of the chicken.) You can also carefully pick pure meat from other parts of the chicken to make chicken nuggets from, but the breast filets are best.
• Corn or soy bean oil for frying.

Batter:

• 1/3 cup of water
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/3 cup of flour
• 1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

How you do it:

1. Start your deep frier with up to 1/3 of oil; set for medium heat.
2. Rinse the chicken pieces with cold water and dry them off using either a towel or water-resistant paper towels. If you use a towel, it should be clean and should be washed directly afterwards due to salmonella danger.
3. Cut the chicken into suitably sized pieces (less than an inch to the side; apart from that, size depends on how you want them done.)
4. Mix the egg and water in a small bowl.
5. Mix the flour, salt, and sesame seeds in a separate bowl.
6. Pour the water and egg mixture slowly into the flour mix while stirring heavily. This makes the final mixture more uniform than just adding the flour mix ingredients to the water-and-egg mixture.
7. Dip chicken pieces in the batter; let them drain for a few seconds before putting them into the hot oil. (Don't add all the chicken pieces at the same time.)
8. Take out the chicken pieces when they are golden brown and done; when you want to check for this, be careful with the heat left from the oil (take the piece out and let it cool a little bit before testing.)
9. Let the chicken pieces dry off on a paper towel before eating.

   Serve with suitably tasty dips.

   You can vary the batter by adding spices. Chili, red pepper, cajun or tandoori masala are obvious candidates. For a more interesting variant, a mix of rosemary and tandori masala will give a unique taste.