Powdered sugar is a surprise ingredient that gives these Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets their authentic flavor. No pickle juice needed. Trust me. This copycat recipe is as spot-on as you can get! Your whole family will LOVE them! If you’re not a fan of fried chicken, try Mom’s Baked Soda Cracker Chicken.
Granted it’s been about a year and a half since my kids have eaten at Chick-fil-A (we moved to Germany a year and a half ago), but you would have thought it was Christmas with how excited they got about these Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets. We made some Copycat Chick-fil-A dipping sauce, too, and dang, we were living our best life!
I looked at A LOT of Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Nugget Recipes to decide how I wanted to go about flavoring my own copycat. Some recipes said to use pickle juice, some said not to, some said don’t add extra spices, some said to blend up the breadcrumbs into a fine powder….
I took ideas from each of those recipes and really feel like I have come up with THE BEST COPYCAT CHICK-FIL-A CHICKEN NUGGETS. I can’t wait for you to give them a try. My daughter has already begged for this to be her birthday dinner next year. HA!
More Copycat Recipes
- Copy Cat Diner Style Pancakes
- Trader Joe’s Zucchini Alfredo Casserole
- Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread
- Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Jamboree
- Cafe Rio Cilantro Ranch Dressing
- Cafe Rio Sweet Pork
Step by step pictures for how to make Copycat chick-fil-a chicken nuggets
Tips for making Copycat Chick-fil-A Chicken Nuggets
- Cut your chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces.
- Let the chicken pieces marinate in the milk/egg mixture for 20 minutes.
- Put the bread crumbs in the food processor to make them even finer.
- After you dredge the pieces of chicken in the flour/bread-crumb mixture, set the pieces on a paper towel for 5 minutes before frying in the hot oil.
- Use a thermometer to monitor your oil temperature.
- Keep your oil temperature between 275 degrees and 300 degrees.
- Do not overcrowd the chicken when it is frying. Stir it often as it cooks.
- Cook each batch for 4-5 minutes or until the chicken color resembles that in the pictures.
- Do not place fried chicken pieces on paper towels when you take them out of the oil. This can cause steam which will make them lose their crispness.
- Place them directly onto a cookie sheet or you can put a cooling rack over the cookie sheet and place them on that so excess grease can drip off the chicken.
- Serve with Copycat Chick-fil-A Sauce.
More Chicken Recipes
- 1-2 lbs of boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup bread crumbs
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic salt
- ½ tsp white pepper (If you don't have white, you can use regular ground black pepper.)
- ¼ tsp onion powder, scant
- ¼ tsp chili powder
- Frying oil, (canola, vegetable, or peanut )
- Whisk milk and eggs together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Place chicken pieces in the milk/egg mixture and let it marinate for 20 minutes in the refrigerator.
- Blend the bread crumbs in a food processor unil it is a fine powder.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the bread crumbs, all-purpose flour, powdered sugar, salt, garlic salt, white pepper, onion powder, and chili powder.
- Heat the frying oil between 275 and 300 degrees.
- Get the chicken that is soaking out of the fridge, use a slotted spoon to drain it in batches, and toss it in the bread-crumb/flour mixture. Once the pieces are coated, place them on a paper towel for five minutes.
- Fry the chicken in batches, making sure not to crowd the chicken. Fry for 4-5 minutes or until it gets a nice golden brown picture like you can see in the photos.
- Place fried chicken pieces on a cookie sheet. (Do not place them on paper towels. The steam that causes will take away their nice crispness.)
- Serve with Copycat Chick-fil-A Sauce.
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Do you mean soak the chicken in the milk and egg mixture? I’m thinking that’s what you mean but the recipe doesn’t specify. Sounds great though and I plan on making it this weekend!
Yes, definitely what I meant. I fixed it now. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. So excited for you to try them this weekend. 🙂
If you read above recipe on basics of making it, it clearly says to mix eggs and milk, and let them soak 20 minutes. Took me a minute to find it too.
Made them today. Best recipe I have tried for nuggets. Thanks
Yeah! I love hearing that Kurt!
I’m definitely gonna try this going to Chick-fil-A it’s very expensive and quite far away.
Right?! I think I figured that I spent about 12 dollars to make this recipe and it fed 8 people and we all had at least 12-15 nuggets.
Can you make these in the air fryer?
Hi Karen, I don’t have an air fryer so I haven’t tried it myself. I can’t see why not. You would definitely want to google how long raw chicken nuggets need to cook in the air fryer, but other than that I bet they would be delish.
I have loved all of your recipes you have shared so far. I’m excited to try this one!
Thank you so much Nikki! You will love these!
Made these and they were SO YUMMY! Look just like chick fil too! Tha ks for the easy to follow instructions Maria!
I am so glad you made these! They are so fun and yummy! And I appreciate your compliment about the instructions. I try really hard to make things as easy to follow as possible.
My family was so impressed with these nuggets. They tasted just like the real thing.
Yay! That makes me so happy Amy!
I’m going to try making these nuggets! They look soooo good!
#OctoberGiveaway
They are soooo good! Can’t wait for you to try them!
I made these last week and they were delicious. I didn’t change a thing.
I have 3 boys and they are asking for more tomorrow night.
Yay! I love hearing that Jessa!