Tasty Tuesday-Spelt Chicken Nuggets and Spelt Boneless Buffalo Wings

Call me crazy, but sometimes when I pass by fast food restaurants I get a crazy craving for chicken nuggets.  Maybe not McDonald's though, because let's be honest, their nuggets are anything but chicken. Most of the time I resist the urge to pull up in the drive-thru, but that doesn't mean the craving goes away.  Thankfully I found a recipe for some really good chicken nuggets that don't have a thousand calories, and they actually use real chicken!  The original recipe is from the Fast Metabolism Diet on Haylie Pomroy's website, but since I didn't have every ingredient on hand, I changed a few things.  I had these during FMD Phase 3 for dinner, and even though I used organic corn starch instead of arrowroot powder (*gasp!), I still lost pounds that week.

Spelt Chicken Nuggets
(adapted from Haylie Pomroy's Pretzel-Crusted Chicken Nuggets)

You will need:

• Corn Starch or Arrowroot Powder
• Egg Whites
• Spelt Pretzels
• Boneless Skinless Chicken (I used tenders)
• Salt, pepper, or whatever nugget seasonings you like
• Mustard (for dipping)

First, blend the spelt pretzels into a fine powder.  I used my magic bullet for this, but a food processor would probably work better.

Defrost your chicken if it is frozen, and cut up into nugget sized chunks.  It helps if you pat the chicken dry with a paper towel so it doesn't have that slimy chicken wetness.  Next, I laid out all my ingredients into a nugget assembly line.  I put my corn starch in one bowl, 2 egg whites into another bowl, and the ground spelt pretzels into a third bowl.  You can add the salt, pepper, or seasonings into the corn starch/arrowroot powder or the spelt crumbs. Whisk the egg whites with a fork so it gets broken up and has small bubbles.

Take a nugget piece of chicken, throw it in the corn starch, and cover that baby up.  Then, throw it in the egg whites, until it is covered with that too.  Lastly, throw the corn starch/egg white covered nugget into the bowl of pretzel spelt, and roll, shake, or flip it until it is completely covered with the spelt crumbs.  Place the nugget onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (optional).  Repeat the process until you have all the nuggets coated. 

Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked all the way through. 

I really liked these nuggets. They have the crunch I was looking for, and great taste.  Of course chicken nuggets are nothing without something to dip them in.  Mustard is a great option for the FMD, but when I am in maintenance I add a little honey to my mustard for a yummy honey mustard dip.  These nuggets are also awesome for kids, and my kids loved them.

A few months after making these nuggets, I had a hankering for some boneless buffalo wings.  I was craving that classic wing sauce, and I remembered that Frank's Red Hot sauce is approved on the Fast Metabolism Diet.  YES!  I decided I would try to make some boneless buffalo wings by adding wing sauce to the spelt nuggets.  Boy am I glad I did this, because they turned out great.  Even typing this makes me crave them right now. The process is the same as the spelt chicken nuggets, except I added about 1 Tbsp of wing sauce to the egg whites.  Also, after baking the nuggets for about 10 minutes I took them out of the oven and threw them in a bucket with some wing sauce.  Then I shook the life out of those nuggets, until they were beautifully coated with the delish sauce.  Bake the remaining time in the oven, and enjoy with some celery (and maybe a little ranch or blue cheese if you're naughty).