Apple Chicken Nuggets

Kelly
The Cook
4 Servings
9 Ingredients
47 Comments

Need a quick lunch treat? Apple Chicken Nuggets are a wholesome meal that the whole family will enjoy!

4 Servings
9 Ingredients
47 Comments

Ingredients

  • 1 pound Ground Chicken
  • 1 ¼ cups dice Onion
  • 1 cup peel and grate Apple
  • 1 teaspoon Sage, Dried
  • 1 teaspoon Rosemary, Dried
  • 1 teaspoon Parsley, Dried
  • 2 cups drain Spinach, Frozen
  • 1 cup Bread Crumbs
  • 2 cups Canola Oil

Containers

Supplies

  • Labels

Cooking Instructions

Freeze For Later Cooking Day Directions

Stovetop

These directions help you cook or prepare this meal PRIOR to being frozen for serving later (see Serving Day Directions when you are ready to prepare it to eat).

Why would I want to freeze this?

  1. In a bowl, combine ground chicken, onion, apple, dried sage, dried rosemary, dried parsley and frozen spinach.
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Make From Frozen Serving Day Directions

Easy Assembly/Ready to Eat

These directions help you cook or reheat this meal AFTER it's been frozen for when you are ready to eat it.

  1. Prep from frozen
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Make It Now Cooking Directions

Stove Cook

These directions are for cooking this recipe to serve immediately and NOT to freeze for later.

  1. In a bowl, combine ground chicken, onion, apple, dried sage, dried rosemary, dried parsley and frozen spinach.
  2. Mix together with your hands or a spoon.
  3. Shape into equal sized bite sized nuggets.
  4. Place bread crumbs in a shallow dish and press the nuggets into the coating.
  5. Heat enough oil for shallow frying in a large frying pan.
  6. Add nuggets and cook about six minutes, three minutes per side, turning occasionally, until light golden and cooked through.
  7. Dry on a paper towel or clean cloth and cool.

Nutrition Facts

Servings Per Recipe
4 Servings
Serving Size
4 nuggets (about 1 oz each)
Amount Per Serving
Calories
1351
Total Fat
125g
Saturated Fat
11g
Trans Fat
1g
Cholesterol
98mg
Sodium
356mg
Total Carbohydrates
35g
Fiber
5g
Sugar
9g
Protein
28g
WW Freestyle
36

47 Comments

Join the discussion
    1. They sure do!! I was skeptical at first, but wow they are delicious. My 1.5 son loves them and even my husband likes to have them in his lunch! You can adjust the onion if you’re not a fan and just add a little more meat.

  1. Love the addition of apple to these nuggets. Do you ground the chicken yourself?If you have a moment today, please share this with my readers @Creative Juice Thursday. Hope to see yours among all the amazing projects!

    1. I don’t grind the chicken myself but it can very easily be done in a food processor if you choose to do so! Thanks for the link up!

      1. Do you use a regular food processor blade for grinding meat? I’ve never ground meat before, & am not sure if my 2 local butchers would, because they’re at Walmart & Kroger.

        1. Yes I just chop it with the blade in the food processor. Doesn’t get it perfect but does the trick enough to be “ground”

  2. Do you think these would do well baked instead of fried? Maybe sprayed with some oil or cooking spray? They look great!

  3. is anyone else having problems printing? The recipe gets cut off on the right side. I have to manually change the margins for it to work. Let me know if you bake them how they turn out!

    1. Hi Sarah, not sure about the formatting, that would be a good question for Tricia. But I will say that baking these will not have the same affect or taste. Frying them in this instance is okay since you’re eating them in moderation. If you do choose to bake them I would at least pan fry them to get a crispy outside and then bake at about 375 for 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!

  4. Hi Kelly,
    These little nuggets are just filled with lots of wonderful flavor. They really look delicious. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you next week!

  5. Thanks for linking to Creative Juice Thursday. Hope to see you back this week.

  6. Sounds wonderful! I would also like to try them baked though. In the past I’ve used english muffin crumbs, and they toast great in the oven, and give a really crispy outside, so I’ll probably give that a shot.

  7. Just made these with ground turkey,(store I was at to get groceries didn;t have ground chicken)but the turkey wasn’t too bad, but probably better made out of Chicken! Have to try those next.

  8. Question – do you thaw and drain the spinach, or just thaw it out without squeezing it? And if I were to try these baked, how long would you bake them for instead of frying?

    1. You do not need to thaw and drain the spinach it’s just fine in the recipe, still frozen. And I JUST baked some today actually! I would place on a greased cookie sheet into the oven at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until firm to the touch. Enjoy!

  9. Ok quick update – I made these in time to have some for lunch the other day. Wow are they good! I used ground turkey, breaded them with panko and baked for 20 minutes at 425 (sprayed the cookie sheet and the tops of them with Pam before putting them in the oven). They were so delicious, even my 22 month old gobbled them up! I’m thinking these would be great with grated carrot and apple, or grated zucchini, for those that don’t like spinach!

  10. I’m thinking of making these with drained canned spinach (because I have it on hand) and using crushed fried onions instead of the bread crumbs. What do you think? Will it work?

      1. Ok. Yeah. These turned out great. However, next time, I’ll have to cut back on the onion. The older miss (3) is not a fan of onion. Period. Maybe I’ll still get her to munch a few. Oh, yum. I haven’t even finished cooking them and I’m going to attack them!

        1. This sounds fabulous! I would agree I cut back on the onion sometimes just for my taste πŸ˜‰ Glad they turned out so well!

  11. I made these w/ ground turkey and added some shredded zucchini (I also made zucchini muffins today). Turned out great! I baked them and finished off under the broiler to get them a bit more crisp. My picky eater actually ate one and a half of these and enjoyed it!! Thank you πŸ™‚

  12. So do you think that any of these would freeze well raw and then defrosted to cook afterwards (perhaps without the breading when frozen?)

  13. These were AMAZING. Really. I’ve tried to make various types of healthy chicken nuggets, and the addition of the apple makes them really tasty. My husband is VERY picky, and he was skeptical too. Especially because they looked so spinach-y. But even he said how great they were.I posted a link in my Menu Plan Monday post this morning! (http://www.tmuffin.com/2011/12…I hope other people try them. They are so good! And I do think they would freeze ok raw. I would leave the breading off so it doesn’t get soggy and watery as they thaw.

  14. This recipe looks absolutely perfect for getting more veggies into my 2.5 y/o twins! I went out and bought all of the ingredients this evening and will be making them tomorrow. I’ve never done that for a blog recipe before (usually I just get around to them “whenever”). Can’t wait!

  15. Mine seemed alittle bland… not enough apple maybe? Seemed heavy on the onions…next time I’ll cut back on the onion and add alittle more apple. I baked mine and used panko bread crumbs so maybe flavored bread crumbs would add alittle more? Just seem to be missing something…

  16. I have made these several times! I got the recipe from your website the first time it was featured…..quite a while ago! I have baked them, and they turn out great! My kids and I all loved them and ate them up!

    1. You could use fresh spinach if you blanched/wilted the spinach first. I feel like that is the most important element, it needs to be less bulky than it is when it is fresh.

  17. I’m curious if there’s an explanation I’m not seeing regarding this being Paleo Apple Chicken Nuggets but the recipe calls for bread crumbs and use of canola oil, two ingredients that are not regarded paleo.

    1. Hi Julie! Yes the original recipe is not paleo. However we have adapted the recipe cards to fit within the paleo guidelines. We changed out almond flour for bread crumbs, and for canola oil we swapped coconut which is actually better frying anyways!

  18. These were delicious but VERY time consuming to make! Everyone in my family ate them except my pickiest eater. I ended up baking them in the oven after I frying a few batches because it was taking so long.

  19. I loved these with the Panda Express orange chicken sauce. When I tasted them at first I thought they were bland as well… I noticed the recipe doesn’t have salt in it, maybe that is why I felt it was a little bland.

  20. I haven’t made them but judging from the picture and some comments, you might get a better crunchy crust if you dip in flour, then egg, then Panko. It makes it uniform and crunchy and probably protects the Panko from getting mushy when it’s cooked. Worth a shot maybe πŸ™‚

  21. The first time I made these, I realized that I would have to shred the onion next time. I’ve done it before and it helps when you don’t want chunks of onion. Also, I’m wondering if we could do these in the air fryer? I’m going to experiment today!