Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets {Better Than Chick Fil A Recipe!} (2024)

Chicken nuggets are one of those things that just about everyone loves, and they can easily be made gluten free! This recipe goes a step further because these are Chick Fil A style gluten free chicken nuggets! This recipe is super simple, fast, and can be made inyour air fryer or oven easily!

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I like to call myself a bit of a chicken nugget connoisseur, because chicken nuggets have been one of my go to favorite foods for as long as I can remember. When I went gluten free, they were the first thing I had to figure out how to make!

Are Chicken Nuggets Gluten Free?

By nature, chicken nuggets are not usually gluten free. This is for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is their coating. Chicken nuggets are coated in either flour or breadcrumbs, which have gluten and need special substitutions to make them gluten free.

You can’t just pick up any old chicken nuggets if you are gluten free! Also, some chicken nuggets are made with ground chicken, which my also have flour added to them.

I get around that by cutting chicken breasts into nugget size pieces.

Now, let’s talk about how I make gluten free chicken nuggets that are even better than the ones you get at Chick Fil A.

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets (Chick Fil A Style)

When I was growing up, there was a Chick Fil A at the food court at the mall. This was way, way before Chick Fil A got super popular! I loved two things off the menu: the chicken skewers, and the chicken nuggets. They were literally the best things ever.

However, that changed as I got older for two main reasons, first and foremost, I developed a peanut allergy. Next up on the list was going gluten free. This meant Chick Fil A was off the menu as I knew it.

I started with figuring out how to make the classic Chick Fil A sandwich with some friends one day, but really, I prefer nuggets, so I decided to go for that next.

These chicken nuggets are so simple to make, you’ll be hooked!

How to Make Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets (Like Chick Fil A)

The secret to gluten free chicken nuggets, is getting the breading right. I’ve done a ton of experimenting with this ones, and most gluten free flour blends work just fine.

Personally, my go to is King Arthur Gluten Free Flour, but you can use anything you have on hand. If you use a stronger tasting gluten free flour, you will definitely notice it with the nuggets, so keep that in mind when picking your gluten free flour!

Now, when we talk about this gluten free Chick Fil A recipe clone, there is a secret ingredient: pickle juice. Yes, you read that right, pickle juice.

The secret is to let your chicken marinate in pickle juice before you bread and cook it. I like to let it marinate for 30 to 45 minutes.

The next secret is to get that crispy, crunchy coating. To do this, you bread them twice. First, coat in the wet mixture, then toss in the dry mixture, and repeat the process again!

Then, your chicken nuggets are ready to be cooked in either your oven or air fryer.

Sure, you could deep fry them too, but that tends to get messy and quite honestly can be a bit of a pain for setup and cleanup.

Are there any healthy chicken nuggets?

Healthy is one of those subjective terms, and it really depends on what you are looking for. This recipe uses just a few simple ingredients, white meat chicken, and just a spray of oil. That’s much healthier than their deep fried counter parts!

You can make this recipe healthier by changing up some of the other components of the recipe if you wish. To reduce calories, you can remove the powdered sugar, but you’ll lose some of that classic Chick Fil A flavor.

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