food 4 tots

Popcorn Chicken

popcorn chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken bites, oven baked, baked popcorn chicken, toddler, children, kid

RECIPE FOR POPCORN CHICKEN

Serve: 4-5

Ingredients:
230g chicken breast, skinless (2 small chicken breast halves)
100g cornflakes (I used Nestle Whole Wheat Cornflakes)
60g plain flour
2 egg whitespopcorn chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken bites, oven baked, baked popcorn chicken, toddler, children, kid, Food 4 Tots

Seasonings:
For the marinade
1½ tsp oyster sauce
1½ tsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp white pepper
Pinch of sugar

For the breading
4 tsp garlic powder (refer to photo)
15g (about 4 tbsp) Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
¼ tsp paprika
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Methods:

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
  2. Trim excess fat, rinse and pat dry chicken breast with kitchen towels. Put inside a plastic bag, pound with a rolling pin/ empty glass bottle to flatten it. Cut into 1 inch small cubes. Mix together the seasonings for the marinade in a large bowl. Add chicken cubes to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. You can do the coating in a reusable bag and transfer the bag straight to the fridge.
  3. Put the cornflakes into a food processor and process until they become small crumbs. You can also put the cornflakes into a plastic bag and crush with your fingers or rolling pin to make the crumbs. Add in garlic powder, Parmesan cheese, paprika and black pepper, and mix well. Set aside.
  4. Set up your assemble line. Get ready with 3 bowls (even plates or small pan sheets are possible) which are large enough for coating the chicken cubes.
  5. The FIRST one is for flour.
  6. The SECOND one (preferably use bowl) is for egg white. Crack an egg, extract the egg white and whisk lightly.
  7. The THIRD one is for cornflakes mixture.
  8. Use a pair of tongs or clean hands, dip chicken cubes in the flour, egg and then cornflakes mixture.
  9. Prepare a baking tray lined aluminum foil. Grease the tray with oil to prevent the chicken cubes from sticking to it.
  10. Arrange the coated chicken cubes on the tray. Drizzle/ spray some oil over them.
  11. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Turn the chicken cubes over halfway through. Do not overcook the chicken as they will be dry and hard.
  12. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Transfer to serving plates.
  13. Serve warm and best to go with dips such as tomato ketchup, sweet chilli sauce or tartar sauce.

Notes:

  1. To minimize messiness, complete the entire batch for one particular step before moving to the next one.
  2. Instead of cubes, you may also cut them into strips.
  3. You may not use all the coating, but having more will make your work easier.
  4. If you don’t have oven, you can pan-fry them.
  5. To add extra crunchiness, you can do double breading for the chicken cubes. After step (8), dip the chicken cubes again to the egg mixture and then the cornflakes mixture. (Remember to complete the entire batch for step (8) first before proceeding to the second round breading. This is to ensure you have enough leftover egg mixture and cornflakes for that.)
  6. If your kids who are not ready for paprika and garlic powder, you can omit them. It works equally well too.

 

popcorn chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, chicken bites, oven baked, baked popcorn chicken, toddler, children, kid

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69 Comments

  1. Ling says:

    Sweet! Hope to try out this recipe soon over the year-end hols. Thanks for sharing again. BTW, I still haven’t try out your biscotti…oops. 🙂

  2. mmmmmm, this is my kids favourite….mine too…lol!

  3. mycookinghut says:

    U know what, I am a big fan of popcorn chicken!! Lovely clicks!

  4. Amy Tong says:

    These popcorn chicken are perfect. I’ve never thought of making them at home and my family seldom eat fast food as well. 🙂 Good these goodies are oven baked and is a much healthier version compared to the fast food version. Can’t wait to try this.

  5. OMG such a cute post!!! My husband LOVES popcorn chicken. I’m going to check the recipe now. 😀

  6. Priya says:

    Omg, cant take my eyes from those attractive popcorn chicken.

  7. […] I am making this for tea tomorrow and I am already drooling. HOLY FREAKIN CHICKEN, I think I might die of happiness if I found a box of this. Bless you, Food4tots, for this recipe. […]

  8. Alice says:

    Lovely! I bet my son will love this to bits! 😀

  9. Willyn says:

    my most wanted ever, yummmm…

  10. wokandspoon says:

    OOo, lovely. Good idea with cornflakes. I tend to use the leftover crushed up bits of weetabix for my chicken nuggets – only sometimes there are raisins left in there and it ends up tasting a little weird. Love your popcorn chicken – oven cooking is nice and healthy too.

  11. Angela says:

    Is there anything else I can substitute for the oyster sauce?

  12. Elaine says:

    This looks really tasty!

  13. noobcook says:

    your cooking is far superior to the fast food sold outside =)

  14. Megan says:

    This looks so good, it’s making me hungry.

  15. Karla says:

    Hello,

    I loooove your blog. Saddly I have not being very successful at none of the recipes.

    We’ve been living in Pakistan for a while and it is HARD to find really good and trustworthy scale to weight all the ingredients.

    Is there a way to get the version in cups/tablespoon etc of the ingredients? Any unit converter easy to use? Please let me know.

    Thanks!
    🙁

  16. Noon says:

    Tried this and love it. I have half a box of cornflakes left and decided to try this recipe. I have most of the condiment n spices from other of your recipes I had tried and I must say all e recipes I have tried from this website are really easy to follow and I always end up with “good endings”. Thank you so much for helping a newbie cook like me… Keep up the good work!

  17. Noon says:

    I like to add that the chicken is juicy and moist on the inside right after its done. Best eaten straight away!

  18. Lux says:

    Hi, can I ask how to spray or drizzle oil before putting in oven?
    Can wait to try your recipe 🙂

    Thks!

  19. Wilyn says:

    no kidding, really looks tasty, i’m craving right now 🙂 I think I can consume a box of it..Mmm..gonna be making it this Xmas 🙂

  20. Karla says:

    Emma Loved these!!! Thanks for sharing great recipes.

  21. Many thanks for the recipe! I tried it today and they are very tasty. Only thing is they are not crispy. Is there any tips to make them crispy? Not sure if it is because I left the chicken in the cornflakes for too long :p It gets really messy as I did the coating :p

    • food-4tots says:

      Baking Scientist: Did you try double breading for extra crunchiness? Use a tong to do the coating so that it won’t be a mess. 😉

      • I didn’t try double breading.. okok shall try that next time 😀 I used a pair of chopsticks to do the coating and the chopsticks were coated and it was messy in the end :p hehe.

        • food-4tots says:

          Baking Scientist: Don’t worry, it happens to me too. If the chopsticks are getting messy, use kitchen paper to wipe away the coating that stick on them. 😉

  22. nezzy says:

    I tried this last night with the help of my 4yo and we had so much fun! The popcorn chicken did not turned out as crispy as we thought it would be and the breading wasn’t tasty. Not sure why, I tried your fish fingers and they were lovely tho. We did not double bread them as we were getting hungry 🙂 Using tong is such a great tip.

    • food-4tots says:

      Nezzy: Glad to know that you have great fun making these popcorn chicken. Did you omit anything from my recipe? You can try double-breading the chicken in your next attempt. Make sure your cornflakes crumbs are not too small. Hope it helps! 😉

  23. smgoh says:

    Just tried this awesome recipe! I needed a recipe for chicken breast that i can rely on thats low fat and easy. This dish is one that i eat regularly now! thanks!

  24. Carle says:

    I have made this twice in one week, it made a great Thanksgiving meal option for kids and adults alike! I made some “popcorn” sized pieces, some chicken strips and some drumsticks, and all were wonderful. I brushed oil on the tinfoil I cooked them on (don’t overcook!) and then drizzled oil on some – Hubby said the ones without oil tasted drier, the ones with drizzled oil tasted amazing! I also tried freezing some (before cooking, coated on a tray) and hopefully they turn out too! 🙂 Thanks for the great recipe! 🙂

  25. Marie says:

    Hi, just wondering if it is possible for me to prepare beforehand and freeze it? If so, at which step should I stop and freeze?
    And also is it possible to replace the cereal with breadcrumbs instead?

    Thanks!

    • food-4tots says:

      Marie: Yes, you can freeze them after step 8. Put them on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil. Freeze for 2-3 hours until solid, then transfer to a zip lock bag. Cook them direct from frozen. No need to thaw. You may need to extend a little bit of the cooking time to ensure they are cooked thoroughly. Yes, you can substitute cornflakes with breadcrumbs. Happy trying! 🙂

  26. […] Popcorn Chicken won’t make you feel guilty going back for seconds. […]

  27. sabby's mom says:

    can we make this even without using an oven? love to make some of your recipes but need an oven. what would be the alternative? thanks

    • food-4tots says:

      Sabby’s mom: Alternatively, you can deep fry them. It’s definitely worth investing an oven as your family will get to enjoy more delicious and healthy meals. 🙂

  28. I love the idea, I’m sure it’s so incredibly crispy 🙂

  29. Vandy says:

    Oh my, this recipe is wonderful! Thou i make a mess of it but seeing my tods enjoying it, is all worthwhile. I add some chicken power to my cornflakes as i do not have garlic powder, must serve hot to enjoy the crunch. Thanks for the recipe!

  30. Stephanie Baron says:

    What are the nutritional values?

  31. Jenny says:

    The measurement for garlic is a bit too much for the amount of cornflakes provided. I would just put 1 tsp of garlic to make it toddler-friendly. Even tasting it as an adult, it was a bit much.

    Also, I am not sure why only egg whites are being used. Large chunks of egg whites ended up sticking to the chicken as I was trying to bread it. Eventually I added the yoke back in and it made the egg mixture more runny instead of gooey.

    • food-4tots says:

      Jenny: Thank you for your kind feedback. Usually, the cornflakes mixture will not be fully used up. Thus, not all garlic powder will go to the coating. Sometimes, the taste of garlic powder may differ from brand to brand. Feel free to adjust the recipe according to your family’s taste bud. As for the egg whites, you need to whisk it first. Egg white yields a more crispy texture. Sometimes, I also used the whole egg so I don’t have to freeze the egg yolk for future usage. 🙂

  32. Megan says:

    My daughter is allergic to egg whites, any suggestion on a substitute??? I think she would love these but don’t know what else I can use to make the cornflakes stick.

  33. Dawn says:

    Hi,

    I tried your recipe but left out the cheese. I pan-fried the chicken since I do not have an oven. The meat was soft and nice but I find the coating hard. Is it because I left out the cheese? Thanks.

    • food-4tots says:

      Dawn: Thanks for sharing your feedback. I don’t think the cheese will affect the coating much. I would say that coating will be a bit messy if you coat the pieces one by one. It will be better to coat the entire batch step by step. Hope it helps! 🙂

      • Dawn says:

        Sorry, if I did not make myself clear in my earlier question. I meant the corn flakes coating taste a bit hard. Is it due to the lack of cheese? Can I substitute cornflakes with other things like cream crackers? Thank you.

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