These Keto Chicken Nuggets are about to change the way you think about eating low carb! They are made with a blend of canned chicken, seasoning, cheese, almond flour, and egg, and they have a light coating of crushed pork rind to give it a crispy exterior.
Keto Chicken Nuggets are super easy to make. Easily portioned, and everyone in the family loves them. They can be oven baked, air fried, or cooked right in the skillet, whatever your preference may be!
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Effortless Easy Keto Recipes
I love sharing effortless, easy keto recipes to share that the entire family will enjoy, whether they are keto or not. For me, this is easy as I do live mostly keto myself, but my son's family (who lives with me) do not.
They are always willing to taste test my keto recipes and do a great job of letting me know if I should share the recipe with my readers or not! These Keto Chicken Nuggets got the double thumbs up for 4 others in my home. I would say this one is a winner!
Making Boneless Wings Keto Style
I will be the first to admit. I love crispy deep fried bone in buffalo chicken wings but I hate cooking in oil. So when I want bone in wings, I will make this Air Fryer Chicken Wing recipe.
However, I love breaded boneless wings also, and I didn't like the fact that I couldn't get them keto friendly whenever I ate out, or would look to buy them in the grocery store.
I've seen several different versions of keto chicken nuggets made with canned chicken floating around on tiktok and that is when I decided I was going to try my hand at it and give it my own flair.
One of the things that is loved most about a boneless wing or chicken nugget is the breading. Those tiktok versions weren't giving a breading option. But, because I made boneless chicken wings in the air fryer with chicken tenders and crushed pork rinds, my mind got to thinking.
After several attempts, I finally came up with the perfect combination of ingredients. Coated the nuggets with crushed pork rinds, and baked. I was not disappointed!
🥘 Ingredients
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Canned chicken
Part-skim mozzarella cheese
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Crushed pork rinds
Cooking spray
🍽 Equipment
Baking sheet
Small cookie scoop or tablespoon
Large mixing bowl
Small mixing bowl.
🔪 Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, combine the canned chicken, almond flour, mozzarella cheese, onion powder, and garlic powder until well incorporated.
Using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out a portion and shape into the shape of a nugget.
Place the ground pork rinds in a small mixing bowl. Dip each chicken nugget into the crushed pork rinds, coating all sides. Place the nugget on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Spritz a light coating of cooking spray on top of the nuggets.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until crispy, flipping the chicken nuggets over half way thru.
Alternate Cooking Methods
Air Fryer: This was my daughter in laws favorite version. She said they had more crunch. So, if you like super crispy, this is the way to go. Just follow the instructions in the recipe card pretty much the same for the air fryer, and be sure to flip them half way and spray with cooking spray before putting them in the air fryer.
Skillet: These can be shallow fried with a little bit of olive oil. Heat a cast iron skillet until hot, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and fry the chicken nuggets 2 minutes on each side, or until browned and hot on the indside.
Microwave: not recommended
💭 Top Tips
- Be sure to drain the canned chicken well.
- Before mixing any of the ingredients into the chicken, break the chicken pieces up with a fork.
- For best rests and obtain crispy chicken nuggets, be sure to use cooking spray on the cookie sheet and spray the tops of the nuggets before baking. Do not use foil, parchment paper, or silicone mats.
- If not using pre crushed pork rinds, use a blender or food processor to crush the pork rinds.
📖 Variations
- Use plain or different flavored pork rinds as the coating (be sure there is no sugars involved in the making of these).
- Stir in 1 tbs of hot sauce or sugar free barbecue sauce to the nugget mixture.
More Keto Chicken Recipes To Try
*If you made this recipe, please give it a star rating*
📖 Recipe
Keto Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 12.5 ounce canned chicken drained
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup part skim shredded mozzarella cheese
- ¾ cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 cup crushed pork rinds
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°. In a large mixing bowl, combine the canned chicken, almond flour, mozzarella cheese, egg, onion powder, and garlic powder until well incorporated.
- Using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop out a portion and shape into the shape of a nugget.
- Dip each chicken nugget into the crushed pork rinds, coating all sides. Place the nugget on a cookie sheet lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Spritz a light coating of cooking spray on top of the nuggets.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until crispy, flipping the chicken nuggets over half way thru.
RobinZ
This is the best recipe yet for nuggets. So simple and good ingredients. It’s a win win!👍🏼
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Robin! Thanks for stopping back to rate the recipe! Happy you enjoyed it. Sheby
Karla
I was staring into the pantry trying to come up with a lunch idea when I spied a can of chicken. Googled what to do with it and found this recipe which I am incredibly grateful for! These were so easy and super tasty. I didn't have mozzarella so just used an Italian blend but it worked. Hubby declared "wow something smells good" when he entered the house and was overly excited to have chicken nuggets and sugar free dip for lunch. Haha as far as he was concerned these were as good as gourmet. Will definitely make again.
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Karla, so glad you found the recipe and that you and your hubby enjoyed it! Shelby
Shellie
These look so good. I want to make them but was wondering how important the mozzarella cheese is in this recipe? After having covid my taste has been altered greatly and I'm not able to eat cheese anymore in anything 😢 what would I be able to use as a substitute for mozzarella if its in there to use to help hold the ingredients together? Thank you .
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Shellie, I think could make these without the cheese and increase the almond flour to 1 cup. They should still hold together. I have not done this so I am not sure how they would turn out, but the egg is what helps hold the nugget together. Let me know if you try and I'm happy that you were able to recover from covid! Shelby
Lauren
These were delicious and so easy! I was so surprised how much these tasted like traditional nuggets! Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Lauren, thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience! Shelby
SCOTT & VANESSA
Trying this recipe right now. I am disappointed to realize they never mentioned adding the egg into the chkn & chz mixture. I did see the egg on the ingredient list. Thankfully I did my own twist at the end, by dipping my chkn & chz nuggets in flour 1st, egg 2nd, then a mix of ground up seasoned pork cracklings (waffle chips I had leftover from chick fil a & some bread crumbs, I know not entirely keto friendly, but we're still allowed the few carbs a day okay lol)
They are halfway done right now, just flipped them they are looking good.
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hello Scott & Vanessa, thanks for stopping by and for trying the recipe. I fixed the instruction to be sure the egg was in there. Thank you for letting me know. Hope they turned out with your variation! Shelby
Liz
Love how quick this recipe is!
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Liz! Thanks for coming back to rate the recipe, it is very much appreciated! Shelby
Kayla DiMaggio
Love the idea of using canned chicken in these chick nuggets. So cheap and budget friendly!
Shelby Law Ruttan
Thanks! We also just started using tuna fish and salmon as a test and my grandson loves them both!
Cathleen Childs
These chicken nuggets are calling my name!! I am definitely going to give this a go this weekend, thank you so much for the recipe 🙂
Shelby Law Ruttan
Hi Cathleen! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you love them as much as we do! Sheby