He wanted chicken nuggets and chips for his tea and at QFK we don't go in for the additive loaded pre-packed ones so I made some small, plain ones for him with an adult version for the grown-ups.
So for Jack's chicken nuggets I used thigh fillets. These are so, so much cheaper than breast meat and, I think, twice as tasty. I went on a butchery course earlier in the year and part of it was learning how to joint a chicken; cutting away the breasts as supremes and separating the thigh and drumsticks. The guy running the evening told us that the supremes are such a high markup that they cover what the butcher's shop buys the chicken for at cost price with a bit to spare. Effectively, the thighs, legs and carcass (for stock etc) are pure profit!
I trimmed and flattened out one of the thigh fillets and cut it into three. These were placed between a couple of bits of cling film and gently flattened out with a few taps from a rolling pin. Dipped into a beaten egg and then polenta and pan fried in butter ( with a touch of olive oil) until crisp and golden. Because they are so thin after being flattened they take literally as long as the polenta takes to go crispy to cook through. Jack had these with twice cooked 'pommes frites' and 'dippy' (tomato ketchup to you and me!).
The adults had chips as well and we had ours with some lovely oily minted crushed peas. For the adult nuggets I trimmed up a couple of thigh fillets each and flattened them in the same way. These were dipped in beaten egg and then into a mixture of polenta and paprika. Fried in the same way but for slightly longer due to their size. Jack's had to cool down a bit anyway so they were all done in the same pan.
The chicken stays lovely and juicy because it cooks so quickly and doesn't get time to dry out. The polenta coating is gorgeously crispy and the paprika gives the whole thing a lovely 'grown up' vibe.
We'll certainly be having these again!
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