Healthier chicken nuggets

We had over 30 adults and kids over yesterday for a chili potluck. Figuring most kids would hate the low-fat three bean/portabello chili, I also prepared a batch of homemade chicken nuggets. I held back from the easy solution -- heating up a bunch of frozen, processed chicken dinosaurs.

Every last chicken nugget was eaten. Parents felt good serving them, and many tossed a couple on their plate, too. Here's the recipe from the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. Healthy tip: I only dip half the nugget in butter, cutting the cited 10 grams of fat per serving in about half, to a healthier five grams. Plenty of crushed corn flakes adhere just fine to the chicken if you choose to use less butter.

Double-Dipped Chicken Nuggets

1/4 cup all-purpose flour mixed with 1/2 tsp seasoned salt

1 cup finely crushed corn flakes

4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cut into 1" pieces

1/4 cup butter or margerine

Rinse, cube chicken. Mix flour/salt in plastic bag, toss in chicken and shake to coat. Dip floured chicken in butter, coat with crushed cereal. I just hand dip the buttered chicken in a bowl of crushed corn flakes, but you can also shake to coat them in plastic bag, if you're a Shake 'n Baker.

Place nuggets in ungreased, shallow baking pan at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until no longer pink inside. Nutritional info: 1/6th of recipe sports 230 calories, 5 grams of fat (if you half-dip in butter), about 16 g carbs and 19 grams of protein. Compare this to McDonald's Chicken McNuggets (6 pieces): 250 calories, 15 g of fat!, 15 g carbs and 15 g protein. No doubt, it was worth the extra 1/2 hour to prepare.