Make Chick Fil A Nuggets at home…and the sauce too! This copy cat recipe is a keeper!
We are crazy about Chick Fil A at our house…is it the nuggets or the sauce? Which came first the chicken nuggets or the sauce? haha…Really it’s the best combination, don’t you think? I’m all for a good copycat recipe, and if you are up for the challenge, you have to make these! You can feed your whole family well with this delicious CopyCat Chick Fil A Nuggets and Sauce recipe.
What you’ll need to make CopyCat Chick Fil A Nuggets:
- chicken breasts
- dill pickle juice
- buttermilk
- egg
- flour
- powdered sugar
- salt
- pepper
- peanut oil
For the Sauce:
- mayo
- honey
- dijon mustard
- mustard
- lemon juice
How to make Chick Fil A Nuggets:
- In a large glass bowl, add the uncooked chicken nuggets, dill pickle juice and buttermilk. Allow chicken to marinate in this mixture for 30 minutes or longer.
- Remove chicken from this mixture and in a new bowl toss with a well beaten egg.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag, combine flour, powdered sugar and salt and pepper.
- Add the uncooked chicken into the bag and toss to mix well and completely coat the chicken.
- In a large wide frying pan, heat peanut oil to medium high heat. Test the oil to see if it’s at the right temperature before beginning by a few drops of water into the frying pan. The oil should sizzle, but not pop. Adjust your heat if necessary.
- Working in batches, add the uncooked chicken to the hot oil to cook. With tongs, turn each nugget over to cook well on all sides until the nuggets are golden brown. The cook times will vary depending on the size of chicken pieces.
- Once browned remove chicken from oil and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain.
- Repeat until all chicken nuggets are cooked.
- Let nuggets cool a bit. Enjoy with the dipping sauce!
How to make Chick Fil A Sauce:
- Start by making the Chick Fil A honey mustard dipping sauce. Combine mayo, honey, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and mustard in a mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined and sauce is smooth. Move to a smaller bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
How to store CopyCat Chick Fil A Nuggets and Sauce:
To store your nuggets, transfer them into a plastic bag or airtight container and keep in the fridge for 3-5 days. For the sauce just keep it in a covered container in the fridge for the same amount of time! When you’re ready to devour again, you can pop the nuggets in the microwave, oven, or even the air fryer to crisp them up, and enjoy!
Disposing your cooking oil:
How do you dispose of your cooking oil after cooled? I let it cool and then put it back into the plastic bottle it came in, to dispose of it. I have heard of people dumping it into the ground, and the ground just absorbs it. Is that strange? I’d love to know what you do when it comes to disposing of cooking oil after use.
Marinating your chicken in pickle juice:
One secret to the spot on Chick Fil A flavor is marinating your chicken in dill pickle juice. Don’t skip this step! It adds so much flavor and makes your nuggets taste just like the ones you love from Chick Fil A.
Dipping Sauce for nuggets:
There is nothing like the sweet and tangy flavor of Chick Fil A sauce, and you’re going to love our homemade version. It makes the nuggets ten times better! If you love dipping your nuggets but aren’t a fan of Chick Fil A sauce, trying making our Restaurant Ranch Dressing instead and dip away!
What to serve with Nuggets and Sauce:
Pair these nuggets with:
CopyCat Chick Fil A Nuggets and Sauce
Just like Chick Fil A, only better because you made it! Feed the whole family with this awesome copycat recipe.
Ingredients
For The Chicken Nuggets
- 1 pound chicken breasts (boneless & skinless) cut into nugget sized chunks
- 1 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 4 cups peanut oil for frying
For The CHICK FIL A Sauce
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Instructions
Make the Dipping Sauce
-
Start by making the Chick Fil A honey mustard dipping sauce. Combine mayo, honey, lemon juice, dijon mustard and mustard in a mixing bowl and whisk together until well combined and sauce is smooth. Move to a smaller bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
For the Chicken Nuggets
-
In a large glass bowl, add the uncooked chicken nuggets, dill pickle juice and buttermilk. Allow chicken to marinate in this mixture for 30 minutes or longer.
-
Remove chicken from this mixture and in a new bowl toss with a well beaten egg.
-
In a gallon size Ziploc bag, combine flour, powdered sugar and salt and pepper.
-
Add the uncooked chicken into the bag and toss to mix well and completely coat the chicken.
-
In a large wide frying pan, heat peanut oil to medium high heat. Test the oil to see if it's at the right temperature before beginning by a few drops of water into the frying pan. The oil should sizzle, but not pop. Adjust your heat if necessary.
-
Working in batches, add the uncooked chicken to the hot oil to cook. With tongs, turn each nugget over to cook well on all sides until the nuggets are golden brown. The cook times will vary depending on the size of chicken pieces.
-
Once browned remove chicken from oil and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain.
-
Repeat until all chicken nuggets are cooked.
-
Let nuggets cool a bit. Enjoy with the dipping sauce!
Making This Recipe? Tag us on Instagram: @NoBiggie using the hashtag #NoBiggieRecipes, so we can see what you are making in the kitchen!
We made a quick video to show you how easy they can be made at home…and so worth it! I’m already excited to make them again!
More chicken recipes that we LOVE:
- Captain Crunch Chicken Strips
- Baked Parmesan Chicken Strips
- Crispy Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu
- Orange Chicken
That’s it! Try out this copycat recipe and let me know how you think it compares in the comments below!
Do you, or anyone on here, happen to have the recipe for the actual “chick fil la sauce”, not the honey mustard, but the other sauce? I LOVE that stuff……like could literally drink it…..always get extra when I go, and can eat it with, pretty much everything!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much
ALT
The Chick Fil A sauce? I absolutely love that stuff! I’m wondering if this is similar?
Check this website for the Polynesian sauce http://kitchendreaming.com/chick-fil-a-polynesian-sauce/
I love their honey mustard in the little square packs. I make it myself too. Going to try this chicken nugget recipe tho.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons honey.
1 tablespoon yellow prepared mustard.
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard.
1/4 cup mayonnaise.
2 tablespoons Barbecue Sauce.
2 teaspoons lemon juice.
Instructions
• Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
• Stir to combine.
• This will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 10 days
Chick-Fil-A Sauce
Ingredients
2 tablespoons honey.
1 tablespoon yellow prepared mustard.
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard.
1/4 cup mayonnaise.
2 tablespoons Barbecue Sauce.
2 teaspoons lemon juice.
Instructions
• Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
• Stir to combine.
• This will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 10 days
I tried these and they tasted nothing like chick fil a sauce. They also took forever to get browned cooking them on medium high. My kids did like them so in the end it wasn’t a loss. However the entire family agreed that they were nothing like chick fil a in either consistency or taste. I followed the recipe to a T.
Sorry! Meant to say they tasted nothing like Chick Fil A NUGGETS
Sorry Jill. Thanks for your feed back. My family LOVED them and we all feel like it’s a great copycat recipe.
We made these. Kids loved them. Dipped in buffalo sauce, who can tell if they taste the same? ;-D But what was distinctly missing was salt. On the chicken itself. The chicken was kinda bland. I assumed there would be a lot of salt in pickle juice,so didn’t add any. I think next time I’ll heat pickle juice a bit, add salt to dissolve (like a traditional salt brine), add buttermilk, and try again. Chicken sat in brine at last 8 hours before cooking. Certainly tender, but blah. I think I bit of garlic powder with salt, paper would also be good. We’ll try again!
Add salt on the nuggets after you get them out of the fryer, that will help with the lack of salt.
Would I be able to bake these? If so, at what temperature and for how long?
Please don’t dump oil on the ground! It will end up going into near by rivers and polluting your drinking water. You can use your oil a couple more times depending on how dirty is. But the proper way to dispose of it is to let it cool and put it in the same bottle, and throw it in the trash. Some reyecling centers also take old oil! Thanks for the recipe, I’m curious to try this!
I made these nuggets and the sauce 3 times this week! My siblings and I (I’m 15) and my parents loved them! They were super easy to make and cook real fast, they did not last at all and I double the recipe since there’s 9 people in my family. These taste absolutely amazing! Definitely a new family favorite. My dad thinks that they’re better than Chick-fil-A, I think they taste pretty similar as well. Thank you for sharing this recipe!☺️
This recipe is similar to the Chick-Fil-A Honey Mustard Sauce, not the Chick-Fil-A Sauce as noted in the title.
As a former Chick-fil-a employee, the Chick-fil-a sauce is basically just a mix of honey mustard and BBQ sauce. You will have to mess around with the right ratio but its easy to get really close
as a former employee just wondering is this recipe basically the same? because ive seen various ones on different websites some that include pickle juice and some that don’t also some that include buttermilk some just use milk thanks for the reply.
So I made the base sauce from this recipe and added Stubbs Smoky Mesquite BBQ sauce until it tasted like Chick-fil-A sauce. My family couldn’t tell the difference in the sauce, but this recipe for chicken nuggets are NOTHING like Chick-fil-A’s. To me, the breading and what seems to taste like peanut oil frying at Chick-fil-A is what makes their chicken so famous. So, you can replicate the sauce, but I’ve not found a way to replicate the nuggets.
I tried these and they tasted nothing like chick fil a sauce
You didn’t say how long to cook the chicken….
Hi Dianna! The cook time will vary depending on the size of the chicken pieces. Basically you will cook them until they are light golden brown.
I made the chicken tonight and it definitely is crispy and has an interesting text year, I do agree that may be a little more salt and or garlic powder would be a good idea to add onto the recipe for a little more flavor. As far as the sauce, I am not a fan of honey mustard so I opted to try making another sauce. Are used mayonnaise pickle juice a dash of catch-up a dash of spicy brown mustard and a dash of old Bay seasoning and a pinch of sugar and start it all together and that is definitely yummy!
Chick-fil-a Sauce is 2 parts honey mustard to 1 part BBQ sauce. A Honey BBQ sauce will make it sweeter, a Spicy BBQ sauce will make it spicier, you get the idea. That part is to preference, but the ratio is the same. CFA uses a plain BBQ sauce. 🙂