Everyday Cooking

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Garlicky Tarragon Chicken Goujons





Let's not kid ourselves.. this is just chicken nuggets! Pardon my attempt at pretence, I only wanted to distance this from what everyone now accepts as chicken nuggets. Those 'gems' made of ground-up unnameable chicken parts and peppered with 'E' flavourings and preservatives have scarily become staple offerings as part of 'children's menus'. Why? It is so easy to batter up some real pieces of chicken and bake them in the oven, there's really no excuse to enjoy anything other than home-made chicken nuggets.
Here's my version. I used tarragon as I realised that I simply have not cooked much using this herb. It really is lovely with chicken but I think, it works best as part of a creamy sauce. Nevertheless, it still added an interesting dimension to a simple mid-week dish. Serve with a simple green salad.
Garlicky Tarragon Chicken Goujons
400g chicken tenderloins (sliced up chicken breast can be substituted)
2Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp chopped up tarragon
1 c garlic croutons (for crumbing)
Oil for frying
In a bowl, marinate the chicken pieces in the sour cream for a couple of hours.
Make the croutons by baking cubes of stale bread, tossed in oil and garlic, in an oven until dry and crunchy. When cool, roughly grind up into crumbs by running a rolling pin over it a few times. Mix the tarragon leaves in with the crumbs.
Coat the chicken pieces in the crumb and herb mixture. Fry in oil until golden. These can also be cooked in a 200deg C oven for approximately 20mins or until golden brown.

9 comments:

test it comm said...

Those baked crunchy bites of chicken do sound really simple to make and tasty.

Laurie Constantino said...

I couldn't agree with you more about those nasty "chicken" nuggets. Yours look grand.

tigerfish said...

Chicken nuggets! I never make my own before, and have my nugget fix in Mcdonalds just for convenience's sake. I know it's unhealthy (lucky I don't have it often).

Yours is definitely much much and way better, and with that addition of herb into the chicken nugget!

Patricia Scarpin said...

No matter how you call them - they look delish!

Cynthia said...

I don't care, homemade chicken nuggets are the best.

Jessy and her dog Winnie said...

Those look great!

Mansi said...

Hey girl, thanks for visiting my blog:) nice to have met you here...you have some delicious food on your blog, so I'm gonna keep browsing:)

Kajal@aapplemint said...

chicken nuggets are always there in my freezer. Just made some for hubby for breakfast , but unlike urs they were ready made. I should make them at home , your recipe is quite simple.

Anonymous said...

I've never really used tarragon either. Actually, I'm pretty sure I've never even had tarragon before, but your chicken beat the pants off of any "nuggets".