Sweet Potato Chicken Nuggets

These Hidden Vegetable Sweet Potato Chicken Nuggets are made with sweet potato for added nutrition - no one will ever know! Dip them into the homemade sweet and sour sauce (or your favorite dip - nothing wrong with ketchup), and your whole family will love these!

I'm so excited to bring you this recipe. I created it as a sponsored post for Argo Cornstarch and Social Fabric over 2 years ago, and it is still a favorite homemade chicken nugget recipe with my son (and the whole family). I love being able to get some extra nutrition in without anyone suspecting a thing. 

More recipes using ground chicken: Chicken Burgers with Guacamole

Hidden vegetable chicken nuggets

I came up with this recipe because our son was a super picky eater as a toddler, and I couldn't get any vegetables into him. He did love his chicken nuggets though! So I got the idea to mix ground chicken with cooked mashed sweet potato and make nuggets from that mixture.

I add a few seasonings and spices and dredge them in flour, because I don't want them to be breadcrumb-y, if that makes any sense. Then I bake these nuggets in the oven, making these a healthy chicken nugget recipe compared to deep frying them.

They come out crispy on the outside, soft, tender, and flavorful on the inside, and not heavy. They're a great appetizer for adults and an amazing meal for kids. A little protein, a little veggies, a lot of tasty.

Ready to make them??

Ingredients

You'll need these ingredients for the chicken nuggets mixture. Pro tip: Don't put the spices away, you'll also need most of them for the seasoned flour mixture:

• 1 medium sweet potato, cooked and peel removed (see notes)
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 teaspoon salt 
• ½ teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley

For the seasoned flour mix:

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika

Related recipe: Cheetos Crusted Chicken Nuggets

You'll also need:

• A bowl of cold water (this is a secret trick for easy meatballs and nuggets! Keep reading the recipe)
• Oil spray
• Large baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• A couple of bowls, measuring cups and spoons

More recipes using ground chicken: Chicken Kofta Kebabs

Ingredient and recipe notes:

→ Sweet potato: Make sure you have a fully cooked sweet potato for this recipe! You can quickly cook one by microwaving it for ~5-7 minutes, just pierce it with a fork first. Wait for it to cool, then remove the skin. One medium sweet potato should yield about 1.5 cups of mashed sweet potato. It's OK if you have more or less sweet potato, this recipe works well anyway.

→ Flour vs breading: If you want, you can use seasoned Italian breadcrumbs instead of the seasoned flour mixture. You'll just have to dip the raw nugget into a scrambled egg mixture first to get the breadcrumbs to stick.

→ Bake or pan fry: You can bake these nuggets, or you can pan-fry them. If frying, add a little oil to a non-stick pan and cook over medium low heat, giving these nuggets a change to cook through without burning.

→ These sweet potato chicken nuggets freeze well for a quick meal for later! Keep reading below for freezing and reheating instructions.

More crispy chicken recipes: Fried Chicken Hearts (tastes like popcorn chicken!)

How to make sweet potato chicken nuggets:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, or spray it with oil.

Step 2: In a large bowl, mash the cooked sweet potato with a fork until mostly smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients for the chicken nugget mixture and mix well.

Step 3: In another bowl, combine all the ingredients for the crispy breading and mix well.

Step 4: Dip your hands into the bowl of cold water. With wet hands, take about one rounded tablespoon of the chicken mixture and form a nugget with your hands. 

Step 5: Dredge it in the crispy breading mixture, gently shake off the extra breading, and place on an your baking sheet. Repeat until all the nuggets are formed.

Step 6: Spray the tops of the nuggets with the oil spray. 

Step 7: Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked, flipping the nuggets about halfway through. Serve warm with the sweet and sour dipping sauce or ketchup.

More kid-friendly recipes using ground chicken: Chicken Sloppy Joes

How to reheat chicken nuggets:

Chicken nuggets are best reheated in the oven or a toaster oven. This will bring back their crispiness, unlike reheating them in the microwave. To reheat these, preheat the oven to 400F and bake for 6-8 minutes, or until they are heated through.

More kid-friendly dipping recipe: Yellow Squash Tots

Can you freeze chicken nuggets?

These chicken nuggets with sweet potato can be frozen so you can have a quick meal for later! To freeze them, just place them on a dish or a tray in a single layer and put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen, you can transfer them all to a freezer bag or a freezer-safe container.

To reheat frozen chicken nuggets, preheat the oven to 400F, and bake them for about 10 minutes, or until they are heated through.

Dipping sauce for chicken nuggets

Dipping sauces are one of the best parts about eating chicken nuggets! Of course, you can use good ol' ketchup, but you can also try an easy honey mustard sauce or this sweet and sour sauce.

If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know with a comment and a star rating below. And don't forget to share it on Facebook and save it on Pinterest for later.

If you've made these nuggets before and are wondering why the pictures look different, it's because I decided to re-photograph the recipe! Here are the old pictures from the recipe:

Share this post by clicking the buttons below: