Tempura Chicken Nuggets A Big Hit

  Last week I decided to try and do some chicken along with the tempura that I was making.

First I cooked all my veggies in the tempura batter; then I did the chicken. That was due to the fact that just like using a cutting board; do the veggies first and then do the meat. 

I bought one tempura package and I'm assuming that most of it got used up while I was adding more regular all purpose flour in with the vegetables. (Don't forget to use ice)  For my veggies I always do brocolli first because it cooks in about 30 sec.  Then I do my red peppers and end with the veggies that take longer to cook because as I cook, my oil keeps on getting hotter.  The longer the veggie will take to cook; the more hot your oil needs to be.  I always make alot of tempura and one package of tempura isn't enough so I like to start out with 1 package and then add my own flour. As far as adding water as you go, I like different consistency with all my veggies.  I like a little bit of flour on my carrots so if the water and ice is more runny; then I use those veggies and dip them in.   After that I thicken it back up again by using just about a palm amount of flour at one time until it looks the way I like it.  I just sprinkle it all around then stir with a wooden spoon for about 15 sec.  Half way through cooking tempura, you need to add about 4 more cubes of ice to your flour.  I probally thicken my flour up and add more in an average of about 4 times and end up cooking about 4 pnd of veggies.

After frying all the veggies, I added more oil because it was pretty done by that time and needed more. There was only like 1/4 quarter old oil left by then and I at least like to have 1/3 or almost 1/2 of my wok pan filled up.  I added about 1/2 cup oil to what was already in there and picked out all the old tempura pieces with my slotted spoon.

Then a big key to have great chicken nuggets is your consistency with the flour batter. I like it to look like thick pancake mixture.  That is how you produce the chicken nuggets that have alot of batter on them and it kinda makes it like Chili's chicken nuggets if you have ever had them.

I also added a few spices to my flour mixture like paprika, Emeril seasonings and also a little bit of seasoned salt.  I think that made a difference too.

So I ended up doing 3 batches with having 4 BIG pieces of chicken that was cut up into bite size pieces.  The oil didn't cool off to much since I only added a little bit of oil so it didn't take too long to get back to the hot oil that is required to cook it fast and correctly.  You need to put it on high again for a few minutes then when it looks like it is boiling, reduce it to medium-medium high.  Of course for chicken you need to cook it longer than veggies to ensure safety and doneness throughout.  I take them out once they are browned and a little bit longer than that to be on the safe side.

That's it though; although it can be quite difficult at times.  It is worth it though. 


Tempura is a learned art of cooking.  Each time you get better at it and have less burning.  The chicken turned out really good.  My hubby said so first which means alot from him because I rarely get comments from him on dinner.   The kids said it was the best chicken nuggets they had ever ate.  Of course I couldn't do this meal all the time but it is nice every once in a while when I want to have something fryed of course.


Enjoy