Homemade Chicken Nuggets (with an update)

Tonight's main course was chicken nuggets. This is the only meat James will eat and only in this form. He has eaten grilled chicken and a slice of deli turkey that were sneaked into a grilled cheese sandwich by his father and then once by his Nana. He never knew the difference.

I wanted us to cook together and found a kid-friendly recipe on About.com of all places. There is something wonderful and motivating about eating what you yourself have cooked. It's also fun to cook a dish your parents will also eat.

We gathered all the ingredients. Flour, eggs, bread crumbs, olive oil, salt and pepper...and then the recipe called for hot sauce. James didn't like the sound of that AT ALL but I told him to trust me. We were getting our "stations" ready: 1st bowl was the flour seasoned with salt and pepper, the 2nd bowl was the egg wash. The 3rd bowl was the bread crumbs. We had to add 3 dashes of the hot sauce. I demonstrated the first dash and then asked James to add the other two He did great.

James spent his entire time in the kitchen talking. I mean it. He hardly took a breath. He talked about how healthy the chicken was going to taste. He shared with me that he put 18% salt and 80% pepper in the flour for seasoning. He said it was going to taste better than McDonald's chicken nuggets. He told me that he was the Master Chef and that I- well, I was just basic.


James LOVED being the in the kitchen and making a dinner that we, his parents, were going to eat. Having ownership of what will be served was very exciting for him.

But, in the end, you can see in the picture on the right, he looks less than enthused with dinner. He likes being in the kitchen but he is still struggling to enjoy dinner. Even when he makes it. And it's served with a side of one of his favorites, macaroni and cheese.






Update: Since I began writing this post, James has tried more new food. Spaghetti squash has been a good choice. He also ASKED for Angel Hair with Alfredo for dinner. He eats it one piece of pasta at a time. He has also made a kid-friendly salad (no dressing for him): romaine lettuce, red grapes (halved) and pecans. He was able to use a knife for this and didn't want to stop cutting and slicing. He has since requested bread for dinner so he can be in charge of slicing it. I also tried making honey-glazed carrots. Those were a hit! He won't eat raw carrots but if they have been softened up and drizzled with honey and a little brown sugar, well, that is just a totally differently thing!