If you have been following the low carb threads in this forum, you have probably seen a couple of us talking about trying CarbQuik as a flour coating on chicken. Today I figured I would give it a try on some breast trimmings that we were making into nuggets. We had 3 large boneless skinless breasts that we needed to cook. I took the bulk of them and cut them into "chicken strips" and after a light coating of mayo, they were given a sprinkle of rub and into the oven on a raised rack in a 1/2 sheet pan to cook at about 225*.
We decided to take the shorter pieces and cut them into nuggets and give the CarbQuik "flour" coating a try.
I did not measure anything, it was all by eye. As to the spices, the wife had some "beer can chicken" spice in a grinder she had won as a Bunko prize last week and I also used my goto chicken & pork rub spice. I would estimate we took about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of CarbQuik and I mixed in spices until I was satisfied I could see the spice in the stirred "flour" base and that there would be enough transfer to taste. Here is the process for this trial batch....
- Put 1/3 to 1/2 cut CarbQuik low carb flour substitute in a bowl
- Add spices to desired level (ie, you are confident there is enough you will taste it on the final product
- lightly coat chicken cut into nuggets or strips with mayo to encourage the flour mix to stick to the chicken
- Take 1/2 of the "flour" and spice mix and dump in bowl with the chicken, mix to coat evenly
- The coating was a little thin, so we took 1 egg and beat it. Poured this over the lightly coated chicken and mixed
- dump the remaining flour/spice mix over the egg washed chicken, and mix to again coat evenly
- placed in air fryer and started off at 400* to set the crust, but decreased to 275* to finish cook the chicken. Once the crust was set for a few minutes, I spritzed the nugget tops lightly with some Pam spray just to give a little oil to "fry" the exterior of the crust
All said the only carb containing items are the 1/3 to 1/2 cup of CarbQuick and whatever is in your rub. CarbQuik has 2 net grams per 1/3 cup, and I might have used 1 1/2 tsp of the rubs in total. There is a small amount of brown sugar in my rub, but it makes a pound and half of the total rub so there can't be much in a tsp or so. I would conservatively say there is 3 to 4 grams net carbs in this entire batch of nuggets.
Flavor is pretty good. I want to try this with the Serious Eats - Chic-Fil-A spice mix using the CarbQuik as that recipe is pretty spot on with regular flour for the Chic-Fil-A flavor. The "flour" coating is a little thick for nuggets, but would be great on air fried chicken (as it chicken parts like traditional fried chicken). But I would eat these and make them again, so this is a very good start to the process. I may try it with just the light coating from the initial steps and without the egg wash and 2nd coating to see how that comes out.
This is the "Beer Can Chicken Rub" she won and I used:
Finished nuggets - Tasty!!!!!
And these are the strips we did in the oven. I started the oven at 275*, then dropped the temp to 225* about 5 minutes after they were put in. I then flipped on the broiler after about 40 minutes at 225* to finish (checked by internal temp of course). Nothing but a little mayo to help the rub stick.
