These chickpea nuggets are an easy vegetarian chicken nugget recipe. Meatless chicken nuggets are so simple to make! Serve with your favorite dipping sauce for a delicious plant based alternative to chicken nuggets.
One of my favorite things growing up was chicken nuggets.
I no longer eat chicken, but I definitely still love to eat vegetarian chicken nuggets!
Although you can buy them from the store, it is both healthier and more fun to make them yourself at home.
These chickpea nuggets are delicious served with your favorite dipping sauce.
How to make chickpea nuggets
First, drain and rinse your chickpeas and add them to a food processor.
You do not need to save any of the chickpea liquid.
Process the chickpeas until they are flaky like this.
There should not be many chunks at this point.
It will be easier to form the nuggets like this!
Next, transfer the chickpeas to a large bowl.
Add in your egg, oat flour, bread crumbs, and spices.
Use your hands to mix it all up and combine.
Toast your bread crumbs in the oven until browned.
Next, form your batter into nuggets.
This is the fun part!
Dip each chickpea nugget into the bread crumbs on both sides and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
If you have any leftover bread crumbs, sprinkle those on top.
Bake your vegetarian chicken nuggets for 15 – 20 minutes, or until desired level of crispiness is achieved.
Serve with your favorite dipping sauce!
A few notes about vegetarian chicken nuggets
If you do not like chickpeas, you may not like this recipe.
Chickpeas are the star of these nuggets, and they act great as a meat replacer.
If you love falafel, you will love these.
Sauce is key.
How to make these chickpea nuggets vegan
This recipe includes eggs, but not dairy.
If you are vegan, you should be able to use an egg replacer just fine for this recipe, which will make the nuggets vegan.
The nuggets by themselves do not have a ton of flavor, but they are perfect to pair with your favorite dipping sauce.
Similar to chicken nuggets, they are a great base for dipping in your favorite flavors like bbq sauce, honey mustard, ranch, etc.
Whether you make a vegetarian bbq chicken sandwich, or dip it in honey mustard or my homemade chick fil a sauce pictured below, the choices are endless!
Looking for more meatless nuggets? Be sure to check out these super crispy air fryer tofu nuggets!
These little nuggets are great for kids too!
Chickpea Nuggets
Ingredients
- 2 cans of chickpeas drained and rinsed
- 1 egg
- ½ cup oat flour
- ¾ cup panko style bread crumbs
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
- Place the panko style bread crumbs on a baking sheet
- Bake at 400 degrees for 3 – 4 minutes, until browned and toasty (keep a close eye on them to avoid burning)
- Add the chickpeas to a food processor and process until flaky
- Transfer the chickpeas to a large bowl
- Add the egg, oat flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, and nutritional yeast
- Use your hands to knead the dough until combined (it should be sticky, but not stick to your hands much)
- Form the batter into chicken nuggets, and dip both sides in the toasted bread crumbs
- Place the nuggets on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
- Sprinkle any remaining bread crumbs over the tops
- Bake the nuggets at 400 degrees for 15 – 20 minutes, until browned and desired texture
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce
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Michelle
Wednesday 12th of January 2022
I have dried chickpeas.. how much would you suggest?
Peggy
Saturday 18th of December 2021
Can I use some alternative to oat flour? I am gluten free but also do not eat GF oats.
Elaine
Monday 17th of January 2022
@Peggy, I've made these using cornmeal (or polenta which is slightly more course) and white rice flour which has a neutral flavor, and no panko. They are not as textured but still come out somewhat crispy with the cornmeal and egg combined. I cook them in avocado oil on the stove in a cast iron skillet as opposed to baking which for me gives it more of a crispiness and flavor. I'm not trying to avoid fat or keep calories down though.
Gillian
Sunday 24th of May 2020
Hi! What size of can of chickpeas did you use?
Joy Shull
Wednesday 27th of May 2020
Each can is 15 oz!
Carrie
Thursday 14th of May 2020
Just attempted a half batch of this. I did a few modifications.
- I used white navy beans in lieu of chickpeas (they were what I had on hand) - I used poultry seasoning in lieu of nutritional yeast (I had none on hand) - I used flaxmeal and water to replace the egg (I had to cut eggs out of my diet...I cried many tears) - Made them in an air fryer (10 mins each side, 400 degrees) and texture is perfect - Also dipped in nut milk to get the breadcrumbs on two times
They came out a touch dry, but next time, I'd reserve some of the bean water for the food processor when combining. Aslo, for texture, I'd put 3/4 of the beans for full process. It makes a very sticky batter. but then hand mash approximately 1/4 of the beans. This gives the texture with the super sticky binder that is needed. I also use this trick with black bean burgers.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I was looking for something that used beans and did NOT use vital wheat gluten. I love chickpeas. So I will also try a batch with chickpeas in the future as well!
Ruth Little
Sunday 18th of August 2019
Hi. I’m tweaking this delicious looking recipe to fit my husband’s pre diabetic needs (lower carb) & will be entering the tweaked recipe into an app that will give me total carbs & calories per serving. I’m mainly leaving out the bread crumbs (I know, I know, not as yummy) but I think the servings will be close to the same? My question is, on the nutritional information you have; 20 nuggets and 1 serving. The entire recipe gives you 20 nuggets and this is 1 serving? Thank you so much! (I need to enter this in order to get carbs per serving. We’re trying to prevent him from sliding from pre diabetes into actual diabetes but I want him to enjoy food!)
Joy Shull
Thursday 22nd of August 2019
Hi Ruth!
The nutritional info listed is per nugget. So one nugget is the serving, and it makes 20 nuggets. Hope that helps and good luck!