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These chicken bites are breaded in almond flour and seasonings, baked to crispy perfection, and then tossed in an easy homemade buffalo sauce.
I make a lot of buffalo everything in this house because my husband and son can’t get enough of it all. So these Buffalo Chicken Bites were bound to happen eventually.
My husband pointed out that the problem he has with the boneless wings he’ll occasionally order in restaurants is the quality just isn’t great. He feels like he was served something that was frozen and then fried. He always regrets his order and wishes he’d have stuck with wings. So my approach with this recipe was to create Buffalo Chicken Bites (or boneless wings) that don’t give you that regret. They’re every bit as delicious as buffalo wings!
I use almond flour to bread these nuggets to keep it gluten free, keto, and Whole30. Also I just really prefer a great almond flour breading to using heavily processed white flour.
For this recipe you’ll need (full list of ingredients and instructions are in the recipe card below):
- Oil
- Chicken breasts
- Almond flour
- A few seasonings
- Eggs
- Frank’s Red Hot Original Sauce
- Ghee, butter, or vegan butter
- Apple cider vinegar
- Minced garlic
Are these Buffalo Chicken Bites Whole30 compliant?
Yes. Just be sure to use ghee instead of regular butter.
Are these Buffalo Chicken Bites dairy free?
Yes. Use vegan butter instead of ghee or regular butter.
What kind of almond flour is best to use?
You want a finely ground almond flour. (It will say that on the bag.) I buy Bob’s Red Mill or Thrive Market’s almond flour. I’ve heard great things about the one available at Costco but we don’t have a Costco by us so I haven’t tested it yet.
How do you ensure the almond flour breading sticks to the chicken?
If you haven’t worked with almond flour before you might find that it can be a little trickier to get it to stick to your chicken. Or maybe you’re very familiar with the challenges of breading with almond flour already. I can help with that!
- Be patient. Don’t rush the breading process or you’ll end up with a wet mess in your flour.
- Dip each nugget in the eggs and let the excess drip off. This is so important! Otherwise the excess egg will end up in your almond flour mixture and it will become really gloppy.
- After removing the excess egg, lay each nugget on top of the breading ingredients. DON’T FLIP YOUR CHICKEN OR MOVE IT AROUND. Use your fingers to cover the top of the nugget with breading. Press it into the chicken. Breading will stick to the bottom of the nugget while you do this. This is how you get the top and bottom of the chicken breaded without moving the chicken around in the almond flour.
The end result is perfectly breaded chicken and you won’t have clumpy flour (that can happen if you move the egg wash covered chicken around too much). You can find photos of how I do that in my recipe for Almond Crusted Ranch Chicken.
Can you makes these nuggets on the stovetop instead of in the oven?
I personally don’t recommend it. Almond flour is incredibly finicky and tries very hard not to stick to chicken. I have tested these nuggets in a shallow fry or sauté and the almond flour tends to collect in the oil. It then burns and makes a mess. In each test round I had to wipe the burned pieces out of the skillet after the first batch before doing a second. For this reason I suggest baking chicken nuggets whenever you’re using almond flour.
If you really want to use the stovetop I recommend sticking to chicken cutlets like in my Almond Chicken Cutlets. They are made in a skillet and turn out beautifully.
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Buffalo Chicken Bites
Ingredients
Chicken Nuggets
- 2 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 1/2 lb chicken breasts, approximately 3 to 4 breasts
- 1 1/2 cup almond flour, finely ground
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 2 eggs
Buffalo Sauce
- 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Original Sauce
- 3 tbsp ghee, butter, or vegan butter, melted
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, Can substitute rice vinegar.
- 1/4 tsp garlic, minced
- 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Grease a 12 x 17 baking sheet with olive oil (or another cooking fat of choice).
- Slice your chicken breasts to create nuggets.
- Add almond flour, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, and paprika to a shallow dish. Stir to combine.
- Crack your eggs into a separate bowl. Whisk until well combined.
- Dip each nugget in the eggs and let the excess drip off (that’s important). Then dredge each nugget in the breading mixture.
- Place each breaded nugget on the greased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Carefully flip each nugget. Bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
- While chicken is baking, add all Buffalo Sauce ingredients to a small pot on the stovetop. Stir on medium-low heat for a few minutes until sauce is warmed. (If you prefer not to cook your sauce you can just shake the ingredients together in a sealed jar or other container.)
- Toss the chicken nuggets in your finished Buffalo Sauce to evenly coat.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have an egg allergy I was just made aware of and trying to figure out how to do breading on things like this. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you for such yummy recipes!!
I made these tonight for dinner and they were so easy and delicious! Definitely will make them again!
I made this recipe for the first time last night and loved it! Â I was a little concerned about it being too spicy so I drizzled the sauce overtop prior to flipping and then baked the last ten minutes with the sauce. Perfect amount of spice and flavor! Â Thank you and I will be making this again!!
So good. Currently eating them while watching the Super Bowl.
We generally eat paleo gf  . My daughter is allergic to almond flour I love the taste of these with almond flour what would you recommenx sub and keep the recipient delicious? I tried subbing cadsAva flour but it was not great. Any other thoughts on making these for my daughter she loves Buffalo wings-Â