You’re gonna love these vegan chicken nuggets made with chickpeas and a crispy cornflakes crust! They’re super easy to make, pretty healthy, and SOOO delicious. Vegan comfort food at its best!

I used to love chicken nuggets before I became vegetarian and eventually vegan. But these vegan chicken nuggets or chickpea nuggets are sooo much better for you! And most of all 100 % cruelty-free! 

They’re coated with a crust of cornflakes and panko bread crumbs, which makes them super crispy! The recipe is super easy and ready in about 30 minutes. And the baking time makes up most of the preparation time.

The Best Vegan Chicken Nuggets

What You Need To Make These Vegan Chicken Nuggets:

You will probably be surprised when you see the ingredient list. It’s not very long and you don’t need any fancy ingredients.

You’ll need:

• cooked chickpeas (either canned or you can cook them yourself)
• one onion
• garlic powder
• paprika powder
• mustard
• rolled oats
• nutritional yeast
• salt and pepper
• cornflakes
• panko bread crumbs

As always, you can find the full ingredient list and the detailed recipe instructions in a separate recipe box at the end of this post.

What Are Vegan Chicken Nuggets Made Of?

These vegan chicken nuggets are oven-baked, so you don’t need any oil to make them.

The inside basically consists of cooked chickpeas, rolled oats, and different spices. You need to have a good blender to make these vegan chicken nuggets as you need to process the rolled outs into a fine flour.

This is really important for the texture of the chickpea nuggets. Of course you could also use store-bought oat flour if that’s easier for you.

I like to serve these vegan chicken nuggets the traditional way with fries or wedges and ketchup. You can either use store-bought ketchup or make sugar-free ketchup at home.

How To Make Vegan Chicken Nuggets:

1. Step: Start by preparing the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Crumble the cornflakes with your hands in small pieces. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the panko bread crumbs and cornflakes on top.

2. Step: Bake for about 2 minutes until golden-brown. Set aside.

3. Step: In a small pan, heat some oil and sauté the onion for about 3 minutes. Set aside.

4. Step: Then place the oats into your food processor or blender and process into a fine flour.

5. Step:  Add the rest of the ingredients (including the cooked onion).

6. Step: Pulse until you get a crumbly mixture.

7. Step: Divide the chickpea mixture into 14 equal portions and form each portion into a nugget.

8. Step:  Coat with some almond milk. Use a pastry brush to do this.

9. Step: Roll the vegan chicken nuggets in the baked panko bread crumbs and cornflakes.

10. Step: Place the coated “chicken” nuggets on a new sheet of parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.

Recipe Notes:

• If you have problems finding nutritional yeast, you can also just leave it out. This will slightly change the taste of the vegan chicken nuggets, but they will still be amazing!
• Please not that the texture of these vegan chicken nuggets will be different from real chicken nuggets. The outside will be very crispy while the inside will be softer.
• Make sure to leave some texture when you process the ingredients in your blender. Some of the chickpeas should still be partially intact.
• I like to sauté the onions before adding them to the rest of the ingredients. If you don’t do this they will still be a bit crispy, which I didn’t like too much.
• I like to use my blender to process the rolled oats into flour because it’s much cheaper. But you will need to have a good blender to be able to do this. However, you could also use store-bought oat flour if you want.

Other Vegan Finger Food You Might Like:

• Cauliflower Hot Wings with Vegan Aioli
• Cauliflower Buffalo Wings 
• Vegan Taquitos with Chipotle Sauce
• Vegan Basil Ricotta Pinwheels

I LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU GUYS!

I hope you like these vegan chicken nuggets as much as we do around here.

If you give them a try, I’d love to know what you think about them. Just leave me a comment and a star rating below. Your comments really make my day!

You like my recipes and want to see more? Then follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest! 

Sina – xx

5 from 5 votes

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Vegan Chicken Nuggets

You're gonna love these vegan chicken nuggets made with chickpeas and a crispy cornflakes crust! They're super easy to make, pretty healthy, and SOOO delicious. Vegan comfort food at its best! 

Course Entrée

Cuisine American

Keyword how do you make vegan chicken nuggets, recipe for vegan chicken nuggets, vegan chicken nuggets

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 3 minutes

Total Time 33 minutes

Servings 14 nuggets

Calories 75 kcal

Author Sina

Ingredients

For the chickpea nuggets:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard (yellow mustard like Dijon or French's mustard)
• 3 tablespoons water

For the crust:

• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup cornflakes
• 1/2 cup almond milk

Instructions

1. Start by preparing the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Crumble the cornflakes with your hands in small pieces. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the panko bread crumbs and cornflakes on top. Bake for about 2 minutes until golden-brown. Set aside.
2. In a small pan, heat some oil and sauté the onion for about 3 minutes. Set aside. Then place the oats into your food processor or blender and process into a fine flour. Add the rest of the ingredients (including the cooked onion) and pulse until you get a crumbly mixture.
3. Divide the chickpea mixture into 14 equal portions and form each portion into a nugget. Coat with some almond milk and roll in the baked panko bread crumbs and cornflakes.
4. Place on a new sheet of parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes.

Recipe Notes

• If you have problems finding nutritional yeast, you can also just leave it out. This will slightly change the taste of the vegan chicken nuggets, but they will still be amazing!
• Please not that the texture of these vegan chicken nuggets will be different from real chicken nuggets. The outside will be very crispy while the inside will be softer.
• Make sure to leave some texture when you process the ingredients in your blender. Some of the chickpeas should still be partially intact. 
• I like to sauté the onions before adding them to the rest of the ingredients. If you don't do this they will still be a bit crispy, which I didn't like too much. 
• I like to use my blender to process the rolled oats into flour because it's much cheaper. But you will need to have a good blender to be able to do this. However, you could also use store-bought oat flour if you want. 

 

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Chicken Nuggets

Amount Per Serving

Calories 75 Calories from Fat 9

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 1g 2%

Saturated Fat 0.1g 1%

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.4g

Monounsaturated Fat 0.3g

Sodium 126mg 5%

Potassium 85mg 2%

Total Carbohydrates 13g 4%

Dietary Fiber 3g 12%

Sugars 2g

Protein 3g 6%

Vitamin A 1%

Vitamin C 1%

Calcium 3%

Iron 6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.