What to Make Next if You Love Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Nuggets

The words 'What to Make Next If You Love Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Nuggets' stand out on a bright orange background covered with cartoon chicken nuggets.

If you’re here because you love our Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Nuggets recipe, you’re not alone! Since we hit ‘publish’, it’s been one of the most searched-for recipes on our website, and we love that you’ve shared so many of your photos with us in our PON Gallery.

Whether you air-fry them, or bake them to crispy perfection in the oven, you’ll be left with a moreish fakeaway bite. The homemade sticky-sweet sauce they’re coated in is a doddle to prepare, using a handful of ingredients you’re likely to have in your store cupboard already.

The ultimate side dish for these golden nuggs has to be chips, but there’s nothing to stop you serving them on a bed of rice or veggies. 

This one’s a tasty addition to any meal plan, but if you’re looking to swap in something a little bit different, we’ve got heaps of midweek inspiration for you… 

A baking tray is filled with Pinch of Nom's Sticky Chicken Nuggets. The crispy nuggets are coated in a sweet, sticky sauce and served with a dipping pot of ketchup. Wooden forks are laid out on the table and a hand holds one nugget, dipping it into the sauce.

What to make next if you love chicken nuggets

It’s tough to say no to chicken nuggets! While you might think they’re off the menu on a slimming diet, we’ve had years to perfect recreating our favourite takeaway-inspired nugget recipes. With the ingredients for our Salt and Pepper Chicken Nuggets in the kitchen, there’s no danger of us ordering a takeaway! All the spicy, peppery flavours you’re craving are right here.

We fry sea salt in a dry pan until toasted, then make it into a spicy blend with sweetener, chilli flakes, white pepper and Chinese 5 spice. It’s so effortless, and yet so delicious!

A street food style table is set with Pinch of Nom's Salt and Pepper Chicken Nuggets served on red and white striped paper, with dipping sauce to the side, and a wooden fork waiting to tuck in.

When you’re not in the mood for spice, our BBQ Chicken Nuggets are the way to go.

To make sure every bite is crunchy and smoky-sweet, we leave our chicken chunks to marinate for at least half an hour, before they’re breadcrumbed and cooked. 

Leave them longer if you want even stronger, tangier flavours!

A yellow table is set with a blue serving plate full of Pinch of Nom's BBQ Chicken Nuggets, with a yellow fork waiting to dig in. There's also a smaller white speckled plate serving a portion of chips with a squeeze of ketchup.

It’s true that our Air Fryer cookbook wouldn’t be complete without a nugget recipe. Turn to page 80-81 to make our Air Fryer Gochujang Chicken Nuggets for just 233 calories per portion.

A banner advertising that Pinch of Nom: Air Fryer is out now, with text that reads 'IT'S FRY-NALLY HERE' above the PINCH OF NOM logo and an 'OUT NOW' banner along the bottom.

They get their signature spicy, sweet and smoky flavour from Gochujang sauce, a staple Korean ingredient made with red chillies and fermented soybeans.

You can expect all the crunch of deep-fried versions, for a fraction of the calories, courtesy of your air fryer!

A bowl is filled with Pinch of Nom's Air Fryer Gochujang Chicken Nuggets from the Air Fryer cookbook; the nuggets are covered with homemade sauce and topped with chopped chives.

Don’t put your air fryer away just yet! These Air Fryer Vegan Nuggets prove you don’t need to eat meat to enjoy a nugget-based fakeaway.

It’s not just the filling that makes the most of vegetables, we’ve made our crispy coating with a blend of panko breadcrumbs and veggies too! Not a bad way to get your 5-a-day.

Last but not least, dip them in our punchy homemade sauce for the perfect mouthful.

Two plates are filled with Pinch of Nom's Vegan Nuggets. The nuggets are coated in crunchy panko breadcrumbs and served with a pot of ketchup to dunk them in.

What to make next if you want to use your air fryer

As you can probably tell from the ‘How to Use an Air Fryer’ page we added to our website recently, we’re a little bit obsessed with our air fryer! If you’ve not dabbled outside of making nuggets yet, try our Air Fryer Salt and Pepper Chicken Burgers next.

A Chinese takeaway and a burger night all in one, each gluten-free ciabatta is stacked with a crispy chicken patty, spicy mayo and Asian-style slaw.

Our recipe uses an air fryer with a probe, but if yours doesn’t have one, we’d recommend preheating to 180°C before cooking. Just make sure to check the chicken is fully cooked through, with no signs of pinkness!

A dinner plate is resting on a chopping board, where two Salt and Pepper Chicken Burgers are being assembled. On toasted burger buns, panko breadcrumb coated chicken fillets are topped with green and red peppers, on a bed of Asian-style slaw.

You might want to skip chicken altogether and make these Air Fryer Parmesan Pork Skewers. They’re coated in a garlicky, herby sauce that really soaks in, so every bite stays juicy even after air-frying.

Add a sprinkling of Parmesan and a fresh side salad, and you’re onto a winner.

A hand is grabbing a Parmesan Pork Skewer from a red and white plate. The bamboo skewers of pork are coated in golden, melted Parmesan, served on a plate with slices of lemon, scattered herbs and a small bowl of dipping sauce.

We’ve got just the recipe to fill the gap on your dinnertime plate: Air Fryer Rustic Potato Wedges. Crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle, our simple recipe doesn’t leave the air fryer basket until every chip is gloriously golden.

The trick is to always soak the wedges in cold water first, if you can spare the time! It removes the starch and delivers crunchier results.

Add a dash of paprika, mixed herbs and sea salt, and you’ve got a side dish that pairs nicely with, well, just about everything!

Pinch of Nom's Air Fryer Rustic Potato Wedges served in a restaurant-style basket on colourful baking paper; crispy and golden brown with a pot of ketchup ready for dipping.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an air fryer yet – all of these recipes have an oven method too.

What to make next if you love a fakeaway-style dinner

Who doesn’t love a fakeaway? No matter what cuisine you’ve got a hankering for, there’s a Pinch of Nom recipe to cover it. Just the other day we made these Spicy Chicken Noodles in the office and they were a fork-twirling smash hit! 

The tender chicken pieces, fresh chillies, leafy pak choi and noodles are all tossed until fully coated in a sticky, aromatic, Mee Goreng inspired sauce that’s delightfully simple to rustle up from scratch.

A table is set with three bowls of Pinch of Nom's Spicy Chicken Noodles with extra dipping sauce to the side. A hand is using chopsticks to dig in to one of the bowls!

If you love recreating ‘street food’ style dishes as much as we do, this Loaded Lamb Sweet Potato Fries needs to be on your Friday night menu.

They’re piled high with juicy lamb mince, minty yoghurt and a tangy, crumbled layer of reduced-fat feta cheese.

Thanks to a handful of reduced-fat swaps, it’s pure, fully-loaded indulgence for just 315 calories per crispy portion of chips!

Takeaway style food cartons are filled with Pinch of Nom's Loaded Lamb Sweet Potato Fries. The golden fries are topped with lamb mince, chopped vegetables and crumbled feta cheese.

Bring Japanese-inspired flavours home with the crunchy florets in our Cauliflower Katsu recipe. This bright and vibrant curry always hits the spot, whether you’re a meat-eater or not!

The magic is in the thick and creamy homemade curry sauce. To recreate the higher-calorie sauce you’d find in restaurant versions, we’ve blitzed carrots, onions, potatoes and a selection of herbs and spices together until smooth.

Our top tip is to make the Katsu-style sauce in big batches! It freezes like a dream, and it means you can serve this dish even quicker next time (especially if you air-fry your cauliflower instead!).

Two plates of Pinch of Nom's Caulifower Katsu sit on a kitchen counter, next to forks and glasses of ice water. The katsu curry has been served with a portion of fluffy rice and ribbons of crunchy carrot.

It’s okay if you’re not ready to say goodbye to meat…we’ve got a slimming-friendly Katsu Chicken Curry you can try too!

Looking for more cooking inspiration? Our other ‘what to make next’ articles are well worth having a scroll through (they’re all based around Nom favourites!):

Have you decided what you’re making next?

We hope you’ll love all of these fresh, tasty ideas just as much as Air Fryer Sticky Chicken Nuggets. Don’t forget to share photos in our Facebook group of what you make next! We have almost 1 million lovely community members waiting to support you on your slimming journey.

You can always take a quick look in our Gallery if you’re on the hunt for even more inspiration. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (we’ve got a step-by-step guide you can follow that makes it even easier).

If you liked this article, there’s more where that came from. Explore our blog to browse for recipe ideas, kitchen equipment recommendations, money-saving tips and more.

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