Just Use Turkey

I knew the word for chicken, so it should not have been difficult. I had planned homemade chicken nuggets for the evening’s meal, my own **original recipe** that is serious goodness and true simplicity all wrapped up in one yummy main dish. (Pronounced: my kind of dinner!) Anyway — Hühnerbrust is what I needed. Chicken breast meat.

Not being brave enough to approach the metzgerei counter, which would require a conversation with the butcher, I decided on the prepackaged variety. I opened the door of the refrigerated meats section, confident in my search. I mean, even if I hadn’t known the word, I could certainly pick out a package of chicken breasts in a lineup, right? My eyes scanned the perimeter, certain with the hope of a yummy American-style dinner for my family’s July 4th celebration in the land where they don’t celebrate the 4th of any month. They fell upon a package that resembled the picture I had drummed up in my memory banks from a month or so ago, when I last saw raw chicken and knew that was what I was looking at, so I grabbed the package and searched for any semblance of the word I knew. I saw the word brust, and knew I was onto something, so I put it into the cart and finished the day’s shopping.

As we walked the 2km home, grocery-laden and hot, we discussed topics such as slugs and weather patterns (regular walks with one’s children bring a whole new dimension to motherhood). My mind wandered to dinner and wondering if the improvising I had to do on the breading ingredients would fare well with my unsuspecting children. I could only hope that the crackers and little tiny breadsticks in a crouton-like package tasted like the croutons I normally use. I thought about the size of that chicken. I mean, judging by the size of that brust, one might conclude that Germany grows some pretty well-endowed chickens, if you know what I mean. And then I remembered the word for turkey.

It was the word before the “brust” right there on the package.

“Ohhhhh….”

The lightbulb came on as the sun beat down on my head.

I didn’t tell my kids (you think I’m crazy?) until after they’d tasted and admitted liking dinner. Phew, I dodged that bullet. And now I have a new way to make chicken nuggets. Just use turkey.

**Mama Bria’s Homemade Chicken Nuggets**

1 bag of flavored salad croutons, crushed into teeny-tiny crumbs (It’s fun to beat the bag up before you open it. Or let your kids do it.)

some melted butter (I never measure it, but it needs to be enough to dip the cut up nuggets into before you put them into the crushed up croutons.)

package of chicken (or turkey if you want –now I know it’s good) skinless, boneless breasts or wings, cubed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (or about 230 degrees C)

Dip cubed chicken into melted butter.

Put chicken into crumbs and cover the cubes.

Place onto cookie sheet. (I always use my stoneware, so I don’t grease it, and I have no idea if you should grease a metal cookie sheet or not.)

Cook for about 20-25 minutes. Or until the biggest nugget is not pink in the middle, of course.

That’s what I do. Obviously, it’s not real scientific or precise, for which I apologize to those of you who require more details. I hope you can understand and enjoy the yum anyway.

Sometimes we serve it with ranch dressing (when we’re in the U.S. and can actually find the ranch dressing at Wal-Mart). That’s really yummy, too.