Air-Fryer Chicken Nuggets

There are two paths to the chicken nugget. One is the freezer aisle: twenty in a box, vaguely chicken-shaped, deep-fried for eight minutes at 200°C, served with ketchup, gone in fifteen minutes flat. The other is from scratch — actual chicken breast, cut, breaded, cooked — which takes about thirty minutes total but is, predictably, much better. The air fryer makes the from-scratch route reasonable on a weeknight.

The breading is the variable that matters most. Use panko (Japanese- style breadcrumbs), not regular breadcrumbs — panko's larger flakes catch the air and crisp into something approaching a deep-fry shatter. Add some grated parmesan and smoked paprika to the panko for depth and colour. Skip the double-dredge if you're in a rush, but don't skip the oil spray before cooking — that's the difference between pale and golden.

The photo is the natural endgame: a parchment-lined bowl piled with golden, lumpy nuggets (lumpy is good — uneven breading crisps better), a ramekin of ketchup beside it, one nugget broken open to show the white-meat interior. The pieces are deliberately uneven sizes — homemade chicken nuggets shouldn't look factory-perfect.