Stephen is from the south and apparently corn nuggets are something that everyone knows down there. I had never heard of them until I met him. He has always wanted me to figure out how to make them. Without ever having them, I tried a recipe from Allrecipes.com and it was kind of a pain because they have you take the corn mixture and drop it on a cookie sheet and freeze it before frying the nuggets. The only problem was that the corn mixture flattened before it started to freeze so it was more like patties instead of nuggets and it just didn’t work well at all. After some experimenting and one genius idea by Stephen we finally got it right – at least by Stephen’s standards and that is all I had to go off of! These are a great side dish, appetizer, finger food for a game, whatever suits you.
Pour both cans of corn and sugar in a bowl.
Mix well.
Keep the nuggets in the freezer. Fill a pot about 1/3 of the way with oil and heat on medium. Do not overfill the pot and don’t use anything higher than medium heat. We overfilled once and the oil boiled over and got all over the oven – not fun to clean up 🙂
Prepare coating by mixing corn meal, flour, egg white, milk, salt and pepper.
Mix until somewhat liquefied but it should still have texture to it. Add more milk as needed but be careful not to let it get too runny. Something like this:
Now here is the best part. Take the ice cubes out of the freezer and pop those nuggets out onto some foil. Stephen’s idea for the ice cube tray was genius. They hold their shape very well and are much easier to handle than the patties that I was struggling with before.
Dip the nuggets into the mixture, make sure they are really covered and then drop them into the oil.
Be sure not to overcrowd the pot. I would only put one side of an ice cube tray in at a time. We did a whole tray at a time and there were a few tragedies because some of the nuggets attached to one another, which caused a hole to rip in them and some of the corn came out in the oil.
Fry in the oil until they are golden brown. Move to a plate covered with a paper towel and pat off any excess oil.
Then they are ready to enjoy!
Since it is just the two of us we only cooked one tray of nuggets and have another tray covered an foil, waiting in the freezer for the next time we want them! I didn’t really understand why Stephen loved these at first but they are a sweet little treat.
Corn Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 (11 oz) can corn - drained
- 1 (11 oz) can cream corn
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup yellow corn meal
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1 egg white
- 3/4 cup milk
- salt and pepper to taste
- vegetable oil for frying
- 2 ice cube trays - very important
Instructions
- Pour both cans of corn and sugar in a bowl. Mix well.
- Spoon mixture into ice cube trays and freeze for at least 3 hours.
- Keep the nuggets in the freezer. Fill a pot about 1/3 of the way with oil and heat on medium. Do not overfill the pot and don't use anything higher than medium heat. We overfilled once and the oil boiled over and got all over the oven - not fun to clean up 🙂
- Prepare coating by mixing corn meal, flour, egg white, milk, salt and pepper.
- Mix until somewhat liquefied but it should still have texture to it. Add more milk as needed but be careful not to let it get too runny.
- Take the ice cubes out of the freezer and pop those nuggets out onto some foil. Stephen's idea for the ice cube tray was genius. They hold their shape very well and are much easier to handle than the patties that I was struggling with before.
- Dip the nuggets into the mixture, make sure they are really covered and then drop them into the oil.
- Be sure not to overcrowd the pot. I would only put one side of an ice cube tray in at a time. We did a whole tray at a time and there were a few tragedies because some of the nuggets attached to one another, which caused a hole to rip in them and some of the corn came out in the oil.
- Fry in the oil until they are golden brown. Move to a plate covered with a paper towel and pat off any excess oil.
Schema/Recipe SEO Data Markup by Yummly Rich Recipes
http://www.hipandsimple.com/2011/01/corn-nuggets.html
Are these kinda sweet?
Yes these are sweet but not too sweet!
Oh, my! I have been searching for recipes beyond recipes. I’m going to try this one and link your post to my blog (when I final put it up!).
I am from Alabama and my parents always had corn nuggets, but my Texas hubby never heard of them before until I told him to try them from Chicken Express. He liked them!
Awesome recipe… but clean up kitchen is not fun.. (this recipe give a taste like Sonny’s corn nugget)… one thing to add, you might want to keep your heat consistent, otherwise; the filling inside will break apart.
Do you know how to make the baked cormeal, creamed corn nuggets. I don’t even know exactly what they are called. My husband tried “corn nuggets” at a Chinese buffet and loved them….I do know they were baked not fried. I would appreciate any help or suggestion. Thank you
Hi Lana, I haven’t heard of that before, I’ve only seen them as fried. I bet you could try this recipe that way. Just mix the dry (cornmeal, salt and pepper) and wet (milk & egg whites) ingredients in separate bowls. Take the frozen corn nuggets, dip them in the wet, then dry, then wet and dry again and bake on a cookie sheet – like you would with oven frying (baking) chicken. I would guess 350 degrees for 30 – 40 mins or until the outside is golden and crispy. I’d have to test it out before I post it here, I’ll add it to my list to test in the kitchen but you should try it and let me know how it goes.
The ice cube tray idea is pure genius! Thank you! Had all the baking sheets covered with foil and sure enough they just spread out. Emptied the ice trays and away I went! Genius.
It’s a game changer. Glad it worked for you as well!
Love it! Thank you so much!
I just love corn nuggets!!! Thank you for the recipe.
I used egg cartons, I washed the cartons and placed my corn mixture in them.
Great idea!
I had fried corn nuggets for the first and last time when I was in college in 19985-1988, and was in heaven. I’ve yet to find a recipe for them until now. I’ve copied your recipe and the URL to my OneNote Recipes book on my iPad so I have the recipe for when I’m offline in the kitchen. Can’t wait to try them! Thank you so much for sharing!