Fire Poppers

Yummmmmmm! These are my son’s absolute favorite chicken nuggets. We always bought them from a local restaurant, and I felt like taking a crack at homemade. Fire poppers are crispy chicken nuggets fried then coated and baked in a sweet, hot sauce. This doesn’t take long at all and is a terrific weeknight dinner or game day Nosh. This recipe makes about 2 dozen poppers. 

Ingredients: 
A pack of white meat chicken tenders, nuggets, or white meat chicken skewers, simply slide the nuggets off the skewers. 
4 beaten eggs 
2 cups all purpose flour 
Pack of plain panko bread crumbs, or 3 cups 
2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper 
2 tsp each paprika, garlic powder, onion powder (you can always sprinkle in and adjust seasonings to taste, which is what I do. I guesstimated the measurements) 
1/2 cup each honey, white sugar, packed dark brown sugar 
1/3 cup Frank’s Red Hot sauce or your favorite hot cayenne pepper sauce 
Canola or vegetable oil 

To make: 
Turn on oven to 350. 
Prepare a large frying pan with a generous amount of oil, about an inch up the pan. Turn on heat to medium to heat up the oil. It needs to be very hot for frying to achieve the golden brown crispy coating. 
Prepare the beaten eggs in one bowl, the flour in another, and the crumbs in another. Season the crumbs with the salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, or garlic powder. Mix well. 
Dip each chicken nugget in flour then gently shake off the excess. Then dip well in the egg followed by the crumbs, turning over to coat thoroughly. Using two spoons (I like one slotted) fry the coated nuggets in batches until crispy and golden brown all over. Place in an aluminum pan. When you are done frying mix the honey, sugars, and hot sauce in a medium bowl. Pour the sauce mixture over the nuggets, using a spatula to gently yet throughly coat. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Enjoy!