McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets and Cajun Sauce – BTS Meal
Let’s learn how to make the popular and iconic McDonald’s BTS meal at home and even better! We’re making the McNuggets and Cajun Sauce from scratch – the ultimate duo.
What is the BTS Meal?
McDonald’s partnered with an extremely popular 7 member South Korean boy band to bring this meal to the menu. The items in the meal were selected by BTS and were inspired by popular menu items in South Korea McDonald’s. The meal includes 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, medium fries, coke, and sweet chili and Cajun dipping sauces. Today we’ll be recreating the McNuggets and Cajun dipping sauce.
How to Make McNuggets?
This might come as a shock but making nuggets at home is a lot easier than you think! They’re super fun to make and the final product turns out just like the popular fast food chain if not even better. There are basically three key steps in the process to making the perfect copycat McNugget.
Make the chicken!
- Now we are not going to use ground chicken because it tends to be a lot more sticky and wet. Instead, take some chicken breast and pound it out with a mallet. Chop it into small pieces and throw it into a food processor with cornstarch and a few spices. Just pulse it until there are no more chunks of chicken and that’s basically it. Super simple. For the spices, I like to use salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. If you don’t want to see the specks of black pepper which I didn’t have an issue with, you can replace it with white pepper. It is also common to add celery powder to nuggets so feel free to add if you’d like to.
Make the dry and wet “tempura” batter!
- The best part about this recipe that makes it so easy is the dry batter becomes the wet batter just by adding ice water – ultimate life hack that saves you so much time and effort. The dry batter is first used to bread the shaped chicken nuggets. Then the nuggets go in the freezer to firm up. Now we can add our ice water to make our tempura batter to the dry breading. You want your batter to be thin so it is easy to coat.
Last step, FRY!
- For the final part, pop the battered nuggets into the fryer until they’re golden and crispy just like McDonald’s. Just make sure your oil is hot enough before frying and you can use any oil suitable for deep frying like vegetable, canola, or peanut oil.
How to Make Cajun Sauce
The new BTS meal comes with two sauces that are super popular in South Korean McDonald’s – Cajun Sauce and Sweet Chili Sauce! Today we’ll be making the Cajun Sauce to serve with the McNuggets. It’s basically a sweet and spicy dijon mustard-based creamy sauce that everyone is loving. So to make it here’s what you will need:
- Dijon Mustard: This can also be swapped for regular yellow mustard. Dijon just has a more pungent “spicy” profile
- Cajun Seasoning: To put the Cajun in Cajun sauce
- Honey: For some sweetness
- Dash of cayenne: If you want more of a spicy kick but it’s optional
- White vinegar: For more acidity!
- Mayo: To make it creamy and thick.
- Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Chili Powder: To add some flavor!
Some other dishes you may like to serve this with:
If you have any questions about this recipe, let me know in the comments! If you make this, send me a picture on Instagram! I love seeing your remakes SO much.
Main Course
McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets and Cajun Sauce – BTS Meal
Ingredients
CHICKEN
- 1.5 pounds chicken breast 2 large breasts
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
BATTER
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cup cold iced water
CAJUN SAUCE
- 1/2 cup dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
- 1/4 cup honey
- dash of cayenne optional
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
TO MAKE THE CAJUN SAUCE
- In a small bowl, add all the ingredients for the cajun sauce and mix together until it's smooth. Taste and adjust anything to your liking.
TO MAKE THE CHICKEN NUGGETS
- Wrap the chicken breasts in saran wrap or parchment paper and use a mallet or rolling pin to pound the chicken and tenderize it. This process will help it break up faster in the food processor.
- Chop the chicken into small pieces and add it to the food processor along with salt, black pepper, cornstarch, and garlic powder. Pulse until there are no more chunks of meat.
- Take a little bit of the ground chicken and shape into a McNugget. Make sure not to make them too big or too thick so they resemble McDonald's. Repeat until all the chicken is shaped. Pop in the freezer for 30 minutes or longer if it's hard to handle.
- Heat a pot with about 3 inches of oil over medium-high heat to about 325-350°F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, black pepper, paprika, chili powder, and garlic powder.
- Coat each nugget in the dry breading and shake off any excess.
- Then add the water and baking soda to the dry batter and whisk to create your wet tempura batter. It should be thin - add more water as needed.
- Dip the breaded nuggets in the wet batter and then place in the hot oil. Do not overcrowd them. Fry in batches until golden brown.
- Transfer to a wire rack to let any oil drain out and then serve warm with the cajun sauce.
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WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS RECIPE?
HI, I’M HAJAR
Welcome to Moribyan! This is my blog where I love to share all my favorite recipes and lifestyle tips with you all. If I’m not cooking here, I’m either at Trader Joe’s, the gym, or eating a bagel.
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I love McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets and Cajun Sauce! I always order them when I go to the restaurant.
I love McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets and Cajun Sauce! I always order them when I go to the restaurant.
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe.my family loved it.will be sharing this recipe with my friends.they will like it.
How can we make a batch of these to freeze ? Thank you
So delicious!
How would you recommend thinning the sauce if it’s a bit too thick? I’d like to be able to gently stream some of it over my nuggets, but unfortunately it’s a bit too thick for that
Followed this cajun sauce recipe exactly… It didn’t taste like Mcdonalds cajun sauce, it didn’t taste very good at all.
How long can you keep the sauce after you make it?
I would keep it up to a week in an air-tight container or jar in the fridge! 🙂