While making my Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets, I wanted to test out different “breading” types. I bought a few pre-made bread crumbs, made my own, and tried a few other gluten free products to find the best coating. In total, I tried 12 different items and organized them below as follows: flours, pre-made bread crumbs, homemade bread crumbs, non-traditional coatings.

Keep reading to find out my favorites based off of flavor, crispiness, and cost.

Namaste Gluten Free Flour

The Namaste Food is free from the top 8 allergens, which they list on all their products. I bought a bag of Namaste flour from Costco and used it in several recipes. It is typically a little heavy for baking cakes, but the flour was fine for coating chicken nuggets. Depending on what you have in your pantry, gluten free flour is a good option, but be sure to toss the nuggets in a sauce before serving, otherwise you will taste more flour than sauce.

Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour

Bob’s Red Mill offers a range of gluten free products, and my favorite would be the  baking flour, with the light blue label. Once again, gluten free flour is a fine choice when tossing the nuggets in a sauce, but if you are only using the flour for baking chicken nuggets, I would suggest making your own because gluten free flour can be expensive.

Almond Flour

Almond flour is another expensive choice, but I had some in my pantry. The nuggets did have a slight almond flavor, which I didn’t mind, but depending on your recipe it could make a difference. If you are making nuggets to serve to anyone outside your home, be sure to check if there is a nut allergy. Overall, I would again toss the nuggets in the sauce and have the flour help absorb the sauce.

Coconut Flour

Much like almond flour, check for allergies before serving to friends and guests. The coconut flour did have a stronger taste than the almond flour, which might be good in an Asian dish, Thai or Indian, to bring out a coconut based sauce. However, coconut flour is not my first choice for making chicken nuggets because the nuggets became soft rather quickly and they didn’t crisp up as much as I wanted in the oven.

Corn Meal

I use corn meal in my cornbread, so I had some on hand. I also noticed one of the other pre-made bread crumbs had a corn meal base, rather than rice, so I thought I would test corn meal by itself. There was not as much crisp and flavor as the corn tortilla chips, but the corn meal was crispier than normal flour blends. With added spices, corn meal is an inexpensive base for homemade “bread” crumbs.

Ian’s Bread Crumbs

If I buy bread crumbs from the store, I usually grab a bag of Ian’s bread crumbs. Ian’s has a Panko style and an Italian style of bread crumbs. Both are rice flour based and crisp up well in the oven. You will pay for convenience and you don’t get much for the expensive price. However, if you are in a pinch, these bread crumbs are a safe bet for any recipe.

Glutino Bread Crumbs

These bread crumbs were crispy and worked well, but after reading the ingredients and seeing the price, I will make my own. Glutino bread crumbs are made from corn meal and sugar. That’s it! With a price of over $3 a bag, I can make my own with the ingredients already in my pantry. If you don’t want to be bothered, this is an okay option, but other pre-made bread crumbs have more flavor and crisp.

Ener-g Bread Crumbs

These bread crumbs are rice flour based and made for a nice breading. The blend includes a bit more flavoring compared to Glutino and Ian’s, but I found this brand at a health food store, which might make it harder to find. The box is deceptively bigger than the bag of bread crumbs inside, which is always disappointing. The bread crumbs coated well, but didn’t crisp up as much as Ian’s bread crumbs.

Homemade Bread Crumbs with Gluten Free Bread

Homemade bread crumbs are extremely easy to make, but using gluten free bread makes them expensive. However, if you are already buying gluten free bread, you could use the end pieces, or if you buy a loaf of bread with giant holes in it, bread crumbs would be the perfect thing to make with those slices of bread that won’t work for a sandwich.

Tortilla Chips

A relatively inexpensive option, and most people have corn tortilla chips in their pantry. As always, double check ingredients to make sure the chips you are using are actually gluten free. The chips crisped a bit more than the plain corn meal, and added a bit more flavor because they have the added oil and salt.

GF Pretzels: Glutino

The pretzels gave the nuggets a great flavor and crisp. However, gluten free pretzels can be expensive, over $3 a bag, so they are not my first choice for a breading. Perhaps if I were making something special and wanted the pretzel flavor to be a start of a dish I would use pretzels again.

Rice Crackers

Usually I have rice flour when I make my own gluten free flour blends, but since I was out, I used a package of rice crackers I had on hand. The crackers were toasted sesame, which added a nice flavor to the nuggets. If you are in a pinch, you can easily make rice bread crumbs by putting the crackers in a blender. However, it would be cheaper just to grind your own rice, or buy rice flour. Usually rice flour is my preferred  coating because they hold their crisp well, even after being in the fridge.

Results:

Best Flavor: Glutino Pretzels and Tortilla Chips

Best Crisp: Ian’s Bread Crumbs (rice based)

Cheapest: Corn Meal or Rice Flour

• Simply mix either corn meal or rice flour and spices for your own mixture.

Best Pre-Made: Ian’s Bread Crumbs