So here’s the thing: chicken, however “boring,” is versatile. You can serve chicken recipes for toddlers in whole pieces; you can dice it up any which way. It’ll take on any texture you need: crispy, soft, even creamy. It’ll take on any flavor–or cuisine–you want it to. You can poach it; you can roast it; you fry it hard. Sauce it; stew it. You don’t need much in the way of teeth or taste to eat any which way, either.
Which means you can do all of the above with a toddler. Really.
Indeed, chicken is the ideal vehicle when you want to expand your kid’s palate–and your own cooking repertoire–beyond the ground meat or nugget forms that define most cooking for small children. These are great, mind you: keep using them as you and your child see fit. But you’ve got a lot more options than you think. Serve it whole. Turn it into kabobs. Stuff it into something else. Use it to introduce new ideas and forms–even a waffle.
Of course, start with what you and your child know and love. Our entry point was thin and crispy: the cutlet/wiener schnitzel/milanesa is a kissing cousin of the chicken nugget, an easy sell to a potentially skeptical toddler. If you don’t know where to begin with yours, start there: it’s a known quantity; it’s easy (and quick) to pull off. Once you open your child’s mind and palate to the possibilities, there are lots of paths your chicken recipes for toddlers can take: stir fry, curries (and more curries!), even full-on pieces of roasted chicken (with a twist). Keep it interesting and almost anything will work.
Some of our great chicken recipes for toddlers:
Ginger and Scallion Chicken (AKA Hainan Chicken)
BBQ Chicken (sauced)
Barbecue-Spiced Chicken (dry rub)
Everything Bagel-spiced Chicken
Blackberry Chicken Wings
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