Crispy baked chicken tenders
Crunchy baked chicken tenders use a quick and easy dredging station and come out well seasoned and with an amazingly crispy crust. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce and enjoy!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs. chicken tenders (see notes)
- 1 cup buttermilk (or sub milk and lemon juice; see notes)
- ¾ cup flour of choice
- ¾ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon paprika
- 1 cup Panko breadcrumbs
- ¾ cup cornmeal
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with Parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl, place the chicken tenders in the buttermilk and let marinate for up to 30 minutes, if possible. (If you are short on time, it's OK to shorten or skip this part.)
- Meanwhile, set up the dredging station. Place the flour, Italian seasoning and paprika in a shallow bowl and mix well. In a separate shallow bowl, combine the Panko breadcrumbs, cornmeal, salt and pepper.
- One at a time, remove a chicken tender from the buttermilk and dredge in the flour on all sides. Return the chicken tender to the buttermilk for a quick dunk then move to the bowl with the Panko breadcrumbs mixture and press down to get it to adhere to all sides. Place the coated chicken tender on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all chicken tenders have been coated.
- Spray the tops of the chicken tenders with baking spray.
- Bake at 450 for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through.
- Serve immediately with any desired dipping sauces, such as ketchup, honey mustard, Ranch or BBQ sauce.
Notes
If you don’t have chicken tenders, you can slice up boneless, skinless chicken breasts to use for this recipe. Just make sure the strips are similarly sized so they cook in the same amount of time. And you may need to adjust the final cook time if the strips are larger or thicker than regular chicken tenders from the store.
I almost never have buttermilk on hand. Instead, I use 1 cup regular milk (even skim is fine) and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Mix them together and let sit for a few minutes, then proceed.
Letting the chicken tenders marinate in the buttermilk is a helpful step, and adds flavor and tenderness, but you can skip it if you are pressed on time.
All-purpose or whole wheat flour will work here. I think you could also use an almond flour or flour blend, if you prefer, but I haven’t tested that myself.
Panko breadcrumbs are a must here to get the amazing crunchy crust on the chicken tenders.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 515kcal | Protein: 29g | Fat: 21g
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