These crunchy baked chicken tenders are life changing! The secret to truly golden, truly crunchy baked breaded chicken is to toast the breadcrumbs in the oven first. Bonus: No dirty fingers with my quick crumbing technique!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Really crunchy Baked Chicken Tenders
There is no feel-good story behind these crunchy Oven Baked Chicken Tenders. Quite simply, I am yet to meet anything deep fried that I didn’t love, but a) my waistline can’t afford the real thing every time I feel like it; and b) I reserve deep frying for “special occasions”. Because… well, you know.
Mess, oil wastage, gluey fingers.
Waistline. Bottom expansion.
Etc etc.
It also irritated me no end that the breadcrumbs always came out splotchy, no matter how much oil I used.
So this is how I make baked crumbed chicken.
Baked breaded chicken – my way
Toast the breadcrumbs in the oven for just a few minutes. This is the path to truly golden, truly crunchy baked breaded chicken even with a short bake time (max 20 minutes for chicken tenders). PS Much MUCH easier than pan frying!
One dredge batter – the usual process for crumbing is flour then egg then breadcrumbs. For this quick ‘n easy recipe, I combine the egg with flour plus mustard and mayo for flavour + oil (attempt to replicate deep fried) to make a thick batter in which the chicken is dredged. This stuff is great glue for the breadcrumbs!
Clean fingers! Use tongs to transfer the batter slathered chicken into the breadcrumbs. Sprinkle over breadcrumbs to cover, press down to adhere. Transfer to tray. Marvel at clean fingers!!
Give it a light spray of oil, bake for 15 minutes and voila! This is what you get:
LOOK HOW GOLDEN THEY ARE!! Just imagine that crunch when you bite into the juicy chicken inside!
Dipping Sauces
It’s pictured above with a Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce. Just like Maccers. Only homemade. 🙂
Other Dipping Sauces: Try the Pink Steak Sauce from the Beef Kebabs, Sweet and Sour Sauce, Thousand Island, Tartare or even a classic Seafood Cocktail Sauce.
– Nagi x
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
Breadcrumb
- 1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs (Note 1)
- Oil spray
Batter
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard (or other mustard)
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Black pepper
Chicken
- 500 g/1 lb chicken tenderloins (or breast cut into 2/3″ / 1.5cm thick slices, lengthwise)
- Oil spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180° fan-forced).
- Toast panko – Spread panko on a baking tray, spray with oil (spray vertically to avoid blowing the panko off the tray), then bake for 3 to 5 minutes until light golden. Transfer to bowl.
- Place a rack on a baking tray (not critical but bakes more evenly).
- Dredge batter – Place the Batter ingredients in a bowl and whisk with a fork until combined. Add the chicken into the Batter and toss to coat.
Crumbing (see video & photo in post)
- Pick up chicken with tongs and place it into the panko bowl.
- Crumb – Sprinkle surface with breadcrumbs, then press down to adhere. Transfer onto baking tray. Marvel at clean fingers, repeat with remaining chicken.
- Spray & bake – Spray lightly with oil, sprinkle with a touch of salt (optional). Bake 15 minutes (medium) or up to 20 minutes if gigantic. Any longer = dried out chicken.
- Serve – Remove from oven and serve immediately, with Sauce of choice (Honey Mustard pictured, see Note 2) and sprinkled with fresh parsley, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published April 2015, updated with new photos, video, words in post. No change to recipe, though some minor writing tidying up has been done.
More crunchy crumbed chicken
A crunchy golden crumb takes any chicken from bland to delicious!
LIFE OF DOZER
That hopeful sparkle in his eyes…. (it was false hope) (Oh wait, I lied. I gave him a bite!)
Can I use corn or potato starch instead of flour?
EXCELLENT, thanks! – Best outcome I’ve had yet on breaded meat. {Added a healthy dose of garlic powder to the ‘gluey-goo’ mix for extra spice}.
Say, what if you don’t have panko bread crumbs? Can you use italian bread crumbs instead?
Hi Daniel, you can, I just find they don’t have that added crunch that Panko gives. N x
I understand
OMG I make at least one Recipetin Eats recipe every few days and this has to be one of the best. I made the Ranch Style Dipping Sauce and my partner was actually licking it straight from the bowl. Soooooo tasty. Thanks Nagi, another winner! 👍
Wahoo!!! Sounds perfect Kerryn! N x
Absolutely delicious. Moist, flavoursome and crunchy. Perfect with the honey mustard sauce, some mash and peas 😋
Thank you! I have found the perfect chicken tender recipe I have been searching for. Changed nothing!
These were delicious. I definitely think pre-toasting the breadcrumbs makes a big difference. These are a new family favorite.
It’s a total game changer isn’t it Miranda!! N x
I have discovered your website thanks to that delicious almond and oranges cake recipe. After seeing lots of good comments I have started looking for new recipes and came across to this recipe. I will definitely try this one asap.
My question is that is there any way to freeze them? Or do you think breadcrumbs will soak the moisture of the batter and go slushy? Please tell me the way to freeze them, thanks
Yummy! Just wish that I had doubled it and frozen some. I will definitely make this again and again and again! Thank you!
So easy and my kids tore it up! I feel much better giving them this than bagged frozen chicken nuggets. The difference in effort is negligible honestly. The honey mustard sauce is delicious as well! I love making recipes from this site because I know they’ll be awesome. Thank you!!!
Thank you for this recipe! I have used this recipe several times so now I can give it a raving review! The chicken tenders really come out crispy and moist, if you are careful not to over bake them. I learned that an alternative method to baking the panko bread crumbs is to melt 1.5 tbsp of butter in a large skillet on low-medium heat. Toss in the bread crumbs into the skillet and move them around using a spatula every minute until they’re all golden. Another thing I learned is that this recipe can batter up to 2 pounds of chicken tenders without any leftover bread crumbs. Which was nice because I didn’t like wasting any bread crumbs. My husband and kids enjoy them every time we have this for dinner. Thanks, again!
Can I use chicken breast and just cut them into strips?
Hi Holland – as mentioned next to the chicken in the ingredients, breast cut into 2/3″ / 1.5cm thick slices, lengthwise. I hope you love them! N x
Panko breadcrumbs,
Where do you get these?
Depends where you’re located Cheryl, major supermarkets stock it here 🙂 N x
Perfection. The only chicken tender recipe I will use now. Only change was marinated for two hours in buttermilk and I did add a good sprinkling of Kosher salt prior to baking. Thank you for this!
I made tonight and followed the recipe how its listed…I did have about 1-1/2 of chicken tenders and used most of them except 2 tenders. But everything to the ingredients was used…my husband it tasted blend and undercook. Not sure if it’s something I did wrong in recipe or used too much chicken…any ideas?
If you don’t mayo what is best to substitute?
Hi Woochong, natural yogurt would work well in its place. N x
Hi, love your recipes, and have tried a lot with success. Question, have you tried this in air fryer, if yes how many minutes would you suggest. Thank you 🙏
Cook in air fryer about 5-6 minutes on each side
Hi Asia, sorry I haven’t, I’d love to know if you try! N x
Yum, yum.
I want to make these for my kids who are pretty picky eaters. Can I make these without the mayo and mustard?
Hi Michelle, the mayo help provide a glue for the tenders, you honestly can’t taste it and they won’t know it’s there! N x
You very much can taste it- I found just using egg and buttermilk worked well enoguh.
I changed this resipe a bit. I used olive oil,olive oil mayo, with spice brown mustard. I mixed that all in a bowl to use as like a egg mixture .
Then I used corn bread stuffing with a a little Italian seasoning, ramon grated cheese,salt,pepper and paprika in the bread crumbs.
Dipped the chicken strips in the liquid mix then used a fork to coat it. Then put the strip in a sandwich bag and shook the bread crumbs until well coated. Placed them in a cookie sheet and baked them at 250 until golden brown
Cool! So you made a completely different recipe!
Ps: Who is Ramon?
It’s not who, it’s what. It’s like ramen noodles, but misspelled