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!)
Incredibly tender, even though I accidentally baked them to internal temps of 180 deg F+. I left them in the batter/marinade for 2+ hours prior to baking.
Family loved these super crispy and tasty chicken fingers. Doubled the recipe and used gluten free panko and they were perfect. The honey mustard was excellent as well!
Another winner Nagi! Marinated chicken for a few hours prior to crumbing. Served in wraps along with your quick pickled red cabbage. Everyone went back for seconds! Another great recipe for the rotation.
This is such an easy recipe.The chicken was moist, the crumb was crispy and it looked exactly like your photos! Definitely five stars 😋
Great recipe for tenders. My whole family loved it!
Best recipe ever. I have been making this recipe for several years. I love the step of baking the panko crumbs before using them to bread the chicken for a crispy coating. I marinate the chicken overnight in buttermilk, cayenne, smoked paprika, salt, taekyung pepper powder. I mixed in cayenne, smoked paprika and taekyung pepper powder to the panko crumbs before baking. I used no salt in the dredging batter and no additional salt. 15 minutes at 390F was perfect for the size of tenders I was using (the temp I cooked to was 165F).
One of my favourite recipes for tenders. But I accidentally realised it makes an excellent base for sweet and sour chicken! I had run out of breadcrumbs so I replaced some of the flour in the batter with cornflour and then fried the chicken. Threw it in some sweet and sour sauce with veggies and it was absolutely lovely!
Thanks Nagi!
Fantastic recipe! Finally a recipe that the breading sticks to the chicken and uses minimal oil. Added to a salad, and it was wonderful. Thank you!
Another super yummy meal, thank you much. I chopped it up with a caesar salad and jasmine rice and made a wrap and it was incredible. I love that I can easily reheat them for meals through the week.
I’ve searched high and low for frozen chicken tenders that were made from the actual cut rather than being a ‘formed’ product – to no avail. This recipe means that I can now have the real thing, but far better tasting than anything available in supermarkets. Thank you so much Nagi! I’m assuming that there’s no reason why they won’t be suitable to freeze so that I can make them in bulk for whenever I want them, is there please?
On a different note….. I hope that Dozer is recovering well from his recent upset tummy as well as his surgery.💕💖
Hi LORRAINE. I froze half mine and then reheated in the airfryer for 6 minutes and they were perfect. Great freezer meal
Thanks for the feedback Ann. I don’t have an air fryer, but my microwave oven has a crisper plate that should work! Living alone means that I’m always looking for recipes that I can cook in bulk and freeze..😊
Finally, the best baked chicken tender recipe I’ve had, delicious and easy! Thank you!
Instead of panko I used roasted garlic and parmesan dried mashed potato flakes turned out amazing
Wow! This works perfectly. Beautifully crispy, tender and moist. I also used this for barramundi and it worked just as well. So easy
The crispy baked chicken tenders were FANTASTIC! Followed the recipe exactly. I’ll definitely make again! Thank you!
Absolutely AMAZING. A huge hit with the kids. This recipe is a game changer. I used to fry chicken tenders on the stove top and use a ton of oil. Never again. Thank you so much! This recipe is a keeper. It is so good that my kids want it in my dinner menu rotation.
Cooked this for my wife. First time I’ve ever crumbed anything. Easy to follow recipe. It was delicious. Wife gave me 2 thumbs up!
I was so happy when I looked at my clean fingers. I loved reading the recipe and laughed a lot. Have not cooked them yet but they are ready to go into the oven. Thanks
Such a great recipe, the mustard sauce made all the difference! Thank you Nagi for sharing your recipes with so much love!
Easy recipe to follow and to get fantastic results. Super crispy fingers. Next time I’d add a little red pepper flakes or powder to egg batter. Browning panko crumbs was inspirational.
Oh my goodness! I love the recipe! I alway fried the tenders. You are absolutely right. No muss no fuss. I can’t believe they were fully cooked in such a short time. So moist! Thank you!