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!)
My mom was famous for her chicken fingers (which she brought to every party she attended!). They were made the old-fashioned way (dry/wet/dry dip and deep fry) in an assembly line (I was the official helper). They were so popular she had to bring LOTS, requiring the assembly line. What’s not to like about deep-fried chicken fingers?!? BUT, I think it was her dipping sauce that made them truly amazing. I think it would go equally well with these lighter, healthier, baked chicken tenders. I don’t have exact measurements (mom eyeballed measurements (except when baking) and I’m the same way) but, here are the ingredients with APPROXIMATE amounts:
1 cup sour crème (full fat/no fat, doesn’t matter)
2-3 TBSP finely chopped dill pickle
1-2 tsp dill seeds
1-2 tsp dill weed
juice from dill pickle jar (to taste and to achieve desired consistency)
It will be a bit chunky and very dill-y!
Ohhh! Thank you so much for sharing that Ronda! It sounds amazing! Dill seeds? I bet that’s the secret ingredient in this!
Ho would this be with peeled shrimp?
It’s brilliant with peeled shrimp because shrimp shouldn’t be baked for long 🙂 I’ll share a baked shrimp soon! N x
I happen to have some peeled shrimp but no chicken, so I’m going to give t a try. Thanks!
Your photo description says batter with made with oil…and looks like that… recipe says mayonnaise
Ah yes, typo 🙂 Mayo! Thanks Janis! N x
Would you recommend this method for the pork Tonkatsu recipe? I’ve made it four times in the last month……that’s a lot of deep fried goodness.
YES! it works brilliantly for any fried recipe 🙂 Even shrimp/prawns which takes mere minutes in the oven!
Made these for my boyfriend, who hates condiments of all kinds, and his response, as I quote: ‘these are the best chicken fingers I’ve ever eaten in my life’. A total crowd pleaser! Definitely adding this to my arsenal, Thanks Nagi!
I love hearing that! So glad you (and he!) enjoyed this Jo! N x
Hands down the best chicken tender recipe ever!!! Brilliant idea to brown the bread crumbs ahead of time and to put the flour, egg and other ingredients into one bowl before applying the bread crumbs.
Plus you are so right that these are best served straight out of the oven. So crunchy and warm. My teenagers and their friends chowed down on these at a picnic several hours after I made them. But when I ate a few right out of the oven….that was perfection!
That’s great Suzanne! Thanks for letting me know! – N x ❤️
Would you recommend this method for the pork Tonkatsu recipe? I’ve made it four times in the last month……that’s a lot of deep fried goodness.
Hi sorry. I may have missed it. What temp do you cook chicken at?
Hi Blair! Step 1 – just leave the oven on that temp!
I have made this recipe many times, absolutely the best tenders ever… Thank You, so much!!!!
Graham
I LOVE HEARING THAT!!!!!! N xx
can I sub something for the mayo in the batter I don’t have any
Can these be done in an Air fryer,?
Hi Sharon! I’m sure it could because you could deep fry it too 🙂 N x
I was looking for a chicken finger recipe today and came across yours — best fingers I have had. My son also liked them. Loved how much easier it is mixing all ingredients together and then dredging. I will definitely make these again and play with the spices. Oh, I did add another egg to the mixture, it was pretty thick and I used chicken that was sliced for stir-fry, so they were longer than normal. We just drizzled ranch dressing and barbeque sauce over them. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Glad you loved this Mary!! Thanks for sharing your feedback! N x
I don’t know what I did wrong 🙁
I used chicken breast that had been butterflied, then cut into smaller ‘strips’. They’ve been in the oven now for more than 25 mins and still not all that golden brown and the bottoms are soggy!
Any advice?
Hi Ana, were they cooked through??? It sounds like your oven runs very weak if they weren’t cooked after 25 minutes!
Hi! Yes, they were cooked through. I ended up turning on the broiler to get them crunchy on top, so they were probably in there a good 35-40mins! I don’t think my oven is weak – it’s less than a year old and I cook plenty of other things in there with no problems. I’ve tried other baked panko chicken recipes and it always turns out this way – soggy on the bottom and not golden enough. Maybe my pieces were too thick? Some were at least 0.5″ thick. Next time I’ll try it with the chicken on the rack. They ended up making very delicious sandwiches nonetheless and I love mixing all the flour, egg, etc together. I hate doing the flour-egg-panko assembly line!
I’ve been making these chicken tenders for the last couple of years. I’ve tried several recipies in the past and this one is by far the best one. My husband is also a fan, which says a lot because he usually dislikes healthy/skinny recipies. He finds they often lack flavour. And mostly, I agree. But these chicken tenders are absolutely delicious! They come out moist and tender every time. You can even play around with the dredge spices. I’ve done it with cayenne and other types of spices.
The only thing we weren’t fans of was the homemade ranch sauce. It was too mayonnaise-y. However, I used non-fat sour cream, which probably ruined the flavor. I would tell people to go with full fat when making this dip.
Anyway like I said, i’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a couple of years now and everyone loves it. So while my chicken tenders are currently baking, I thought it was probably high time i posted a comment 😁
🙌🏻 🙌🏻 LOVE hearing that! Thanks for letting me know Ren! N x
Can you put the seasonings in with the breadcrumbs?
For sure! Whatever you want! 🙂
Absolutely brilliant easy to make top recipe best crumbed chicken we’ve ever made at home thanks
I’m great to hear Rio! Thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
What temp to cook chicken? Ty
Hi Debbie! Oven temp is in step 1 🙂
WOW! The best panko “fried” chicken we’ve ever had! Husband, who has been good about not eating seconds lately (getting healthy and all that!), actually had seconds tonight. We all loved it. Thank you for such a great recipe.
Absolutely amazing! As suggested, I cooked the chicken strips on a wire rack placed over a sheet pan. Will definitely be my goto recipe!
My 16 yo son said these are the best chicken tenders EVER! He went on to tell me that he wants this as his new birthday dinner. Fingers crossed on that because for the past four years, it’s been beef Wellington. You may have just saved me a lot of money!!
So great to hear Julia!! That’s quite a compliment – replacing Beef Wellington!! – N x
This method is the best I’ve come across for making crunchy oven baked chicken! I can’t wait to play with different seasonings.
Love hearing that Anne! So pleased you enjoyed this 🙂 N x
Will cooking spray give same result instead of spray oil?
Made these last night and they were fabulous! The chicken was juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Also, what a genius idea to combine the ingredients in one bowl and then dip in the panko. This will be a staple dinner in our home.
🙌🏻 Love hearing that Angie! N xx
Jmade
Made this for dinner and this recipe was amazing! Moist chicken and excellent flavor!!!
I absolutely love hearing that Nancy!! Thanks so much for letting me know – N x