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 200C/390F.
- 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).
- 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.
- Sprinkle surface with breadcrumbs, then press down to adhere. Transfer onto baking tray. Marvel at clean fingers, repeat with remaining chicken.
- 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.
- 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!)
Holly says
Hi Nagi, these are fantastic both my girls loved them.
Could I freeze the chicken in the marinade?
Thank you
Nagi says
Yes 100% Holly! N x
Kim says
This is my go to recipe for chicken strips, the whole family loves them. They have great flavor without the honey mustard sauce, but we like that too.
Nagi says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Kim!!
Angela says
Best baked chicken tenders I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for the amazing recipe 🙂
Nagi says
WOOT! Winner winner chicken dinner! N x
Lorie says
Toasting the Panko is genius! I was always overcooking my chicken waiting for it to brown. I was to lazy to open a new jar of Dijon to add to what I had. I will add it all for sure next time. I love chicken Katsu and this will be perfect for it. So happy I found your site!
Sarah olivito says
Very good egg mixture and panko coating
Nagi says
Thanks Sarah! N x
Crystal says
Goggled to find this and was not disappointed!! Followed the exact directions and they were fantastic! Going to be a regular item in this household, thank you.
Nagi says
Wahoo!!! I love hearing this Crystal!
Barbara Spangler says
Do you raise the temperature from 200 to cook chicken?
Nagi says
Hi Barbara, cook the chicken at 200 🙂
Angie says
Made this for dinner last night, loved them. This will be my go to for the grandkids! So easy and delicious! Thanks Nagi!
Nagi says
I’m so glad they loved it Angie! N x
Jh says
I can not cook.
Ok, I can fry or grill a decent Irish breakfast & boil a potato. But anything even mildly complex…no!
So, how the hell are you so talented as to, first, make me think I could make Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Tenders and, second, actually make them. Plus I added sweet potato wedges alongside – inspired by your recipe.
My 4 kids still don’t believe I actually made those tenders. 8 year old ate so many I don’t know how his belly didn’t explode. 13 year old still wants to know where I bought them because they were the best he’s ever tasted (the fact the the ‘teen’ is even communicating with me is a further miracle you are responsible for!).
Now, the pressure to try another recipe 😐 & you have so many delicious recipes on here.
Simply put: thank you!!
Nagi says
You nailed it Jh!!!!! I’m so glad you gave it a go!
Julie says
These came out great! My 14 year old, who helped me make them and who loves chicken tenders gave them a thumbs up! I didn’t spray them with oil as I don’t have any oil spray, but will try that next time.
Nagi says
Winner Winner chicken dinner! Sounds like a hit Julie!
Viviana says
Love 💕 this recipe fried chicken. Thank you very much.
Please share more👌
Nagi says
I’m so glad you love it Viviana!
Gloria says
Just what I was looking for – a breaded chicken I didn’t have to fry – and this recipe didn’t disappoint! My husband doesn’t like mayo or mustard, so I was a little worried about the dunking sauce – I knew the mayo flavor wouldn’t come through after baking, but I could really small the mustard. No reason to worry the sauce just made the chicken tender and flavorful (no obvious mustard flavor). Really appreciated the single dunk method – I never thought of combining the dunking ingredients and it made the process much easier. I was out of panko but thanks to your instructions, I made the panko bread crumbs and they turned out great too (except for the batch I burned, but that’s on me!!). We loved it! ANOTHER winner from Nagi – thank you so much! We’ll be having this often.
Nagi says
Oh Gloria – you’re not alone, I’ve burnt my panko a number of times (just like whenever I toast nuts 😒). I’m so glad the chicken was a hit though!! N x
Jennifer says
This looks great! The only problem is I don’t like mustard. Is there anything else I could substitute in the dredging sauce or could I just use more mayonnaise? Or just omit the mustard and leave it as it is? Thanks!
Nagi says
Just leave it out Jennifer – enjoy!!
Eri says
Hi Nagi-San!
I came across this recipe by searching baked chicken tenders. I am so glad that I found your recipe!! I was born in Japan as well so I got so excited!
I made them today and my family loved it! Tenders were moist and flavorful.
Since my husband loves spicy tenders, I made half of them with Spicy Panko and it turned great as well. I will definitely make this again and again.
I can’t wait to try your other recipes. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Nagi says
I’m so glad you all loved them Eri!!! N x
Kelly says
Love the batter. Came out fantastic!
Nick Andrews says
Nagi If anyone hates deep fryng but loves KFC style chicken then simply combine this recipe with your KFC deep fried herbs and spices and you have a glorious alternative. Got hundreds of books and read recipes all day. Used to be a chef – yours is the best Tx
Nagi says
Thanks so much Nick!!
Diane says
Super easy to make and sooo delicious!
Nagi says
I’m so glad you loved them Diane!
Mario says
Just recently discovered your website and I don’t normally get excited about a cooking website, however you have such a wide range of quick and easy recipes that yours is already top of my favourites! In fact I tried your Mexican beef rice recipe tonite and it turned out amazing (comment to follow on relevant recipe page). Anyway, this looks too good not to try out…I live in Cyprus and not sure how easy it will be to find panko breadcrumbs…I’m sure a specialist Asian food store should have them..however, can you use regular breadcrumbs? Also what do you need to do to freeze these bad boys? Thanks Nagi!!
Charlene says
!!! I had given up on breaded chicken until I came across your method! My hands would be covered in goop and nothing would stick to the meat. Thank you thank you! My super pickey toddler had 6 strips. I let the chicken marinate in the batter overnight and it was so juicy and the outside was nice and crispy. Loved!
Nagi says
Winner winner chicken dinner! I’m so glad they were a hit!!
Valleycat1 says
Made this last night. We like that there were s a lot less flour and batter than the usual process, which also helps the messiness factor in prep, It didn’t seem to make very much batter but was plenty for almost 1.5# of tenders when tossed. Good to know the battered chicken can be done ahead.
Nagi says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it – and yes, less mess = winning!!! N x