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!)
Hi there! I forgot flour! Can I still make this recipe with everything else but the flour!? Please and thank you!
I honestly haven’t tried without the flour Jenna!
I was so excited in replying at how good this was that I forgot the stars…lol.
Thanks so much!
Nagi,
I made these right after finding the recipe because I had a big pack of boneless chicken breasts to cook or freeze. I made tenders (and a couple filets) with this recipe and IT IS BOMB!!!!! OMG! This is a KEEPER. I am going to have to hide what I made from my husband so he doesn’t eat it all…I want it to last at least three to four days. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it Linda!
I made your crispy oven baked chicken tenders tonight and they were wonderful. Thank you for sharing. Now I need to check out some of your other recipes.
Thanks so much for the feedback Nancy, I hope you love some more of my recipes!
I made these for dinner tonight, and they were really good!! They came out nice and crispy, but not too crispy! I thought we had mayonnaise but we didn’t, so I left that out, but it didn’t affect it at all I don’t think. I added minced garlic, onion powder, and paprika to the mix.. but somehow they still came out really bland. So we had them with Honey Dill sauce and suuuuuper good. Thanks for posting!
Hi Courtney, yes I do love to dip mine in honey mustard sauce!
Amazing dish! This definitely won the heart of my husband and even my toddler! I will be making them this way from now on for sure!
This was delicious! I didn’t have any regular or dijon mustard, so I used honey mustard in the batter instead. Very crispy and not dry in the slightest. Plus, I will never bread chicken any other way! I hate getting anything on my hands, so breading chicken previously resulted in me washing my hands every pi8ece or two to get the build up off, This was bliss! Thank you for this recipe and the wonderful technique!
These are hands down the best chicken tenders I have ever had.! Better than any restaurant! So crispy and moist and flavorful! Thank you!
Plan to make this when our friends are over. We forgot to pick up spray oil, is there an alternative way? Or can we skip the oil? x
I made this tonight but with regular breadcrumbs. Batter was tasty and the perfect consistency for the chicken. The only problem I had was it was still very undone. I had to raise the temp to 450 and add 12 minutes (on top of the first 20). I will tweak around and see if I can elevate the pan to get more air flow. And I will pick up some Panko!
Hi Mimi, were you using large tenders? I can only assume they were larger and that’s why they took longer to cook – N x
Mmmmmmm
Awesome recipe ! Thank you
I’m so happy you love it!
Perfect recipe every time no matter what you change e.g. I use egg substitute, add garlic and/or onion powder to panko, use Just Mayo (made with bean sprouts ha ha) add Mrs Dash or Parmesan or sriracha to the Mayo and flour etc — crunchy and delicious with flattened or non flattened chicken breasts or pork chops.
Great to hear Christina!
I love the dijon taste and it turned out so crispy!
Awesome Andrea!
Wanted to make this tonight but don’t have Panko crumbs… can you make this with regular seasoned breadcrumbs?
Hi Celeste, you sure can ☺️
I did… they were delicious! Next time I’ll make them using Panko just to compare
The title of this recipe is so accurate. Super crispy and easy to make. The seasoning amounts and cooking times are also spot on. Thank you!!!
Thanks so much!
This sounds a great recipe and the crumbing method is brilliant. Nagi, is the oven temperature for conventional or fan oven?
Hi Esther – all oven types. – N x
Very good recipe & technique. I’ve got a suggestion that can make this foolproof, which is to brine the chicken pieces for an hour before breading them. That will ensure that they stay moist regardless of the bake time…all that will count is concentrating of the amount of toast one wants on the breaded chicken. If brining, the pieces should be patted dry after removing from the brine solution & before apply the coating.
Hi Olen, you can brine if you prefer but I find there’s just no need with this recipe ☺️
My kids kept asking for more!! I added parmesaean cheese to the Panko & omitted the Dijon per our preference but everything else was the same and these came out AMAZINGLY!!! I never thought to toast the panko and now I can’t wait to share that tip with others. The chicken remained crispy and juicy, not soggy or dry. It was so easy to follow and my hangs stayed clean !! Thank you
Is there a way to make these with less sodium??
Hi Pelin, you can always reduce the salt – N x