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Baked Chicken Tenders Recipe

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Make room on your monthly meal rotation for these baked chicken tenders ASAP! Just 6 ingredients and 30 minutes from start to finish - these chicken tenders are quick and easy to throw together and your family will love the familiar flavors of Cheez-Its and pretzels! 

Ingredients

Units Scale

Chicken Tenders:

Sauce:

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Add Cheez-Its, pretzels, garlic powder, paprika and a large pinch of Kosher salt and pepper to a food processor.
  3. Pulse until everything is well minced a coarse texture crumb forms. Transfer the mixture to a shallow dish.
  4. Crack eggs into another shallow dish and whisk together.
  5. Working with one tender at a time, dunk the chicken into the egg mixture, rolling it around until it's coated. Allow excess egg to drip off.
  6. Then place it into the breading mixture and roll it around until coated. Gently press the breading mixture into the tender to make it stick.
  7. Place breaded chicken tender onto a cooling rack on top of a parchment lined baking sheet at least an inch apart.
  8. Continue with remaining chicken tenders until they are all coated in the breading mixture.
  9. Spray the top side of the tenders with olive oil spray.
  10. Bake for 12 minutes.
  11. Gently flip chicken tenders over and spray that side of each tender with olive oil spray.
  12. Bake for another 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
  13. For an extra crispy crust, broil chicken tenders for 1-2 minutes. Watch them carefully so they don't burn!
  14. While the chicken is baking, combine sauce ingredients.
  15. Serve warm chicken tenders with honey mustard sauce and enjoy!

Equipment

Notes

You can use all pretzels or all Cheez-Its if you don't happen to have both on hand. The combo of both is great because the pretzels have a great crunch and the Cheez-Its add the perfect hint of cheddar. But if you only have one or the other, no worries - the recipe will still turn out delish!

Keep one "wet hand" and one "dry hand" during the breading process. Use your left hand to dunk the tenders in the egg mixture, then use that same hand to drop them into the breading mixture. Then use your right hand to toss the chicken in the breading. This will ensure that you don't end up with clumpy, gummy hands by the end.

Don't skip the step of putting the tenders on a cooling rack on a baking sheet. This is going to ensure that the tenders cook evenly and that the breading doesn't get mushy anywhere.

Don't forget to spray/brush the tenders with olive oil before baking! This step is vital in getting that perfectly crispy, crunchy crust on each tender. Also, flipping the tenders and spraying the other side is going to ensure that both sides end up with a crispy crust.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://midwestfoodieblog.com/baked-chicken-tenders-recipe/