Not only is this recipe for chicken tenders going to be a hit with your family, but it’s also so easy to make that you’ll want to prepare it for dinner time and time again!
After coating the tenders in bread crumbs, bacon and cheese, you can bake them in the oven until they become nice and crispy, so they make for a healthier alternative to fried chicken tenders. Plus, they’ll pair well with anything! Get ready to serve these up with salads, noodles, veggies and more.
The recipe from Pillsbury details how truly simple it is to create this meal. All you need is uncooked, non-breaded chicken tenders, plain panko bread crumbs, cheddar cheese, a jar of cooked real bacon bits or pieces and one egg.
Combine the bread crumbs, cheddar cheese and bacon in a plastic bag. Beat the egg and dredge the chicken through the egg before adding the chicken to the bag. Seal the bag and shake the ingredients to coat the chicken.
Then, place on a well-greased baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees, rotating the chicken once, until the chicken cooks through and the bread crumb crust layer becomes nice and crispy.
And just like that — dinner is served!
You can get a more in-depth look at the process in this instructional YouTube video from Pillsbury:
If you’d like to add even more flavor to your chicken tenders, you can also try this recipe for ranch chicken tenders from A Latte Food. It suggests marinating chicken tenders in a mixture of ranch dressing and milk before dredging it in a breading mixture:
It only takes a little over an hour to whip up these ranch chicken tenders. You’ll need about 20 minutes of prep time and another half an hour for the chicken to marinate. Once the chicken has been properly marinated, it will only need to bake for about 20 minutes — 10 minutes on each side.
And check out how delicious the end results look:
You could easily follow this recipe instead. Or, you could incorporate the marinating step into the Pillsbury recipe before coating the chicken in the bread crumb combination. Yum!
Skip the drive-thru and try your hand at making Chick-fil-A-level chicken tenders at home by marinating chicken in dill pickle juice before coating and baking.
This recipe from Skinny Taste lets you dine in yet still get a hint of that fast food flavor your family loves:
One bite and your family will be convinced! Once you’ve got them on board with eating baked chicken tenders for dinner, you can mix it up even more.
For example, this recipe for chili lime chicken tenders with avocado ranch dressing from Healthy Little Peach will taste great, come Taco Tuesday!
You can make these in the air fryer, or follow the instructions to bake them in the oven:
So, chicken tenders for dinner tonight? With recipes this simple and tasty, why not?