Thursday, February 6, 2014

Baked Chicken Tenders

My whole family loves chicken tenders.  I am frequently experimenting with my recipe, and last night was no exception.  


This time around, I added black pepper and used The Fresh Market Gluten Free Bread Crumbs, my new favorite.  The breading technique I use for my oven baked breaded zucchini rounds works so well, I decided to give it a try for my chicken tenders.  


Here's what the tops looked like when they came out of the oven. 


When flipped over, the chicken tenders are a beautiful golden brown.  

Baked Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs of chicken breast tenderloins 
1/3 to 1/2 C gluten free flour (I use Better Batter or Cup4Cup)
2 eggs - beaten
1/2 C gluten free bread crumbs
1/2 C grated Parmesan, Asiago, or Romano (I use a combination of all 3)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp coarse ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional) 
1 T of olive oil plus more for drizzling 

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and grease a baking sheet with about a tablespoon of olive oil.  

Place your flour and egg in separate bowls.  Add the bread crumbs, cheese, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder (optional) to a large freezer bag and shake to combine.  Dip the chicken tenders in flour, then egg, then add them to the bag.  When all the chicken tenders are in the bag, seal it, then shake and massage it until all the chicken is well coated.  

Place the chicken tenders on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 13 minutes, then turn oven to broil for the last two minutes, for a total baking time of 15 minutes.  Sprinkle with additional salt, if needed. 

Optional - drizzle about 1/4 tsp of olive oil on the top of each chicken tender before putting them in the oven, or brush them with olive oil before turning the oven to broil.   

Serves 4

Recipe Notes

In the past, I have used Southern Homestyle Corn Flake Crumbs, as seen in the picture below.  The chicken tenders will be a little bit crispier, but I prefer the taste of the ones I made with The Fresh Market Bread Crumbs.  I had just enough bread crumb mixture in my bag for 1.66 pounds of chicken.  A couple of my chicken tenders had small breading bald spots.  I used all the leftover breading in the bag to patch them up before baking. 


We love oven baked chicken tenders, but you can kick this recipe up a notch by cooking your chicken tenders in a frying pan.  Add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan well, preheat it on medium high heat, then cook your chicken tenders until golden brown on both sides.  Add more oil if needed between batches.  We like how crispy the chicken tenders turn out this way, but it's more labor intensive and makes a huge mess of our stove.  My family loves them both ways, so I usually spare my husband a big clean up and cook them in the oven.  

June 15, 2017 Update


Tonight, I made my chicken tenders with Jeff Nathan Creations Gluten Free Panko Flakes, and they turned out great.  I also used a combination of olive oil and organic canola oil on my baking sheet. I have recently started adding some garlic powder to the breadcrumb mix, which we really enjoy. 





2 comments:

  1. Made this tonight! Used all same ingredients except for my gf flour was cup4cup! It was excellent!

    ReplyDelete