Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders

Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders are great for game day!

You may have found your way here because you’re searching for good recipes to serve when you have people over to watch certain sporting events.  These Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders will be a perfect choice.  We’re not exactly football fans, to be honest.  But, we do love the yummy stuff people eat while they’re watching it.

That’s where these Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders come in.

You can make these ahead of time

Except for popping them in the oven, you can do most of the prep a few hours ahead. You’ll have less to do when your company arrives, so you can enjoy the fun. And making them ahead helps the breading to stick better.  Waiting a while to cook them ensures more flavor as well. So, making them at least a little while ahead makes sense.

Step by Step – here is what you do:

To get started, trim any excess fat from the chicken breasts.  This is a flexible recipe, so see the recipe card for amounts. Place each breast in a heavy-duty gallon ziplock bag, and use a rolling pin or flat-sided mallet to gently pound each breast to a pretty even thickness.  Be careful – if you pound too firmly, you will get holes and ragged edges.  Do them one at a time, and then place each breast on a cutting board.  Cut in roughly equal-sized pieces – 6 to 8 is about what you will get.

Marinate for awhile

I used buttermilk because it helps tenderize the meat.  You can use thinned down plain yogurt or just regular milk, if that is what you have.  If you buy buttermilk just for this recipe though, check out Buttermilk Cornbread to use up some more of it.

Place the buttermilk in a flat dish, like a pie plate, mix in the spices, and turn the chicken pieces in it to evenly coat them.  You can pop that in the fridge and marinate up to a day if you like.  An hour at least is a good idea, but even 10 minutes will work.  The more time, the more tenderness and the deeper the flavor.

Mix the breading ingredients

The key to these Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders is the breading mixture. Using another flat dish [this is one reason I have multiple pie plates], combine the ingredients for the breading mixture.  The details are in the recipe card, below.  You want everything to be very well combined – a fork works better than a spoon for this I think.

Breading chicken is not hard

Once the tenders have been marinating, it’s time to bread them. I advise you to not use your fingers for this – using a couple of forks is much neater.  The end result is more even, and you don’t end up with such a mess on your fingers.  These pieces are small enough that turning them with a fork is easy.  I do keep a spoon handy to scoop the breading on the top side, especially as you get to the point where you have less breading to work with.

Oven Fried is healthier

Now, I love deep fried foods as much as anybody, but oven frying uses far less oil.  The tenders absorb less oil this way, and that means fewer calories.  I do have a deep fryer, but getting it out, and filling it with oil [expensive!] is not something I do very often.  This is so much easier, and the tenders are very crispy, which is the point, right?  A very important step is to use avocado oil – specifically an Avocado Oil Spray, on each piece of chicken, right before they go in the oven.

Avocado oil is best for this recipe

I used to drizzle olive oil over this chicken before popping it in the oven, but I switched. Avocado oil has a higher smoke point than olive oil.  And using the spray oil ensures and even layer of oil without getting too much one there. Obviously, from that last photo, I managed to run out of the spray part way through the recipe, and I had to just drizzle oil on rather than spraying it on. Don’t be like me 🙁  – make sure you have enough at the start!

This is how to make these tenders

We like these Oven Fried Chipotle Chicken Tenders with some Guacamole, sour cream or salsa.  You might also enjoy this Spicy Avocado Dip with them!