This is a fast and easy recipe to make in bulk for either a party or to freeze and use as a base for a simple dinner on busy nights. If I use this recipe for dinners, it makes enough for 3 meals for my family of 5.
The flavor of the honey mustard marinade comes through the pretzel crust, so they can be served without a dip, but I’ve included my simple honey mustard dipping sauce below the chicken tenders recipe. Even though I cheat and use pretzels, it is still pretty healthy since these chicken tenders are baked instead of fried.
Time Saving Tips:
I buy chicken in bulk when it is on sale and freeze it. When I make chicken tenders I partially thaw the chicken and then use kitchen scissors to cut the chicken into strips. Cutting strips with scissors speeds up the process.
You can add the marinade to the chicken strips the night before and let it marinate overnight in the fridge. You can also crush the pretzels the night before, so everything is prepped on ahead on a busy night. Then all you have to do is dredge the tenders through the crushed pretzels and bake.
If you freeze the tenders you can reheat 4 -6 tenders in the microwave for a minute. For a crisper crust, reheat the frozen tenders in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
I place a few tenders in the pretzel crumbs and then spoon crumbs over the top to ensure they are completely coated.
- 2 lbs. bl/sl chicken breasts
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I use gf mustard)
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 8 oz. pretzels (I used Glutino Gluten Free Pretzels)
- Cut chicken breasts into strips.
- Mix honey, mustard, and orange juice together. cover chicken tenders with marinade and marinate in the refridgerator for at least 30 minutes.
- Crush pretzels in a food processor or blender. I crush 1 -2 cups at a time.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
- Place crushed pretzels in a large dish with a low lip. Place several tenders in the pretzels. Coat with pretzels and place on cookie sheet.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
Ingredients:
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons mustard
Directions:
In a small bowl, mix honey with Dijon mustard.
The Honey Mustard Sauce can be doubled or tripled if serving all of the tenders at one time.
What are your favorite homemade “fast foods”?
Wende says
These look so yummy and I can’t wait to try them. I shared your post on my blog this week.
http://therickettchronicles.blogspot.com/2012/02/56-must-try-tuesday-february-14-2012.html
Thanks for sharing!
Wende
The Rickett Chronicles
April @ The 21st Century Housewife says
This is such a great idea! Pretzels would give such a great flavour and texture too. I like that you can make them tenders ahead and freeze them too. Thank you for sharing this post with the Hearth and Soul hop!
mjskit says
What a great chicken tenders recipe! I love the dip in the crushed pretzels and then the dipping sauce is my favorite!
Kitchen Belleicious says
what a great idea to use pretzels as the crust!