Baked Chicken Tenders
I love chicken fingers, I could eat them every day and probably never get sick of them. These Baked Chicken Tenders are a lifesaver because they’re much healthier than their fried counterparts and I love the seasoned cornflake crumbs and the little hint of heat. These are super easy to make for a weeknight meal and a serving is just 229 calories or 2 WW Points! To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
You can serve these Baked Chicken Tenders with any of your favorite dipping sauces, but they’d also be great in a wrap or chopped up on a salad. Get creative! You can easily find the pre-cut chicken breast tenderloins in most grocery stores, but I almost always buy a big pack of full size chicken breasts and cut them up myself. This is mostly because it’s cheaper and my husband sometimes gives me the side eye if I spring for the pre-cut tenders. No judgement here either way!
If you’d prefer an air fryer version of these chicken tenders, I have that too! Click here to view the air fryer directions.
If you love chicken like I do, check out my Pimento Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Cream Cheese Stuffed Everything Chicken, Antipasto Chicken Roulades, Cheddar Ranch Chicken Tenders, Cheesy Bacon BBQ Chicken, Pesto Chicken Roulades, Lemon Pepper Iced Tea Chicken, Cheesy Chicken and Stuffing, Pizza Chicken Roulades, Thai Chicken Skewers, Chicken Piccata, Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken and many, many more in the chicken section of my recipe index!
Baked Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons flour
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 1.25 lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breast tenderloins, you can also buy breasts and cut them into strips
- 2 egg whites, beaten
- ½ cup cornflake crumbs, these are sold by the other bread crumbs in my stores, no need to crush your own!
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a small dish, mix together the flour and paprika. Place the chicken strips into a gallon Ziploc bag and add the flour/paprika mixture. Seal the bag and shake to coat the chicken.
- In a shallow dish, beat the egg whites and set aside. In a separate shallow dish, stir together the cornflake crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, cayenne, onion powder and garlic powder.
- One at a time, take the flour-coated chicken strips and coat them in the egg whites and then press them into the dish of corn flake crumbs and flip so that both sides are coated in crumbs. Transfer the crumb-coated strips to the prepared baking sheet.
- When all the chicken tenders are coated and on the baking sheet, spray the tops of them with cooking spray and place in the oven to bake for 18-20 minutes until cooked through.
Notes
6 per serving* (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information below) *Since people may cut/buy different sized chicken tenders, I recommend determining the servings by weight. My finished tenders weighed a little over 21 ounces, so each serving was about 5.25 ounces by weight. For me this was around 3 tenders.
These like so good. I think I will try these and use a GF flour for some family members.
I hope they’re a hit, Charlotte!
This is going into my diner plan this week, looks delicious and I love chicken fingers too!
I hope you love them!
Emily,
I cannot wait to try these along with many other recipes of yours! I absolutely love all of your recipes as does my family! Keep em coming lady! 🙂
Veronica
I hope you love them, Veronica!
I made these Saturday night and I loved them! Flavorful and crunchy!
My husband made these – they are SO GOOD! I have a Weight Watcher friendly waffle recipe so we are going to have a chicken & waffle night next week.
Thank you for all the recipes you create. They are a life saver!
That sounds amazing! I may need to copy that idea!
New to weight watchers, so when I found your website, I was excited. Trying this recipe tonight. They are cooking in the oven right now.
Hi Emily, I’m wondering about dipping the chicken in buttermilk (FF) instead of egg. I’ve seen them done that way quite a bit. Any thoughts on the difference?
Thanks,
Debbie
Made them. Love, love, love them and so easy too. Very moist chicken. They heat up well as leftovers. Thanks for a great recipe
These are now on the constant rotation. I double the recipe and the teens still eat it all. I add a little honey/mustard/mayo mix to top it off and it’s perfect. Thank you!!!
I loved this recipe. It is one of the few baked chicken recipes that I have tried that was truly crispy. The chicken was moist and taste was amazing.
I tried these and they were very good. I was wondering could I make a lot of these, put part of them in the freezer, already cooked ?
Hi Phyllis, I don’t freeze anything so I consider myself wholly unqualified to answer questions regarding how to best freeze specific foods and recipes. I’m sorry! If you try it out please report back!
These were really good but a bit too spicy for my kids. Oops! I’ll leave out the cayenne next time.
The absolute best chicken tender recipe we have found on the Internet. Nice kick too!
I’m so glad you love it!
What did you use as a dip?
I think it’s blue cheese dressing in the photo, but it depends on my mood!
I tried these tonight. They were very good. I will be making this again.
I’m so glad!
I know this recipe was made before Freestyle came out – is there a specific reason to use just egg whites vs. the entire egg? (They’re both 0 SP now, so wanted to check if there was another reason).
I have always used egg whites for dredging but you can certainly try using the whole egg if you prefer!
Can you tell me what sides you serve with this? I’d like to make for my grandkids and up in the air about sides. Hmmmm….I’ll have to search your site for a Mac & Cheese. That would go great!
I couldn’t find the pre-made corn flake crumbs I made my own but don’t think I crushed them enough as I ran out of the crumb mixture with 4 Tenders left. I haven’t cooked them yet- but they sure look like they’ll be super crunchy and delicious!
Made these tonight and they were great! Thanks for a great recipe. 🙂
Do you have the recipe and points for the dipping sauce?
These turned out FANTASTIC! Even my extremely picky 13yr old loved them. They are better than the leading brand imo… Guilty pleasure without the guilt! We will definitely be having these often!
I have CHF and need to watch my salt.Please put sodium mg. on your recipes.Thank you.
These were just delicious! We all loved them and plan to make again and again. Sign of good chicken: MOIST!!! I’ll cut the cayenne by half and add a bit more salt but that’s just me. And the POINTS! Only TWO! For so much yum. Thanks for another winner, Emily.
Mine always turn out mushy. How do I get them crispy? I follow the instructions but they never come out right. Thanks!
Wondering on the cook time since it’s chicken I looked at mine at 20 min didn’t look like chicken was cooked enough left it in longer
These are my favorite thing on your website! Theyre so crispy it doesnt seem possible. I dip in G. Hughes sugar free honey mustard – only 10 cal/ for 2 tablespoons. Way better than any fast food tenders. I had to double the recipe the second go-round because my family insisted!
These are great! I just started using Air Fryer. These turned really good.