These gluten free chicken tenders, with the crispiest crust and the juiciest chicken, are breaded the easy, no-mess way. One bite, and this delicious, crowd-pleasing, and healthy dinner will be on repeat every week!
Dinner in 20 minutes flat!
You can even prep this recipe to make it even simpler at dinnertime. Try slicing the chicken strips and making the batter in the morning, before your day begins.
Then, toss all the chicken pieces in the batter and cover the bowl. Place the battered but unbreaded chicken pieces in the refrigerator.
Then, when it's nearly dinnertime, preheat your oven, bread the prepared chicken strips and place them on the baking sheet. Spray with cooking oil and bake. Voila! Gluten free dinner is served.
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The crispiest gluten free chicken tenders: tips, tricks, and troubleshooting
I have never made a bad batch of gluten free chicken fingers using this method and recipe. It would be easy to say, “just follow this recipe,” and you'll never go wrong.
Although I believe that's true, there are still a few tricks that can help guide you to success the very first time you make this recipe.
Make sure your oven is hot enough to make crispy chicken tenders
A hot oven is key to baking the crispiest coated chicken. Ovens tend to drift out of accurate calibration easily.
I always use a free-standing analog oven thermometer as my temperature guide. And I replace it at least every 6 months.
If your chicken is really cold when you put it in the oven, the oven temperature will drop. Since you're handling the chicken quite a bit before it's ready for the oven, the chicken shouldn't be very cold.
If you've prepared and refrigerated the strips, let them warm to closer to room temperature before you bake them.
Let your chicken strips sit in the batter before cooking it
This simple recipe takes about 40 minutes from start to finish. But there's still a built-in make-ahead option, if you batter the chicken and let it sit in the refrigerator.
That method helps ensure that your chicken will bake to an extra crispy texture, too. The batter tenderizes the raw chicken pieces, and also helps protect them from the direct heat of the oven.
So try letting the coated chicken pieces sit for even just 10 minutes before breading them. If you don't have the time, don't worry. I think of it as crispy “insurance”!
Can I make these gluten free chicken tenders in the air fryer?
Yes! In fact, I've made gluten free chicken nuggets in the air fryer. You can use that same method to make these tenders crispy in the air fryer.
Remember that an air fryer is really just a small, powerful convection oven. With the easy batter-and-breadcrumb method described in this recipe, in a hot enough oven, these chicken tenders can more easily be made in the oven—or even the toaster oven!
Plus, even if you have a very large air fryer, you won't be able to fit all the pieces of chicken in there at once. So you'll have to make multiple batches.
Can I make chicken tenders with different flavored spices?
Yes! I like to make the simplest vegetable bouillon powder for this recipe, since I use it to make gluten free “Rice a Roni” all the time.
But I also sometimes substitute the bouillon with our gluten free taco seasoning with great results. Serve it with sriracha mixed with mayonnaise or sour cream, but only if you want rave reviews!
Since the batter is so thick, it really clings to the chicken. So all of those spices make it into the chicken you're eating.
The vegetable bouillon powder just adds a rich, chicken-style flavor to the strips—even though it's vegetarian.
Be sure not to just leave out the herbs and spices, then. You'll want that flavor!
How to make gluten free egg free chicken tenders
This gluten free chicken recipe is already also naturally dairy-free, so there's no need to discuss ingredient substitutions if you can't have dairy.
Mayonnaise is dairy free, but it's made from eggs and oil. There's also a separate whole egg in the batter.
So to make this recipe egg-free, we have to replace both the mayonnaise, and the egg. To replace them, begin with what each ingredient does to make these the best gluten free chicken strips ever.
How to replace the mayonnaise
The mayonnaise really helps seal in the moisture in the chicken, so that it bakes up crispy but still juicy every time. In its place, you can try a vegan mayonnaise. There are some really good ones, including Follow Your Heart brand “Vegenaise”.
How to replace the whole egg
The egg white helps the batter stick to the chicken, and the bread crumbs stick to the batter. It also helps the chicken get crispy in the oven.
The egg yolk makes the batter richer. It also helps thicken the batter, which helps hold everything together.
In place of the whole egg, try a “chia egg.” That's made by combining 1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds and 1 tablespoon lukewarm water in a small bowl, and allowing it to sit until it gels.
How to make gluten free chicken tenders
Easy Gluten Free Chicken Tenders (Crispy, Juicy, Healthy!)
Ingredients
For the easy vegetable bouillon powder
- 4 ½ teaspoons (8 g) nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried onion flakes can substitute 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
For the chicken
- 1 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 egg any size
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup (36 g) superfine white rice flour or gum-free gluten free flour blend
- 2 to 3 cups Panko-style gluten free bread crumbs homemade or store-bought
- Cooking oil spray
Instructions
- Make the bouillon powder. In a small bowl, place all of the ingredients and whisk to combine well. Set the bowl aside.
- Trim the chicken breasts of any fat or gristle. Cut it into strips about 4” long x 3/4” wide x 1/4” thick. Set the chicken aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, place the mayonnaise, egg, salt, pepper, and bouillon powder blend. Whisk until very well-combined.
- Add the rice flour and whisk until very well-combined again. The batter will be thick.
- Using the tines of a fork, add all of the prepared chicken strips to the batter. Toss to coat all sides of each piece of chicken in the batter.
- At this point, the battered raw chicken can be covered and refrigerated for up to 8 hours.
- When you’re ready to bread and bake the chicken tenders, preheat your oven to 375°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
- Place 2 cups of gluten free bread crumbs in a medium-size bowl. Again using a fork, add about 1/3 of the battered chicken strips to the bowl at a time.
- Toss to coat all sides of each piece of chicken fully in the bread crumbs. Press the chicken pieces gently to help the crumbs adhere to the batter, and add more bread crumbs as necessary to coat all the chicken.
- Lift each piece of breaded raw chicken out of the bowl, one at a time, and place flat on the prepared baking sheet. The chicken pieces can be right next to one another, as long as they don’t overlap.
- Spray the tops of the chicken strips liberally with cooking oil spray.
- Place the baking sheet in the center of the preheated oven. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until the chicken strips are golden brown all over.
- Test the thickest pieces of chicken with an instant read thermometer. They should read at least 165°F (but will likely be closer to 185°F).
- Serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce.
Nutrition
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Donna says
Hi Nicole, The recipe was good but I skipped the bouillon powder didn’t understand that. It didn’t come out crispy so I broiled it about 4 minutes 2 on each side instead of reheating on regular temp. The recipe I made was one half.
Nicole Hunn says
The first 7 ingredients, listed under the heading “For the easy vegetable bouillon powder” in the recipe card, are spelled out for you. Skipping the bouillon powder means that there is no seasoning or real flavor in the recipe, Donna. I wouldn’t recommend that.
Donald says
Great recipe, thank you! We used herbox bouillon as a small shortcut and it was fine. One note, you replace your oven thermometer every six months? If that is a suggestion it’s not very good to suggest that 1) it’s assuming the cheapest temp gauges are used, 2) it’s a gigantic waste and supports a disposable economy, 3) it assumes people are ignorant of cooking by sight and knowledge of their own existing tools. If this is a CYA so people don’t get poisoned by uncooked meat just put a disclaimer at the top versus telling people to die with a casket full of thermometers. “I supported cheap goods and labor, but my chicken was never raw.” Great tombstone statement to be remembered by.
Nicole Hunn says
I’m glad you liked the recipe, Donald. I’m going to stick with only responding to that instead of the comment about my tombstone.