Recipes

Yummy Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

Jun 25, 2025 - 17:30

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Chicken tenders on a plate with sauce on the side.

Whoa. We Love These.

Everybody in my house is 5 stars for these air fryer chicken tenders. We just all genuinely love them.

Chicken tendies for dinner is really an awesome meal formula:

a platter of hot, crispy, perfectly breaded chicken tenders
everybody picks their favorite sauce
whatever random veggies are hanging out in the fridge (a fun salad, frozen mixed veg, or even just a plate of raw veggies, which we often do!)

Favorite sauces for your consideration: honey mustard, gochujang sauce (highly recommend), yum yum sauce, or just the standard storeboughts – ranch, ketchup, etc. My husband has been doing ranch mixed with hot sauce lately and he is onto something. It’s so good.

I’m not the type of person to get excited to do the whole dredge and dip routine, but I recently got these pans and they are GOLD for this. I have the large size. Plus, I use them to store the breaded chicken before baking, or the leftover chicken, if we have any. They’re just a NICE quality product. They make me feel like I have my life together.

And speaking of leftovers, I have really enjoyed these 1-2 days after the fact with a quick reheat in the air fryer. Crisped and golden all over again.

Hope you love these (I mean, it’s hard not to). 🙂

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Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

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Author: Lindsay
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: 6 servings (2-3 tenders per person)

Description

These chicken tenders made in the air fryer are a favorite in our house! Golden, hot, and crispy with your favorite sauce on the side!

Ingredients

Units

1.5 – 2 lbs. chicken tenderloins (about 12-16 pieces)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
one 1–ounce packet ranch seasoning (optional, see notes)
1 egg
1–2 teaspoons hot sauce (optional)
3/4 cup milk + 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
2 1/2 cups plain breadcrumbs
2 1/2 tablespoons seasoning mix (I use the McCormick rotisserie chicken seasoning)
avocado oil spray

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Instructions

Prep your dipping stations! 1: Combine the flour, salt, and ranch seasoning. 2: Let the milk and vinegar sit together for 5 minutes (you’re making a “buttermilk”). Add it to the eggs and hot sauce; whisk to combine. 3: Stir the breadcrumbs with the seasoning mix.
Flatten Chicken Tenderloins. Smash each of the chicken tenderloins a few times on a cutting board using the flat side of a knife (see video). You want them to be slightly flattened or fanned out.
Batter Up! Dip each chicken tenderloin in flour; shake off excess. Dip in the buttermilk mixture; let excess drip off. Then coat in the breadcrumbs, flipping and gently pressing a few times until the whole surface is covered. Set aside and repeat with all the chicken tenderloins.
Place in Air Fryer. Place as many as you can fit into the air fryer, keeping them in one flat layer (mine can usually get 6 in at a time). Spray generously with avocado oil spray until the surface is lightly and evenly moistened with oil – this helps them get that evenly golden brown, fried look.
Cook and Serve: Air fry at 400 degrees for 7-9 minutes. You want them to be golden brown on the outside, and 165-175 degrees on the inside. Serve with your favorite sauce! SO yummy!

Equipment

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Notes

Seasonings: If you don’t have the seasoning mixes or don’t want to use them, just add 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and a bit of freshly ground pepper into each of the flour and breadcrumb mixtures and it’ll taste great. But I LOVE max flavor, and I feel like using both the ranch seasoning and the rotisserie chicken seasoning was such a good flavor move, so that’s my preferred way to do it!

Hot Sauce: This is optional; it’s just there for flavor and a bit of zing, but it won’t taste spicy! Promise. My kids wouldn’t let me publish this if the chicken tenders were spicy. 😉

Breadcrumbs: I have used all types of breadcrumbs, but I really like Trader Joe’s breadcrumbs best! They are a bit chunkier than standard plain breadcrumbs, but still finer than panko. In the photos here I was actually using half Trader Joe’s and half Progresso plain breadcrumbs because I ran out of my TJ’s ones – the mixed texture worked great!

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Category: Dinner
Method: Air Fryer
Cuisine: American