One of my favorite dinners is our Baked Honey Chicken Tenders – even my picky-eater will eat them.
I decided to take a new spin on that recipe and the results were awesome.
The sweetness from the chili sauce and the savory from soy sauce makes an awesome combo and baking them in the oven makes the glaze a little more caramelized.
It has a little Asian twist on it, which is our family’s favorite.
We like to serve them with fried rice, or white rice (or for a healthier alternative, you could serve them with quinoa and brown rice).
It’s a quick and easy dinner that looks like you worked on this culinary masterpiece all day.
Ingredients needed for Baked Chili Lime Chicken Tenders:
- 2 pounds boneless chicken tenders
- ½ cup chili sauce
- 2 Tablespoons orange marmalade
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 green onions sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
How to get the perfect crispiness on your Chili Lime Chicken Tenders:
Your recipe should not have a lot of excess juices. That is the key to making crisp chicken, with a tender inside.
We recommend the best way to do this is to carefully follow these steps to ensure you don’t have excess juice in the pan.
- Pat your chicken tenders dry: A lot of the time, people won’t prepare ahead of time, and have to defrost their chicken in the microwave. This can easily lead to excess chicken juices.
The juices will be in the pan, and cook out even more if you have to do this thawing method. Or they will put them in the pan with a few ice crystals left on them. This well definitely lead to extra, unwanted liquid in the pan, keeping your chicken from getting that crispy outside.
The best way to solve this problem is prepare ahead of time, and let the chicken tenders thaw in the fridge. You will also want to pat your chicken tenders dry. I usually use a paper towel to do this.
- Flipping your chicken: If you aren’t flipping your chicken, your tenders will only get crispy on one side, and be a little soggy on the other.
It’s key to flip your chicken part way through cooking.
- Broiling will always add the perfect crispness. Sometimes we like our exterior of our chicken to be a little extra crisp. To do this, we put it under the broiler for 1-2 minutes.
You’ll want to be sure you carefully watch it, to ensure you don’t burn it, but a little broil to both sides of the chicken tender is perfect, with or without the sauce on it (I do it with the sauce on it).
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Looking for more chicken dishes? here are a few of our favorites:
- Slow Cooker Italian Chicken
- Cashew Chicken and Vegetables
- Chicken Enchilada Pasta
- Copycat PF Changs Chicken Lettuce Wraps
- Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie
Baked Chili Lime Chicken Tenders Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless chicken tenders
- ½ cup chili sauce
- 2 Tablespoon orange marmalade
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 Tablespoon lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 4 green onions, sliced
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Arrange chicken tenders in single layer in pan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together chili sauce, orange marmalade, soy sauce, lime juice, dried onion, garlic, and salt and pepper. Pour mixture over chicken.
- Cover pan with plastic wrap and let marinate in fridge for about an hour (I let mine marinate for about 3 hours), turning chicken once, about half way through marinating time.
- Remove chicken from fridge, discard plastic wrap, and bake chicken for about 30 minutes.
- Remove chicken from oven, turn chicken pieces over and return to oven and bake for 10-15 more minutes (or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear).
- Garnish with sliced green onions and sesame seeds.
Notes
- Pat your chicken tenders dry: A lot of the time, people won’t prepare ahead of time, and have to defrost their chicken in the microwave. This can easily lead to excess chicken juices.
- Flipping your chicken: If you aren’t flipping your chicken, your tenders will only get crispy on one side, and be a little soggy on the other.
- Broiling will always add the perfect crispness. Sometimes we like our exterior of our chicken to be a little extra crisp. To do this, we put it under the broiler for 1-2 minutes.
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
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Yum – thank you.
Anyone happen to know what the Weight Watcher points would be?
Thank you!!!
Made these tonight!!! Unbelievable!! I made jasmine rice and mixed stirfry veggies in oyster sauce for the side dishes and they were perfection!! Xxx
I followed the recipe to a T and the sauce ended up really watery and the chicken was pretty dry. I usually cook chicken at 350. I thought it would be more like a baked saucy orange chicken and it wasn’t. Any suggestions?
I made this tonight and mine was watery as well, although it tasted great. I am also looking for advice..??
Found this recipe and wonder if it could work in the new Crispitlid attachmen to Instant Pot
Here is a post we did on converting recipes to the Instant Pot. Hope this helps. https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/how-to-convert-recipes-into-instant-pot-recipes/
Do you toss the marinade before cooking or do you pour it over the chicken in the 9×12 dish?
Scroll down to the recipe in the square. It will give you all of the ingredients and directions. Look at #3 and it will give you all the info.
What kind of Chili Sauce? Is that different from Sweet Chili Sauce?
We use regular chili sauce. Heinz or Kroger are two of our favorites.
Same, please help, author!
I think I’ll try to make then in a 9×13 next time. My baking sheet burned some of the sauce