Baked Honey Chicken Tenders is such an easy dinner recipe made baked in a homemade marinate to create the most juicy chicken tenders with soy sauce, honey, and a few simple seasonings.
Even though the marinade is simple to make, it will still give you the best flavor with only a few simple steps for an easy dinner to make on those busy weeknights.
Feed the whole family with this delicious chicken recipe and serve with your favorite vegetables and white or brown rice for a healthy family dinner recipe.
Recipe Ingredients:
Protein: get a package of boneless skinless chicken breast tenders from the meat section at the grocery store
Honey: use your favorite raw honey that you have on hand for making this chicken tender recipe
Sauce: to add another depth of flavor to this chicken recipe you will need to use soy sauce in the homemade marinade
Seasoning: combine ground ginger, minced garlic, and dried minced onions
Onions: use chopped green onion as the topping for this easy chicken recipe
Equipment Needed:
How To Make Baked Honey Chicken Tenders:
- Spray a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Place chicken tenders in a single layer in the prepared baking pan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and dried onions. 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 halfway through marinating time.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Remove chicken from fridge, discard plastic wrap, place baking tray in the oven, and bake chicken for about 20 minutes.
- Remove chicken from oven, turn chicken pieces over, top with sliced green onions, and return to oven and bake for 10 more minutes (or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear).
Frequently Asked Questions about Making Baked Chicken Tenders:
Instead of using chicken tenderloins or chicken strips, you can use boneless skinless chicken breasts, thighs, or drumsticks with this recipe! They will all turn out fantastic. Just be sure to adjust the cooking time accordingly.
If you love a little kick to your chicken recipes, when making the marinade for the raw chicken tenders, you can create a hot sauce or spicy sauce by using hot honey or spicy hot honey. Use whichever you can find at your local grocery store in place of the traditional honey for a little kick.You can also use a little chili powder, cayenne pepper, or red pepper flakes in the honey garlic chicken tenders marinade to create.
When making this hot honey chicken tenders recipe, you can swap out the soy sauce for coconut aminos for a similar taste.
For the best flavor, try to let the chicken marinate for 3 hours until the flavors develop or up to 24 hours.
Expert Tips:
- Be sure to let the chicken marinate for long enough to get the best and juicy chicken tenders.
- To turn these into crispy chicken tenders, you will need to bread the chicken with flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs before baking.
- Add a little brown sugar to the marinade if you want to add more flavor profiles to this dish.
Reheating & Storage Instructions:
Fridge: Store the leftover chicken in an airtight container, it will last in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
Reheat: To reheat the chicken, place it in an air fryer for 5 minutes at 350 degrees F.
What To Serve With This Recipe:
- Baked Chicken Parmesan Casserole Recipe
- Crispy Baked Chicken Wings
- Baked Hawaiian Chicken
- Baked Honey Lime Chicken Tenders
Baked Honey Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast tenders
- ⅓ cup honey
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons dried minced onions
- 4 green onions
Instructions
- 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, mix together honey, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and dried onions. 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.
- Preheat oven to 425℉.
- Remove chicken from fridge, discard plastic wrap, and bake chicken for about 20 minutes.
- Remove chicken from oven, turn chicken pieces over, top with sliced green onions, and return to oven and bake for 10 more minutes (or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear).
Notes
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.
I am so adding this to my menu next week!! Looks fabulous.
Is it a 1/4 cup of soy sauce as well? Is just says 1/4 soy sauce. Don’t want it too salty if you meant a different amount. Thanks! Looks delicious!
I’m guessing that it is 1/4 cup soy sauce.
This looks so good! I love using my slow cooker too!
Wow, Camille this looks so good! Pinning 🙂
Hi Cindy! So sorry about that- it’s a 1/4 cup. I fixed it in the recipe, so we should be good to go! 🙂
Yes! 🙂 So sorry about that! I edited the recipe above, so we should be good to go! 🙂
Thanks so much, cute Stephanie!! I hope that you are doing well!!! xoxo!
You are so sweet! Thank you so much!!! xoxo!
Thanks so much Jenn! I hope you enjoy!! 🙂
Hello, do you know what I can use as a sub to the soy sauce? The sodium content is very high in it. Thanks!
how about low sodium soy sauce or tamari?
do you cook the chicken in the marinade or drain it before cooking?
For baking the chicken, is the dish covered ?
Don’t drain off the marinade.
Leave the chicken uncovered while cooking.
Looks like a great recipe. Is 475 degrees the correct temp?
Do not cook the recommended time….it is too long…chicken dry!
It’s 425 degrees, not 475.
Making this for dinner tonight. It looks amazing
Do you just the green part of the onion or the white also?
Hey Camille, I was just wandering if you could marinate longer and if so how long? Thanks so much and I hope you and your family have a safe and happy Memorial Day. 🙂
This sounds like a great recipe, I think I’ll make it for Tuesday dinner. I’ll change the soy sauce to coconut aminos which is less salty than soy sauce and temari. Plus it doesn’t have wheat gluten like soy sauce does. There’s always one person in the party that can’t have gluten.
this looks so good. I’m about to stick it in the oven. Will let you know how it turn out.
OMG, thank you for this recpe. So good. My family loved it. No left overs, must donagain. ??
So tasty, made some brown rice on the side, yummy ?
You are fine to marinate this for longer! It will be so tasty!! 🙂
I agree the cooking time is way too long. I only cooked mine half the time and it tasted good but was dry.
At one time I had a recipe similar to this that used short ribs. It was really good!
Question – I followed the directions to the “T” and my marinade was burned. Anyone else have this issue? I’m getting ready to eat it, but it also looks dry. Wonder if we could cook it at maybe 350???
Rachael, a substitute for soy sauce would be something called liquid aminos or coconut aminos. Both of them are naturally occurring substances and contain far less sodium than soy sauce.
i’m making this for my boyfriend tonight! 🙂
Did you really get your chicken to look like the picture you posted? I sure didn’t! Turned out anemic looking with no glaze on it at all.
Hi Kimberly! That is really our picture of the Baked Honey Chicken Tenders. Not sure what could have gone wrong for you.
Hi! Is it 425 Celsius or Fahrenheit?
Fahrenheit
Mine did not turn out “sticky” lookingkind of dry? Help…lol
Are you using the raw unbreaded tenders or the breaded tenders?
Use the raw unbreaded tenders!
Could you serve this as an appetizer? If so, would you fingers or toothpicks? Thanks for your reply.
Either will work fine!!
I use low sodium in this, but I use the tamari in the veggie stir fry I make with it. Making it for the 2nd time tonight. To spice up a little I’m using a hot pepper honey from When Pigs Fly. We use on pizza when we make it.
Sorry, didn’t turn out good at all! Cooking time is too long. Chicken was dry and didn’t have much flavor. Not trying to be rude. Just want to give some feedback to a recipe that needs tweeking.
This is in the oven as we speak, but have to tell you I read the first part about how you were scrambling for dinner idea and found this, didn’t look thru the recipe to see that it should be marinated for hours. Makes it not such a late minute dinner
Mine turned out really dry, and not glazed like the picture. Th juices and marinade just made it cook in the watery juice and I only cooked for 20 minutes @425. If I would have cooked for 30 min and then another 10-15, it would have been chicken jerky! First bad experience cooking with six sisters. Won’t be making this one again 🙁
Can you marinate the chicken overnight?
Marinating the chicken overnight is just fine!!
I thought this recipe looked delicious and I have it marinating in a plastic bag in the fridge till tomorrow. Plan on taking it to a family reunion but after reading the reviews I’m really anxious about how it will turn out. I thought the baking time seemed a little long so I’m not surprised some said so, but I do hope it’s not dry. Will get back to you with the results.
This recipe was great! All my kids 4 to 12, and husband loved it. This was easy and will be added to my regular dinner menu. I am just curious how to get it to look like the picture.?.?. I would like marinade to cake/stick to chicken. Thank you! Its nice to try something new and have it be hit in my house.
Can this be made in an electric skillet? Thanks….sounds good!
Hi Debra, I think it would work fine in an electric skillet. Let us know how it all turns out!!
Very tasty recipe! Thanks for sharing! We buy the frozen, boneless/skinless chicken tenders from Costco. I thawed the chicken ( halved the chicken as only cooking for two ) but did not half the sauce. I baked @ 350 for 25 minutes, turned chicken and added green onions, baked for an additional 15 minutes. Very yummy! Thanks again for sharing! I love trying new recipes and finding really good ones! This qualifies!
I also agree with the oven cooking time too long. Otherwise it was very good. I would recommend cooking half the time noted and checking for doneness.
I was preparing for tonight’s dinner only to find that it’ll have to be for tomorrow due to the amount of marinating time. Maybe adjust the time so one knows at a glance if it’s something for now or later.
Thanks!
Ok now I had let the chicken marinade for an entire day. I added some sugar to my taste preference. I cooked it on 325F degrees for about 30-45 minutes. The last 10 minutes is when I flipped the chicken then added the green onion. This was delicious to me. Baked beans and mashed potatoes were my sides. Easy meal
This was just not good. Chicken was very dry and the marinade was meh. Won’t make again sadly. Was really looking forward to it too so it’s a shame. I’d give it 1 star but the website is being weird, if it’s saying 5 stars it just ain’t true.
You’re not the only one. My marinade turned black on my baking dish and my chicken turned into jerky.
The cooking time indicated in this recipe is not correct. If you follow it, you will absolutely cremate your dinner. For chicken tenderloins (skinless and boneless) you should heat your oven to 400 degrees, and let it cook for 20-25 min.
Sounded great, but flavor was just a bit too peculiar.. Cooked perfectly at 375 for about 30 minutes… Not dry, but the ingredients didn’t harmonize to make a tasty dish but rather an unusual flavor that was not enjoyed by the family. 🙁 We are adventurous eaters but this didn’t fall into the “make again” category. 🙁 Sorry- we wanted to like it, but just not quite right…Two stars but system will only let me enter five…
so I didn’t have time to marinade because this was a last minute decision, but it still worked. Pretty good. When the chicken was close to done, I used the juice to make a gravy, and cooked the chicken sauceless. Served it with rice and broccoli. Next time I’ll make sure I have time to marinade it. My chicken wasn’t dry, and I cooked it for close to 45 minutes all together. I used boneless thighs.
Not sticky at all, no glaze like covering. Also cooked for a lot less time.
i try it but they do not came sticky.thanks
I made it as followed two weeks ago burnt my pan but had great chicken jerky did it again today and went 375 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty two minutes turning half way through cut up some carrots broocoli and onion made some brown rice and dumped the juice out of the pan over the rice and veggies it was great used bone less skin less chicken tender loins
I just made this marinade and notice in the comments from May 2014 the soy sauce should be 1/4 cup and not 1/3 cup as stated in recipe on website. The recipe was never updated and marinade turned out very salty. I added a bit of water and more honey. Haven’t cooked yet, but will reduce oven temp and cooking time based on other comments. Should have read comments first….lesson learned!
SO lately my chicken cooking skills in the kitchen were not worth eating. So I turned to a new recipe and this one caught my eye. It is AMAZING! Pausing to eat just so I can write this. I didn’t have any ginger so I replaced the 1tsp ginger with 1/2tsp nutmeg and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Its so so good. The chicken is melt in your mouth good. THANK YOU for saving my dinner <3
2 stars for taste but the glaze is not a glaze, it’s a marinade.
The glaze was watery, the chicken came out plain but tinted a brown color from the soy sauce. I did make sure that my chicken was completely dry before cooking.
One reason could be this, I researched this recipe on my laptop computer but used my mobile phone in the kitchen to measure the ingredients. On the mobile site, the ingredients call for 1/3 cup of honey and 1/3 cup of soy sauce. The recipe on the full browser version calls for 1/3 cup of honey and 1/4 cup of soy sauce.
Not sure that the difference between 1/3 and 1/4 cup would make my chicken coating come out this runny.
The recipe published here can’t be the recipe that you used on the chicken in the photos. The recipe I followed cannot be the same, I’m an experienced cook and I know that I followed this exactly as written.
I think maybe the recipe would need some corn starch to make it a “glaze -like “sauce.
I had this tonight with a cold beer. This was DELICIOUS!
I have to try this,,, I love asian flavors,,, this looks delicious…
The glaze was thin before I even put it in the oven……how did yours stay thick?
Use a recipe program to save and to reduce in servings. Reduced to two and ruined my glass baking pan. Know it was the honey that did it. I even added extra soy sauce but it turned to glue. Chicken was still good but not as sweet as I expected. Understand that it was the reduction in ingredient volumes but I can’t make a meal for 6 when all I’m cooking for is myself. I won’t give up so any ideas?
The recipe idea is delicious. The only thing I would tweak is the temperature, so it would not dry while baking. Adding some citrus like lemon and or orange also adds a nice kick. I’ll definitely make it again.
I agree there’s no way for the marinate to create such a pretty glaze. I followed directions exactly except making sure to remove from oven when chicken was done. It was just plain chicken with no flavor. My husband requested that I never serve it again!
I thought it was good but I am so glad I read most of the postings first! First, 425 would have been entirely to high. I cooked mine on 350 and even then they almost dried. (and I continually watched and turned them), Next time I will cover them after about 20 minutes. I will also marinate over night(I only did 1hr). I did add some cornstarch to the juice to make a glaze which was a great idea. Last, I will bake them with some pineapples.
I also made this recipe…the temp is too high, time is too long…even with the marinade on chicken it came out too dry. The marinade doesn’t really cover chicken in a 13 x 9 pan. Wish I had gone with my instinct of smaller pan, lower temp, less time. So disappointed,.
Well, after reading all the comments, I’m not sure whether I really want to try this recipe or not. I LOVE the looks of the dish in the picture, but it apparently has been photo-shopped or something, because no one commenting here was able to make theirs come out looking like the picture. Does the recipe reflect any changes, due to all the comments here that theirs didn’t come out right when following the recipe? If it has been, will it now come out like the picture when cooking it? It looks sooo good and I really wanted to make it!
After reading some of the reviews, I was a little hesitant to try this recipe. However, I just tried it today and it was DELICIOUS! Well, I did decrease the cooking time, but I used chicken tenders that were rather thin. I imagine the time differs depending on what you are using. For mine, I cooked for about 20 mins and they were done. The flavors were delicious! I would definitely make again.
This looks good but I am concerned that 425° is a little high for a glass dish. Thoughts?
Pyrex glass dishes are able to handle 425 degrees. But older pyrex doesn’t do as well. So don’t be using your mothers old dish. Glass dishes don’t do well with sudden temperature changes. So no cold liquid being added to a very hot glass dish.
Hi is it fine that I don’t have dried onions
You can skip the dried onions, or use fresh onion diced very fine.
Mine doesn’t look like it either. Not sticking to chicken – marinate watery, not sticky. Chicken bland, even though I added a little red pepper flakes. Not going to make it again.
Hi, I’m trying to do some pre-baby meal prep and would like to know how you would recommend freezing these. Thanks in advance 🙂
You could put all of the ingredients in a freezer bag with the chicken. Let it marinade in the fridge for an hour and then move it to the freezer. Then when ready, just thaw and cook. The time it has to thaw would just be more marinade time. Best of luck with your new baby!!!
Does the chicken need to be dry before adding the sauce for it to look like the picture
Ours wasn’t totally dry. Chicken is naturally moist. The sauce sticks to it pretty good.
Hi I made this and I added some brown sugar to the top if the chicken as well as some butter. I also saved some sauce that hadnt touched the chicken and added some extra marinade half way through cooking!
Hi Brenda. The changes you made to Baked Honey Chicken Tenders Recipe sound amazing. Thanks for sharing. You might also like this Chicken Zucchini Casserole on Six Sisters Stuff. Here is the link –
https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/chicken-zucchini-casserole/
Baked in 9 inch square pan at 350 degrees 10 minutes per side then broiled on high to desired color on each side. Looks like photo and tasted great. Added red pepper flakes to marinade + 1 Tbs of corn starch. Let marinate for 5 hours
Looks delicious!
do you ever use thighs in your chicken insta pot recipes? if so what would be the cooking time
I made these exactly as described, except I added a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to the marinade. They came out great. I will definitely make these again.
Hi, Stephanie this is Todd from St. Louis did you enjoy this recipe? Thanks I would love to share some other recipes would be fun to have a recipe friend😁
Not crazy about dry onions. Think I’ll use extra green onions. Recipe looks great. I kind of imagine it get thick and glazy Thanks
Rachel you can use coconut aminos as soy sauce replacement, same quantity.
We love this recipe! I remember making this in my slow cooker once. Do you still have the instructions for this amazing recipe for the slow cooker?
We don’t have this exact recipe for the slow cooker. But I’m sure after the chicken marinates you could let them cook in the slow cooker.
Can you marinade and then grill the chicken?
Absolutely! I think that would actually be pretty tasty. If you try it, let us know how it goes!