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Why You’ll Love My Recipe

Crispy chicken strips are a child’s dream food, but they can be for adults too! These simple and delicious air fryer chicken strips can be ready in under half an hour and they’ll taste so much better than the ones from the store.

Why not make your own Seasoning Salt for this recipe? If you aren’t sure what to do with the rest of your chicken, why not try this Air Fryer Chicken Thighs recipe? Serve these chicken tenders with your favourite rice or potato dish and some vegetables.

A wooden board topped with crispy breaded chicken tenders, garnished with parsley, served with a bowl of dark dipping sauce. Sliced lemons, seasonings, and stacked plates are in the background.

Karlynn’s Recipe Notes

Skill Level: This is an easy recipe, but you’ll need to practice food safety and learn a couple of cooking techniques.
Total Time: You can have these chicken tenders ready in approximately 25 minutes, not any longer than it would take to cook some frozen chicken strips.
Variations: Try different sizes of breadcrumbs or change up the seasonings. Serve these with some Chili Cheese Dip or plum sauce. Pair them with Biscuits and Gravy or fries and your favourite vegetable dish for a balanced meal.
Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need an air fryer, some tongs, a cutting board, a sharp knife, a small bowl, and a medium bowl. Make sure that you’ve got a food thermometer on hand as well. Depending on the thickness of your chicken, you may also want a meat mallet.

What You’ll Need For Ingredients

Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken breasts will be the easiest for this recipe, and grocery stores even carry chicken breasts that have been cut into strips already. But you can use other pieces of chicken if you’d like. Boneless skinless chicken thighs would work well too, but may take a bit more work to cut into properly sized strips.

Breading: This breading is incredibly easy to make and almost as easy to apply. Panko bread crumbs will give you the best crunch on your chicken tenders, but if you can’t find those try any other type of bread crumbs you like. Crushed up Cornflakes can work too.

Eggs: This simple steps of dipping strips into beaten eggs is so important. The eggs help the breading to stick to the chicken and actually stay there instead of falling off in chunks later on.

Raw chicken strips, two eggs, flour, black pepper, paprika, bread crumbs, seasoned breading, and garlic powder are arranged in small bowls on a white marble surface.

How To Make Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.

A glass bowl with flour, breadcrumbs, and assorted spices sits on a marble countertop, surrounded by a whisk, two eggs, a red-checked towel, and small bowls of seasonings. Sliced raw chicken is nearby.

A bowl of flour with a whisk sits on a marble counter surrounded by bowls of spices, raw chicken strips, two eggs on a red-and-white towel, and part of an air fryer in the corner.

Cut the chicken breasts into strips lengthwise. If necessary, flatten them slightly.
Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs slightly.
Dip each individual chicken strip into the flour mixture, then the egg mixture, and then the flour mixture again. Place the coated strips on a tray or plate and refrigerate for half an hour.
Cook the chicken strips in air fryer at 400°F (preheat if needed) for 4-5 minutes per side. Don’t overcrowd the air fryer.
Serve the cooked chicken tenders with your favourite dipping sauce.

A hand holding a piece of fried chicken with sauce.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks For Making Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

Optional: If you have the time and you’d like even juicier chicken tenders, try marinating them in a little bit of buttermilk or plain yogurt for an hour or two before you start the breading process.

Let Them Sit: If you’d like to prepare these chicken tenders in advance and extend that 30 minutes of refrigerator time to overnight, go for it. The breading in this recipe will hold up just fine in the fridge and may even taste better that way.

Dips: Part of the joy of perfect chicken tenders is getting to dip them in your favourite sauces. Try a Beer Cheese Sauce, some Sweet Chili Sauce, or a Homemade BBQ Sauce.

A stack of breaded chicken tenders sits on a white plate, with one piece cut open to show the juicy interior. The background features blurred kitchen items and more chicken tenders on a wooden tray.

Storage Instructions

Fridge: Once they’re cooked and cooled, you can put these in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Reheat in the microwave, or stick them back in that air fryer for a minute or two to get them crispy and hot again.

Freezer: Why not pre-make a big batch of these and store them in an airtight freezer bag for another day? Make sure they’re fully cooled before you put them in the freezer, and then reheat them in the air fryer or the oven whenever you want.

Safe Cooking Temperatures

Make sure that you cook your chicken tenders to an internal temperature of 74°C (165°F), as per Health Canada and FDA recommendations.

More Delicious Air Fryer Recipes

Looking for more recipes that you can use with your Air Fryer? Try these out:

• Air Fryer Fried Chicken

• Air Fryer Chicken Wings

• Air Fryer Buffalo Wings

Those are only the beginning! Why not try something sweet in the air fryer? Like Air Fryer Oreos or Air Fryer Doughnuts?

Well, there it is. Another easy and yummy recipe to make use of your air fryer. Try these chicken tenders and let me know how they work out for you.

Happy Cooking!

Karlynn