Chicken tenders check a lot of boxes: fast food, picky eats, pub grub. But they’re also a fun homestyle chicken dinner. Pretzel Parm Chicken Tenders are an oven-baked alternative to the deep fried restaurant staple.
Crushed pretzels and shredded parm class up the usual bread crumb coating. Salty and savory, they’re two ingredients that I’ve always got in the house. And the combination feels a bit more fresh than the store bought bread crumbs that have been hanging around in my pantry for months.
Another twist for Pretzel Parm Chicken Tenders? It’s the double dip dredge—mayonnaise then pretzel crumbs—rather than the standard triple dip—flour, liquid, breadcrumbs. First, I make an easy marinade from mayo with a bit of mustard. The viscous quality of mayo means it adheres to the chicken really well. So it makes a strong base for the pretzel crumb coating.
Pretzel Parm Chicken Tenders demand a zippy dipping sauce. My current fave is a creamy bbq-mustard sauce inspired by Chick-fil-A sauce. It’s quick and easy to make with refrigerator staples. Though you can’t go wrong with honey mustard. A cheesy sauce like blue cheese or parmesan peppercorn would also make a good fit.
Boneless skinless chicken breasts can be dry. For years I stressed about overcooking them, trying to pinpoint that juicy and just-done endpoint. But Pretzel Parm Chicken Tenders bake up tender without any fuss. Pounding the chicken breast to an even thickness avoids overdone edges. And the mayo marinade with a finish of olive oil keeps the chicken moist.
Using the oven to bake the tenders rather than pan frying streamlines the meal prep. It makes it easy to roast some vegetables along side the chicken. And it gives you time to make a sauce.
Here’s the recipe I’ve been using for a small batch of BBQ-Mustard Sauce: 2 Tablespoons your favorite bottled bbq sauce, 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 Tablespoon mustard, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1/16 teaspoon salt (yield is approx 1/4 cup).
Pretzel Parm Chicken Tenders
EQUIPMENT
- 1 baking dish or roasting pan, approx 9 x 13 inch
Ingredients
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tablespoon mustard
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 1 pound
- 3 cups Rold Gold Tiny Twists Pretzels, crushed (see note #1)
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
Make the Marinade
- Stir together mayonnaise and mustard in a small bowl, set aside.
Prep the Chicken
- Pound chicken breasts to even thickness, about 1/2 thick.
- Cut chicken crosswise on the bias into strips, about 3/4 inch wide and 3-5 inches long.
- In a container large enough to accommodate all the chicken, toss chicken strips in the mayonnaise-mustard marinade. Refrigerate and allow chicken strips to marinate for about an hour.
Pretzel Parm Coating
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Put pretzels into a medium or large ziplock bag and seal the bag. Use a rolling pin to crush the pretzels. Into the bag with the crushed pretzels, add shredded parmesan, onion powder, salt, black pepper, thyme, and paprika. Shake well to combine ingredients. You should have 1 cup of the crushed pretzel crumb mixture, add more pretzels if needed.
- Working with one chicken strip at a time, toss chicken in pretzel crumb mixture. (The pretzel crumbs will stick to the mayo-mustard marinade.) Once coated with the pretzel crumbs, transfer chicken to baking dish. Repeat until all chicken strips are coated with pretzel crumbs and transferred to baking dish.
- Discard any remaining mayonnaise-mustard marinade.
Finish and Bake
- Drizzle olive oil over the crumb covered chicken strips.
- Bake chicken tenders for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
Notes
- Use your preferred brand of pretzels. Depending on the size of the pretzels, you may need more or less to yield enough crumbs. You need about 1 cup of pretzel crumbs to make enough crumb coating for all the chicken strips. I found that 3 cups of Rold Gold Tiny Twists yielded enough pretzel crumbs. I also tested the recipe with Snyders of Hanover Mini Pretzels, in which case 2 cups of mini pretzels were enough to yield about 1 cup of crumbs.
- You may want to adjust the amount of salt in the recipe. Because the marinade ingredients and the pretzel parm coating all contain salt, I used only a small amount of added salt (1/4 teaspoon). You may prefer more or less added salt.
- You may reduce or omit the olive oil drizzle. The oil provides flavor, moisture, and browning, but the recipe works without it.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. Here’s my recipe for BBQ Mustard Sauce. Stir together 2 Tablespoons of your favorite bottled bbq sauce, 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 Tablespoon mustard, 1/16 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Makes approximately ¼ cup sauce.
