Asian Lemon Chicken Tenders
A wonderful asian twist to your favorite chicken tenders, tossed in the most heavenly sweet, lemon glaze!
Remember those chicken tenders that you had as a child? Those thick, crisp strips of chicken that you’d dunk in ketchup? Well this is pretty much just like that, except it’s a million times better. And there’s no ketchup involved. Instead, these babies are slathered in the most amazing, sweet and tangy lemon glaze – a glaze so good, you’ll want to drink it!
Now these chicken strips have a simple flour-buttermilk-flour breading. You can use thin strips of chicken breasts or pre-cut chicken tenders. Either works amazingly well. From there, you’ll fry these bad boys until they’re golden brown. While that’s happening, you can go ahead and let that glaze simmer on and get nice and thick.
After all the chicken strips are fried, you’ll toss them in that heavenly glaze. From there, dinner is set! Now who still wants those boring ketchup-dunked chicken strips?
Asian Lemon Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup buttermilk
For the lemon glaze
- ½ cup honey
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup pineapple juice
- ¼ cup brown sugar, packed
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- To make the glaze, combine honey, soy sauce, pineapple juice, brown sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, pepper and garlic powder in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10-12 minutes.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Working one at a time, dredge chicken in flour, dip into buttermilk, then dredge in flour again, pressing to coat.
- Working in batches, add chicken to the skillet, 3 or 4 at a time, and cook until evenly golden and crispy, about 3-4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Serve immediately, drizzled with lemon glaze.
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Thank You! I made this last night for my three teenage sons. Very easy and tasty and the glaze is delicious! Kathy
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
is it 5 and half cups of flour or 1 and a half cups of flour, I’m not sure.
The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.
Please help me. I’m not a very good cook and I use Pinterest to learn new recipes but they never turn out even though I follow the recipe exactly. How did you all keep the chicken from sticking to the pan and the batter just ripping off the chicken ruining the whole thing? I ended up using more oil than listed..like a lot more and it took so long, I just wanted to throw the whole thing out. Please tell me what can I do differently.
Amanda, I am sorry you are having so much difficulty – that’s such a bummer! If you are using a very large skillet or something super shallow, then yes, more oil will be needed, and that’s okay! If the chicken takes a long time to cook, then your oil may not have been hot enough.
Hope that helps!
Hi, Amanda. One tip to keep meats, fish, whatever you are frying from sticking and tearing off the breading, is to leave it alone and resist the urge to turn it too soon. When it has seared sufficiently it will “release” itself from the pan and you can easily flip it with no issues. Hope this helps. Remember – cooking is just following a recipe and timing – and timing comes with more and more practice. We all started out not knowing what we were doing but we’re all cookin’ now!
The best part of the chicken! This post is making me super hungry! (:
OK, I just made this for lunch & holy cow is it ever good! We avoid anything breaded or fried, so I just did a fast stir-fry with chicken, red & green bell peppers, diced celery & green onions & when the chicken was done I scooped everything out into a bowl, then poured the sauce into the wok & let it cook until it was thick & sticky. Poured it over the chicken & veggies , then tossed some toasted sesame seeds on top & served it with hot rice. It made a gosh-awful mess of my wok, but is incredibly good. I almost didn’t have to wash dishes because my husband licked everything clean! LOL!
Haha sweet! Thank you for sharing that Susanne, it sounds delicious. So glad you and your family enjoyed it.
My husband has really gotten into his airfryer. Could these be tweaked for that?
How fun! I have always wanted an airfryer! But unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Can i make it without vinegar?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
Hi!!! Can I prepare the chicken with the flour buttermilk mixture and freeze it? Will it still taste good if I do that? It sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try this out!
Unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself – there were no leftovers left to freeze! Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
Have I been living under a rock!? I have easily made 30+ Damn Delicious recipes (all fab btw), yet somehow I missed this!? This is outta control good. Legit. My hubby gobbled down his plate (practically licked it) and asked for more, as did my 5yr old and 18 month old. Simply amazing, best recipe yet. I added about 1tbsp of cornstarch to my glaze at the end to thicken it slightly, at it was utter perfection. I want to eat 5 more plates.
Super yummy recipe! My boyfriends favorite diner. I have made this at least a half a dozen times but I have never been able to get my sauce to thicken up as a glaze. Totally fine though we just use it as a dipping sauce for the chicken tenders.
Made this for my family tonight–my siblings and parents loved it! When I noticed that the sauce wasn’t thick enough, I just turned up the heat until it was boiling again (I had turned it down for fear of burning it), then just stirred it then turned the heat down after about three minutes. The flour-buttermilk-flour breading kept the strips amazingly crispy, and the glaze was perfect
P.S. Buttermilk isn’t readily available here, so I just added a tablespoon of vinegar to a cup of milk, let it sit for 10 minutes, and my chicken strips still turned out crispy. Good stuff.
Just made this for dinner, it was a success! My boyfriend and his brother loved it, I just need to cook it a little longer. Probably because the heat wasn’t high enough for the chicken tenders. Your glaze is absolutely amazing as it went along with barbecue memphis sauce really well! Thanks!
EDIT EDIT:barbecue memphis sauce was used as a dipping sauce, not to be used with the glaze, yikes!
this looks so good,
I dont have any pineapple juice., I do have apple juice, would that work? Or any other substitute suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Orange juice would be a great substitute.
Delicious! My family and I enjoyed this. As others have stated, my sauce did not thicken so I did have to add in some cornstarch.
This look great but is not all that great the sauce is water like not thick at all very sad and it takes way longer then it says
Tamara, you can simply add cornstarch as needed until the desired consistency is reached.
I was wondering if you could do this in the oven? Sounds delicious
Yes, absolutely, but this is honestly best when cooked on the stovetop! 🙂
This was amazing! The sauce mmm mmm mmm. I had to make a couple changes based on what I had in house. I used a mini bottle of maple syrup
From Cracker Barrel in place of brown sugar and the juice from a mandarin orange fruit cup for the pineapple juice. I also like a thicker sauce so I added the cornstarch as suggested by others. Will definitely make again.
Do you think you could mix up the sauce and pour it over seasoned tenders and bake in the oven? I really don’t feel like frying tonight! Thanks!
Yes, absolutely – but you could probably add the sauce in at the very end once the chicken has been baked.
It’s kinda hard to find buttermilk in my country.. Can i use thick yoghurt for buttermilk’s substitute?
Chelly, here is a great resource for the best buttermilk substitutes. Hope that helps!
Just made this for my family and we absolutely love it!! I think it could use a little bit less pepper in the sauce but that could also just be my own personal taste