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.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
OMG!!!!! I just finished eating this, AND IT IS THE BOMB!!!!! OH I’M SO FULL. My SON even ate the last of it. I will try another recipe here on the site.
Just FABULOUS
Prepared this recipe last night and it turned out wonderfully! Used my wok to cook the sauce in and cut the chicken tenders into chunks. After frying the chicken and allowing them to drain excess oil, I placed them in the wok smothering them with sauce which I think helped the sauce adhere to the chicken better.Also, placing the chicken into the sauce (while waiting for the next batch to fry) helped keep everything nice and warm. This was delicious!
OMG. I just made this recipe. Absolutely delicious! Yup I could have licked the pan. Did cook the sauce longer to get it to thicken. Thanks for sharing.
I made these the other night and they were amazing!!! I was silly and forgot to buy pineapple juice, but they were still so yummy!! I will definitely be making them again!!
I might have to double the sauce so i can drink the sauce!!!
Do you recommend a dipping sauce with this? I was thinking of doing ranch dressing but not sure how it would taste.
Troy, with the lemon glaze here, a dipping sauce is not needed.
Made this last night for dinner. Thanks so much for the great recipe and easy directions. Son ate two plates of chicken for dinner and ate all of the leftovers today for lunch. We all enjoyed it and I look forward to making more of your recipes. (I used your Spam Fried Rice recipe the night before but subbed chicken for the Spam. Was delicious and easy! Don’t think my son would eat the Spam but it sounded great to me! Will have to try it when he is off at school.)
Teen boys devoured the dish. Made it gluten,dairy,soy free.
Used a light gluten free flour mix from the web site, art of gluten free baking,but could use any gf
All purpose flour. Used canned coconut milk, added tsp vinegar to create buttermilk.
Use coconut amnios instead of soy sauce.
The lemon glaze was great, hard boil, be sure it simmer, cool a bit, turned into a thick glaze.
We drizzled it over chicken.
Lastly, used coconut oil to cook chicken,didn’t need a cup, maybe 1/4 to 1/2.
Thank you, my boys wanted it again soon, all three love it.
Will be back to see what other great recipes you have.
These were so good! My sauce didn’t get very thick but that was to no fault of the recipe, but rather cuz my cooktop sux and cooks too high so I was afraid it would burn (can’t wait for my kitchen remodel!). I tasted the sauce before adding chicken and was nervous it would be super salty since the soy acute kind of overpowered, but once you coat the chicken, it’s not as bad. I placed a few at a time into the sauce and rolled them around a bunch. My husband and I both loved them. Will definitely make again.
Cooking it for another 4 minutes and then letting it sit with no heat really helps thickening it! It really works.
This was pretty good. The kids enjoyed it, so big plus there! I think I expected it to taste a little differently than it did. I will probably make again sometime though.
made this today, the only complaint is the sauce is very runny even after 30 min of summer. and yes I followed the directions to a tee… suppose I will thicken it up with cornstarch. Other than that it has great flavor. thank you for the recipe. 😀
simmer not summer lol
I’m so glad you had a chance to try this! As for the sauce – it is actually not supposed to thicken very much or else it would be very difficult to toss with the chicken tenders.
Another good recipes … A chef ability to be good at a range of course, Have extensive experience of specialty diets and food training.
I made this dish last night. It easy and so delicious. I also made the crisp zucchini and that was delicious also. I am looking forward to making your other recipes, Thank you so much.
I made these tonight and they were SO good. I read above that someone wanted to spice it up a bit by adding red pepper flakes…well, I added some to the sauce and it tasted great. Delicious recipe 🙂
MMM tonights dinner with a few changes. Tenders marinating in buttermilk garlic lemon salt and pepper. Going to coat in panco crumbs and bake in the oven for a slightly healthier version. Sauce simmering on the pot, no pineapple juice so trying a bit of oj/mango, smells devine…..
** Also.. I did put in some cornstarch to thicken it but not because the sauce needed it.. Mostly because I wanted it to be more thick so my kids couldn’t throw it around 😉
I made this tonight. It was SO yummy. My three year old son who hardly ever eats anything ate TWO chicken tenders. He loved the sauce. I am thinking of making a batch of sauce to give to him on other nights when he isn’t eating… LOL Thank you for such a great recipe. Will be making again.
Oh, wow. Wow wow wow. I want to dive into these pictures and eat these right now! … and yes, at 8:34 in the morning. These look fabulous- making my grocery list now and editing so I can make these this week! You have a great blog, and thanks for the recipe!
I did it today for lunch, and it tastes as good as it looks. Soooo delicious! I’m adding your lemon glaze to my all-time-favorite list! Pinned! Thank you!
I made this last night and it was sooooo yummy! Absolutely no leftovers.