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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That lemon glaze sounds like the best ever, love this spin on chicken tenders!
Holy moly… I need these in my life. And that glaze? Yum!
Don’t you just think this glaze would be perfect for fried shrimp also? Can’t wait to try it for one or the other! Thanks for posting this!
Fried shrimp sounds like a fun substitution. That’s next to try on my list!
Wow… Just, wow! These look amazing. I could easily see myself taking down an entire plate and then licking my fingers clean. Pinned.
OK so I don’t eat meat, but let me tell you I so need to find something to cover in that glaze because it sounds so tasty!
Yes, you do! I bet tofu would work as an amazing substitute.
Perfection! Can’t wait to make these. 🙂
Total yum! These look like the perfect adult chicken tenders. Must try!
Oh man, these look so delicious and mouth-watering. I need to make them ASAP!
Seriously, this looks flipping amazing!!! So making these this week!!!
I love this recipe – pineapple AND honey – perfect!
I can’t wait to make these on the weekend!
The Macadame. xx
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You had me at lemon glaze!
Before I ever got into the post I saw ‘ the most heavenly sweet, lemon glaze!’ and I knew I wanted this chicken. Wow. Just wow.
Oh my gosh!!! Your pictures are beautiful! And the food sounds like it would taste as amazing as it looks 🙂
Wow the breading on this looks perfect and the glaze sounds amazing. Love it!
I made this glaze today following the recipe exactly and simmered it for 12 min. It tastes delicious but it never got thick because there is no thickening agent in there, like cornstarch. It was really watery and there’s no way you can coat the chicken. So when I reheat it I will add some cornstarch.
Mama Rita, a thickening agent is not needed. With the thickness of the honey, the resulting glaze should be more like a syrup.
I made this today and it was absolutely delicious! But I had trouble with my glaze not thickening as well. I’m wondering if I didn’t have the heat on high enough? I was worried to burn it.
Kim, the glaze doesn’t need to be all that thick. Because of the honey, it will be quite sticky and provide so much flavor to the chicken strips.
Heat is your thickening agent. I made this recipe today. You have to get it to a rolling boil (I stirred it the entire time until I reduced the heat) then let it simmer (stirred it every 4-6 minutes). Mine thickened perfectly. I did let it sit on the stove for an extra 5 minutes sans heat because I was running behind on my chicken which I cut chicken breasts into small sections and we had the most delicious boneless wings 😉 thanks for the recipe
I had this same problem, it was definitely on the watery side so the chicken got the flavor but it definitely wasn’t “glazed”. I plan on trying these again and hope to get it right next time. Despite the non-thickening, the taste was very good 🙂
I thought the same thing too, but not true. think of it this way, when the sauce is finished, it is still in a hot pan, so it will not fully thicken until you spoon or pour the sauce over the chicken tenders. I was so nervous that I was going to have watery tenders, but the butter milk flour mixture made them extra crispy, and the sauce thickened on the chicken tenders within a few short minutes. Garnished it with parsley and lemon and it was picture perfect. the whole family thought I bought it from a restaurant and stuck it on a plate. It was the best thing I have ever cooked and have eaten in a very long time!!
Chicken fingers are my WEAKNESS, even as an adult I’m still gaga over them. These are like chicken fingers on steroids, I love everything about them.
Your chicken tenders look absolutely perfect and sound perfect too.
These look WONDERFUL! They remind me of an Asian Chicken Salad (to die for) that I used to get in Calif. Can’t wait to try this one!
Such stunning photos! They are making my stomach growl! The lemon glaze sounds so amazing… loving all the flavors!
~slurrrrrp … They look amazing!