Easy BBQ Baked Breaded Chicken Recipe

I’m so excited to share with you my re-imagined Oven baked breaded chicken recipe. My family loves chicken fingers, and I love that these are baked. However, I wanted to jazz up our traditional chicken fingers recipe so we did.

Oven baked breaded chicken

Try this twist on traditional chicken fingers for a little extra kick of flavor.  Instead of the usual eggs we dipped our chicken into BBQ sauce before we breaded them. The results are simply delicious!

You will love these!

How do you make crispy chicken in the oven? 

The trick is to use bread crumbs and panko. The panko helps make it crispier. If you love the crispiness of fried chicken, this is a great alternative that is healthier and easier.

Ingredients:

• Chicken Breasts, fillets and cut into strips
• BBQ Sauce – This is our secret ingredient. It adds a tangy kick to this recipe that we love!
• Water
• Regular Bread Crumbs
• Panko Bread Crumbs

What are Panko Bread Crumbs?

Panko bread crumbs are Japanese bread crumbs. They are large and more coarse so I like using them in this breaded chicken recipe as it give them more of a crunch.

Panko bread crumbs are now readily available in most grocery stores. I like using half Panko and half regular as the regular ones help coat the chicken while the Panko ones give the chicken a crunchy texture and flavor.

How to cook baked breaded chicken breast:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and make sure that the oven rack is 1 rack higher from the center of the oven.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray the foil with non stick spray.

Pour the BBQ sauce and water in a shallow bowl and whisk together. You want the bowl big for the chicken tenders to fit into the bowl to dip into the barbecue sauce mixture.

In another shallow bowl (similar size to the BBQ sauce bowl), combine the bread crumbs and the Panko bread crumbs.

Dip one piece of chicken into the BBQ sauce and coat completely. Then dip in the bread crumb mixture and coat completely.

I used 2 separate tongs to dip the chicken in each mixture so that may hands could stay clean.

Place on the foil lined baking sheet. Continue with each piece of chicken.

Spray all the chicken lightly with non stick spray or spray olive oil.

How long to bake bread chicken?

Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees F. Then turn on the broiler and broil for another 2 minutes until the chicken is crispy and browned.

Watch them closely as they broil. It does not take long to brown the chicken and you do not want them to burn.

How to Make Baked Chicken Crispy:

Spraying the breaded chicken with the non-stick cooking spray will help breading to become crispy while baking them. I also like to broil for 2-3 minutes after the bake time to brown and make the chicken tenders crispy as well.

Chicken Substituions:

I cut the chicken into strips for this recipe but you can leave the chicken breasts whole if you prefer.

You can make oven baked breaded chicken breast by following the same process but you may need to increase the cook time if you are making large pieces of chicken.

You can also use chicken tenders or diced up chicken thighs as well for this recipe.

Are chicken tenders and tenderloin the same thing? 

You can use chicken tenders for this recipe instead of chicken breast. Chicken tenders and chicken tenderloin are the same thing and come from the same part of the bird. They are just labeled differently in different parts of the country.

If you use chicken tenders, I recommend cutting off the white tendon that is attached at the top of the chicken tender before breading.

This part is tough when chewing and I prefer to remove it prior to cooking.

The Best Dipping Sauces:

We love serving this oven baked chicken with a dipping sauce. Here are just a few of our favorite ones to serve with this easy chicken recipe.

• More BBQ Sauce
• Ranch Dressing
• Honey Mustard Sauce
• Ketchup
• Homemade Chick-fil-a Sauce
• Marinara Sauce

What to serve with baked breaded chicken:

Here are a few of our favorite sides that we love serving with these baked breaded chicken tenders.

• Easy Homemade French Fries Recipe
• Deep Fried Onion Rings
• Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries Recipe

If you want a healthier side options, I love serving this chicken tenders with a large side salad top with all of my favorite salad toppings.

Can you make ahead?

You can bread the chicken and keep refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking them. I usually bake them right away but they can be prepared ahead of time as well.

How to Store Leftovers:

Refrigerate any leftovers in an air tight container for up to 4-5 days. When reheating, I recommend reheating them in the oven at 350 degrees F for 5-10 minutes until they are heated through.

Reheating them in the oven will help them get crispy again as they will soften as they store.

If you have an air fryer, I also love reheating them in the air fryer for 3-5 minutes at 400 degrees F. This will also help them get crispy again when reheating.

Can you freeze with breading on the chicken? 

You can freeze these chicken tenders once they have been cooked in a freezer safe container or bag for up to 3 months.

I do not recommend freezing them raw with the breading on the chicken as the breading will become soggy once it defrosts out.

Variation Ideas:

• You can easily add in your favorite seasoning to change up this recipe. Garlic Powder and Italian seasoning would be delicious or a small amount of cayenne pepper (½ tsp) to the bread crumbs would add a small amount of kick.

• Make more traditional breaded chicken breasts in oven by dipping the chicken in a flour mixture (flour, salt and pepper) and then eggs before dipping them in the bread crumbs.

• Stir in 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs to add a little bit of cheese flavor to these chicken strips.

• You can also fry these chicken tenders in vegetable oil instead of baking if you prefer. Heat vegetable oil in a pan until it reaching 400 degrees F and cook the chicken strips for 3-5 minutes on each side of the chicken until it is browned.

Print this Bake Chicken with bread crumbs recipe below:

Try these other chicken recipes:

• Ritz Cracker Chicken
• Copycat Chick-fil-a Nuggets
• Air Fryer Chicken Tenders Recipe
• Copycat Chick-fil-a Sandwich Recipe
• Brown Sugar Baked Wrapped Chicken