How long to cook frozen chicken tenderloins in oven

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Easy Oven Baked Chicken Tenderloins is crispy and delicious! Bakes up in 20 minutes and makes for a quick weeknight dinner!

Chicken is so easy and versatile. You can add it to pizza, pasta or on it’s own! My kids were super thrilled with these chicken tenders and keep asking for them over and over again!

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There are weeks where it seems we have nothing going on then the usual ballet class or getting my teenager to work. Then there are weeks where it fills so jammed packed that I can’t keep up.

It would be super easy to roll right through a drive through every single night. But because I decided that was not an option I needed to find some quick meals to make for the kids! Enter these easy oven baked chicken tenderloins!

HOW TO USE PANTRY STAPLES OR FROZEN FOODS?

• Frozen chicken can be used to make these chicken tenders, you would just need to defrost the chicken.
• Dried herbs and spices are easily exchangeable, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
• Bread crumbs are a good pantry staple to have. You can use them to make meatballs, casseroles or these tenders!
• Pasteurized eggs have a long shelf life, so they are good to have around and can easily be used for the dredging of the chicken!

TIPS FOR MAKING THESE EASY OVEN BAKED CHICKEN TENDERLOINS:

• It’s all about the seasoning with these. For the chicken I simply added salt and pepper. For the breading, I normally do Italian breadcrumbs, flour and egg. 
• We used olive oil to get them super crispy. Brushing it on in the middle of the cooking process helps get that flour coated so it cooks and causes it to get crispy on the final few minutes of baking.
• Find the best sauce! I offered my kids bbq sauce, ketchup and honey mustard and they took none. They really loved the flavor all on their own!

THREE WAYS TO DREDGE:

What is dredging? Well that is when you coat your meat in flour before you cook it. 

One way is with egg. Do you have to put it in egg? Not really. But in order to get the flour and breadcrumbs to stick to the meat properly, it’s best to do it this way.

The second way would be to dredge twice. Once in the egg, then the flour mixture, then the egg again, then the flour mixture again. To get a really thick coat of breading you can dredge the meat twice. 

Lastly, if you want to skip the olive oil step in the directions you can dip your chicken back into the egg a second time to make sure your flour cooks properly.

How long do you bake them?

I will tell you with the size of my chicken tenderloins I baked them for almost 20 minutes. 

I can’t stress this enough, I always and I mean ALWAYS temp my meat before I pull it out of the oven. 

The chicken needs to hit 165 degrees F. We choose to bake the tenderloins because to get them to the right temp happens pretty quickly!

If you are not comfortable with that then cook them for another five minutes but your chicken could be dried. And we really don’t want dried chicken!

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Need more chicken? How about these Individual Puff Pastry Chicken Pot Pies or this Creamy Adobo Chicken!

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken tenderloins
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line sheet pan with parchment paper or non stick baking mat. Set aside.
2. Pat chicken dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sed aside.
3. Place breadcrumbs and flour in bowl. Mix together.
4. Whisk two eggs together in bowl.
5. Dredge each tenderloin in the egg. Then dredge in flour mixture. Place on baking sheet. Repeat until all chicken is coated.
6. Bake for 8 minutes. Pull out of oven and brush with olive oil. Flip and brush with olive oil.
7. Place back in oven and bake for another 8-12 minutes or until chicken has reached temperature of 165 degrees F.
8. Serve warm and ENJOY!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 468Total Fat: 17gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 191mgSodium: 1108mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 53g

*Nutrition facts are an estimate and not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietitian for special diet advice*

So if you are looking for some other way to make chicken tenders you could try these methods:

• 7 Minute Easy Healthy Pan Fried Chicken Tenders. This really is the fastest way to make them. But it is hands on. We make it this way pretty often but my kids really love the easy oven baked chicken tenderloins.
• Air Fryer Chicken Tenders that are low carb. My bestie swears by her air fryer. And what does it mean low carb? Well the breading here is different. It’s make with almond flour and pork panko, which I’m totally searching for the next time I’m at the grocery store!
• The classic method. Fried Chicken Strips! Yep I will definitely pull out my fryer to make these any day of the week! Classic was is so good too!