Name: Air Fryer Chicken Tenders With Buffalo Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 lb. Chicken Tenders; 1/2 cup Flour; 1/2 cup Cornstarch; 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder; 1 teaspoon Onion Powder; 1 tablespoon Parsley; 1/2 teaspoon Pepper; 2 whole Eggs; 1 teaspoon Hot Sauce; 1/2 cup Buffalo Sauce

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Delicious chicken strips are air fried to perfection and coated in a spicy, tangy buffalo sauce in this easy Air Fryer Chicken Tenders recipe. These thin chicken tenderloins are egg coated, breaded, slathered in hot sauce and then popped into the Air Fryer.

Contents

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Easy: This one’s got to be one of my favorite chicken tender recipes, simply because of how easy it is to put together.
Fast: These Air Fryer chicken tenders make for a great quick side dish or an appetizer that you can make and enjoy with the whole family or just put together for a little get-together you’re hosting at home.
Popular: With the right balance of textures and flavors, they’re sure to be a total crowd pleaser. They go perfect with Crispy, Chicken Tacos, Smoked Corn On The Cob and Garlic Aioli. Grab your favorite dipping sauce and enjoy these easy air fried chicken tenders.

Recipe Ingredients

You’ll need just a few simple ingredients to make these Air Fryer chicken tenders.

Chicken Tenders: The main ingredient, providing lean, juicy protein that crisps up nicely in the air fryer.
Flour & Cornstarch: Used for coating the chicken, these ingredients help achieve a crispy, golden exterior.
Garlic powder, Onion Powder, Parsley & Pepper: This spice blend adds savory depth and a hint of freshness to the chicken tenders.
Eggs: Act as a binder for the flour and cornstarch mixture, ensuring a good adherence to the chicken.
Hot Sauce: Adds a touch of heat to the egg wash, which subtly infuses into the chicken as it cooks.
Buffalo Sauce: Provides the tangy, spicy finish that’s characteristic of buffalo chicken.

Air Fryer Chicken Tenders With Buffalo Sauce

How to Make Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

Once you have your ingredients ready, here’s what you’ll need to do to make these crispy chicken tenders.

Step One: To remove the tendon from the chicken, lace the tender on a cutting board, grip the tendon with a paper towel, place a knife edge on the tendon forcefully against the cutting board and pull the tendon away from the chicken. Do this to all the tenders.

Step Two: In a shallow dish, mix the eggs with the hot sauce. This is your egg wash.

Step Three: In another dish, mix the flour, cornstarch, and spices. This is your breading. Dip chicken in the breading, then the egg washes, and then again in the breading. Make sure the tenders are fully coated after each step.

Step Four: Place the tenders in your oil-sprayed air fryer basket in a single layer. Spray the tenders with oil and then cook at 400°f for 10 minutes flipping halfway.

Step Five: Brush each tender with Buffalo sauce, cook for 2 1/2 minutes, flip and brush with Buffalo sauce and finish cooking for 2 1/2 minutes.

Step Six: Remove tenders and let cool. Enjoy with ranch or blue cheese.

Substitutions

Frozen Tenders: You can also choose to season the frozen tenders with some Italian seasoning, cajun seasoning or a bit of cayenne pepper to make them extra spicy.
Bread Crumbs: You can use regular bread crumbs to coat the raw chicken tenders, but I would highly recommend using Panko breadcrumbs to make the breadcrumb mixture. This will help the cooked chicken tenders dry get nice and golden brown.

Best Way to Store Chicken Tenders

If you have any leftover Air Fryer chicken tenderloins, you can store them for later too!

Store: Simply transfer the chicken tenders to an airtight container or a Ziploc bag and refrigerate them for 3-5 days, if not more.
Freeze: If you want to store them for longer than that, you can move them to a freezer safe storage container and freeze them for months.
Reheat: These Air Fryer chicken tenders can be reheated in the microwave or in the Air Fryer until they’re crispy. I would recommend air frying them, as that’ll get the chicken fingers perfectly crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside.

What to Serve With Chicken Tenders?

Garlic Parmesan Fries: Crispy fries tossed with garlic and Parmesan, a perfect match for spicy buffalo chicken tenders.
Red Cabbage Coleslaw: Cool red coleslaw with a tasty dressing, offering a refreshing contrast to the heat.
Loaded Sweet Potato Wedges: Baked sweet potato wedges topped with cheese, bacon, and green onions – a delightful mix of sweet and savory.
Corn On The Cob: Buttery corn on the cob brushed with butter and sprinkled with chili powder – a smoky, sweet side dish.

No matter what sides you choose to serve with your air fryer chicken strips, be sure to have some tasty dipping sauces, from BBQ sauce to honey mustard dipping sauce, the more options the better!

Air Fryer Chicken Tenders With Buffalo Sauce

Angela Milnes

Delicious chicken strips are air fried to perfection and coated in a spicy, tangy buffalo sauce in this easy Air Fryer chicken tenders recipe.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 15

Total Time 25

Course Instant Pot Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings Servings

Calories 104 kcal

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb. Chicken Tenders
1/2 cup Flour
1/2 cup Cornstarch
1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1 tablespoon Parsley
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Hot Sauce
1/2 cup Buffalo Sauce

Instructions

Once you have your ingredients ready, here's what you'll need to do to make these crispy chicken tenders.
To remove the tendon from the chicken, lace the tender on a cutting board, grip the tendon with a paper towel, place a knife edge on the tendon forcefully against the cutting board and pull the tendon away from the chicken. Do this to all the tenders.
In a shallow dish, mix the eggs with the hot sauce. This is your egg wash.
In another dish, mix the flour, cornstarch, and spices. This is your breading.
Dip chicken in the breading, then the egg washes, and then again in the breading. Make sure the tenders are fully coated after each step.
Place the tenders in your oil-sprayed air fryer basket in a single layer. Spray the tenders with oil and then cook at 400°f for 10 minutes flipping halfway.
Brush each tender with Buffalo sauce, cook for 2 1/2 minutes, flip and brush with Buffalo sauce and finish cooking for 2 1/2 minutes.
Remove tenders and let cool. Enjoy with ranch or blue cheese.

Notes

While making these Air Fryer chicken tenders is super easy, you might want to take note of these little tips and tricks too.

If you don’t have frozen chicken tenders, you can also start off with chicken breasts. Simply slice the skinless chicken breast lengthwise until you get thin strips, and then use them as you would use the tenders for this recipe.

While you can use almost any boneless cut of chicken for this recipe, I would recommend using chicken breasts, since the breast meat has the perfect texture needed for this recipe.

Remember to grease the Air Fryer basket well before you add in the breaded chicken tenders. You can use olive oil or avocado oil, or just stick to using a cooking spray like olive oil spray.

Using a cooking spray helps keep the chicken strips from sticking to the Air Fryer basket.

If you don’t have an Air Fryer, you can also choose to bake these chicken tenders. Just remember to grease the baking sheet with cooking spray before you do.

You can also choose to season the frozen tenders with some Italian seasoning, cajun seasoning or a bit of cayenne pepper to make them extra spicy.

You can use regular bread crumbs to coat the raw chicken tenders, but I would highly recommend using Panko breadcrumbs to make the breadcrumb mixture. This will help the cooked chicken tenders dry get nice and golden brown.

The cooking time required for this recipe depends on the size of the chicken tenderloins. To be on the safer side and to ensure that the chicken strips are cooked all the way through, you can check the internal temperature using a meat thermometer.

Nutrition

Calories: 104kcalCarbohydrates: 9gProtein: 12gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0.3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.4gTrans Fat: 0.01gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 483mgPotassium: 218mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 0.2gVitamin A: 46IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 12mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Air Fryer Chicken Tenders, Buffalo Chicken Tenders, Chicken Tenders, Chicken Tenders Air Fryer

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Loved how easy it was to cook chicken tenders in the Air Fryer? Interested in trying out some more Air Fryer chicken recipes? Here are a few good ones you might want to check out.