Air Fryer Chicken Tenders With Buffalo Sauce
Delicious chicken strips are air fried to perfection and coated in a spicy, tangy buffalo sauce in this easy Air Fryer chicken tenders recipe.
Thin chicken tenderloins are egg coated, breaded, slathered in hot sauce and then popped into the Air Fryer.
Contents
What I Love About this Recipe
This one’s got to be one of my favorite chicken tender recipes, simply because of how easy it is to put together.
These Air Fryer chicken tenders make for a great 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.
With the right balance of textures and flavors, they’re sure to be a total crowd pleaser.
Air Fryer Chicken Tenders Cooking Time
- Prep time 10 minutes
- Cook time 15 minutes
- Yields 12
Ingredients For the Air Fryer Chicken Tenders
You’ll need just a few simple ingredients to make these Air Fryer chicken tenders.
- 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 eggs
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1/2 cup Buffalo sauce
How to Make the 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 1: Remove Tendon From 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.
Step 2: Prepare the Egg Mixture
In a shallow dish, mix the eggs with the hot sauce. This is your egg wash.
Step 3: Prepare the Breading
In another dish, mix the flour, cornstarch, and spices. This is your breading.
Step 4: Coat the Chicken Tenders
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 5: Air Fry the Chicken Tenders
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 6: Coat with Buffalo Sauce
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 7: Serve Hot
Remove tenders and let cool. Enjoy with ranch or blue cheese.
Tips & Tricks to Make the Air Fryer Chicken Tenderloins
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.
How Can I Make the Chicken Tenders Crispy?
To make the crispy Air Fryer chicken tenders even more crispy, you can use rice flour instead of regular flour for the breading for this recipe.
What Else Can I Use Instead of Buffalo Sauce?
I have used a simple mix of buffalo sauce and hot sauce to coat the Air Fryer chicken tenders. You can use any of your favorite dipping sauce. I love using honey mustard dipping sauce with a bit of hot sauce- it gets me the perfect balance of spiciness and sweetness.
You can also try adding a dash of BBQ sauce with some honey mustard sauce and hot sauce to bring a beautiful balance of flavor to the chicken tenders.
How Do I Store the Leftovers?
If you have any leftover Air Fryer chicken tenderloins, you can store them for later too!
Simply transfer the chicken tenders to an airtight container or a Ziploc bag and refrigerate them for 3-5 days, if not more.
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.
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.
Air Fryer Chicken Tenders With Buffalo Sauce
Delicious chicken strips are air fried to perfection and coated in a spicy, tangy buffalo sauce in this easy Air Fryer chicken tenders recipe.
Thin chicken tenderloins are egg coated, breaded, slathered in hot sauce and then popped into the Air Fryer.
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 eggs
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1/2 cup Buffalo sauce
Instructions
How to Make the 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 1: Remove Tendon From 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.
Step 2: Prepare the Egg Mixture
In a shallow dish, mix the eggs with the hot sauce. This is your egg wash.
Step 3: Prepare the Breading
In another dish, mix the flour, cornstarch, and spices. This is your breading.
Step 4: Coat the Chicken Tenders
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 5: Air Fry the Chicken Tenders
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 6: Coat with Buffalo Sauce
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 7: Serve Hot
Remove tenders and let cool. Enjoy with ranch or blue cheese.
Notes
Tips & Tricks to Make the Air Fryer Chicken Tenderloins
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 Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 225Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 718mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 12g
How Do I Serve the Air Fryer Chicken Tenders?
These crispy and flavorful chicken tenders taste best when enjoyed right out of the Air Fryer. You can drizzle some extra hot sauce on them or serve them with a cooling dip like ranch sauce.
I also like to sprinkle some shredded Parmesan cheese on the chicken strips right before I serve.
More Air Fryer Recipes
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.
