Crispy Baked Chicken Tenders with Sriracha Honey Mustard

Place the chicken tenders in a shallow baking dish. Pour the buttermilk over the chicken tenders and make sure that they are well coated in the liquid. Cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (Feel free to let them marinate overnight if you’re a planner!)

Once your tenders have marinated, remove them from the fridge and pre-heat the oven to 375 F. Spray a wire rack with cooking spray, place it on top of a rimmed baking sheet and set aside. (Note: Depending on the size of your rack, you may need to use two, or bake the chicken tenders in batches.)

Pour the crispy brown rice cereal into a shallow bowl or baking dish. Use your hands to lightly crush the cereal. You don’t want to pulverize the rice, but you do want to break it up into smaller pieces so that it will stick to the chicken more easily. Add the paprika, salt and white pepper to the cereal and mix to combine.

Now it’s time to coat your chicken fingers. I like to form an assembly line by placing the chicken tenders/buttermilk dish next to the crispy rice mixture, followed by the prepared wire rack.

Remove the tenderloins from the buttermilk one at a time, shaking lightly to remove any excess liquid. Place each tender in the crispy rice mixture and use your hands to press the cereal onto the chicken. You want each tender to be thoroughly coated, people. Place the coated tenderloins on the wire rack and mist with cooking spray. I like to use an olive oil spray, but any old spray will work. Repeat until you’ve coated all of the chicken.

Transfer the pan of chicken tenders to the oven and bake for 11 minutes. Carefully remove the tray from the oven, flip the chicken fingers over and mist again with cooking spray. Return them to the oven and bake for another 11 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the tenders are golden brown.

While your chicken fingers are cooking, prepare your fancy dipping sauce. Place all the ingredients for the Sriracha honey mustard in a medium bowl and whisk until smooth.

Serve your crispy chicken tenders hot alongside a bowl of Sriracha honey mustard. Do the funky chicken.