The Best Gluten Free Baked Chicken Tenders

These gluten free baked chicken tenders are one of my family’s favorite chicken recipes, and they get made weekly in my house. I created this recipe because Steve loves chicken tenders, and is a HUGE fan of my oven baked crispy chicken, so I created these on the fly one night, and they were immediately a hit with the family. 

To be honest, I almost didn’t post these chicken tenders because they’re not the traditional chicken tenders that most people are used to. These tenders don’t brown up and get all crispy, but they are super tender from the brining, and packed with flavor from the coating. Also, the fact that my family loves these, and Mattie’s friends at school love the leftover cold chicken tenders, I figured why not just post these. 

The coating on this chicken is gluten-free, grain-free and chock-full of healthy ingredients, but you would never know that. The chicken is dredged in almond meal and nutritional yeast, and has a pop of kick of flavor from the cayenne pepper and smoked paprika.

The coating for these bad boys is grain-free, so if you have celiac disease, are gluten-intolerant, or just want to cut back on unrefined grains, then this is the recipe you’ve been looking for. 

The Best Gluten Free Baked Chicken Tenders

Equipment: Half sheet pan with oven safe non-stick grid

Note:  You have to plan ahead to make this, as the chicken will need 1 hour to brine before baking. The brining only takes 5 minutes to put together and then sits in the fridge for 1 hour. The actually baking time only takes 20 minutes though.

For the brine:

• 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 tablespoons Celtic sea salt – Don’t use table salt. Table salt contains iodine, which doesn’t work with brining.
• 1 tablespoon honey – honey adds a depth of flavor
• 1-2 quarts cold water – you want enough water to cover all of the chicken

For the breading:

• 1 cup almond meal flour – if you have a nut allergy, you could use ground flax meal
• 2 teaspoons fine Celtic sea salt
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika

For the chipotle tahini: We love pairing our tenders with this sauce. Directions are in the below recipe box. 

• 1/4 cup well stirred tahini – I love this traditional tahini from Soco
• 4 tablespoons fresh lime juice (2 limes)
• 1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder 
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon Celtic sea salt
• 1-2 tablespoons filtered water, or more to get it to the consistency you want

How I meal prep these tenders. Say I’m eating dinner at 6:00, I will brine the breasts at 4:00, make the breading while the chicken is brining, pull the chicken out at 5:00, dry, slice and bread the tenders, and then let them sit on the baking sheet until 5:30 and then place them in the oven to bake. These tenders also taste great cold! 

Brining the chicken:

Below is a video I created to take the fear away from brining chicken. I also share tips about choosing chicken, and how to prepare it.

In a large (large enough to hold all the water and chicken) stainless steel or glass bowl, (don’t use plastic) whisk together 3 tablespoons sea salt, 1 tablespoon honey and 1-2 quarts cold water to create a brine (the amount of water you need will be based on your bowl and the amount of chicken you have).

Place chicken breasts  into the brine, cover, and transfer to the refrigerator.  Let the chicken marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour, no more. Make sure that there is enough water to submerge the chicken, if not, add more water.

Preparing and baking the chicken:

When the chicken is finished brining, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, and then place the baking grid on top.

Take each piece of chicken out of the brining liquid, and pat each piece throughly dry with a paper towel, and place dried chicken on a cutting board. I always have a specific cutting board for chicken, as you don’t want to cross contaminate.

Using a sharp knife, trim off any excess fat, then slice each breast lengthwise into 2-3 strips (approx 1¼-inch-wide strips). If one seems super long, then cut it in half. Each breast is always a different size and shape, so your chicken tenders may not be even in size or shape, and that’s ok. When you brine your chicken it will be moist, so you don’t have to worry about the tapered ends of the chicken strips getting too dry.

In a shallow bowl, gently whisk together the almond meal, sea salt, nutritional yeast, thyme, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika. I usually make the breading mixture up ahead while the chicken is brining. 

Dredge the chicken strips one by one in the seasoned breading, making sure to really press the coating onto the chicken strips, until well-coated on all sides. If you find you are running low on the coating, just halve the above recipe to finish the rest. I usually have just enough to coat 2 lbs of chicken, but sometimes I just double batch the almond meal coating just incase. 

Arrange the chicken strips on the baking grid, making sure there a bit of space between so you can turn them with the tongs. As you can see, my strips are different shapes and sizes. I’m not about perfection here.

Put the chicken in the pre-heated oven, and bake for 10 minutes, then take the chicken out and using a pair of tongs, gently flip each strip over, and then bake an additional 10 minutes, (check the smaller pieces at 6 minutes) or until the chicken’s internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. Don’t worry if your tenders cook to 170 degrees or a bit above, as brined chicken stays moist.

The coating on these tenders is very delicate, so use tongs with silicone coating and be careful when flipping and handling the tenders.

We love these tenders paired with a salad, like my kid friendly caesar. We make this weekly, to be honest. Also, the below gluten-free, dairy-free popovers are the perfect side carb. 

They also taste great dipped in some chicken or my spicy chipotle tahini sauce. These tenders also taste great cold as leftovers. I sometimes just eat one as a snack from the fridge after a workout. 

This recipe was adapted from one of our FAVORITE chicken recipes ever. The best oven baked crispy chicken. This chicken gets that crispy skin if that’s what you’re looking for.