Crunchy Chicken Strips & Easy Honey Mustard Sauce (Paleo, Gluten-Free)

Chicken tenders were ALWAYS my go-to food growing up. Just about every restaurant sold some variation of them, and it was pretty hard to mess them up.

In college, the best day in the cafeteria was chicken tender day when the dining staff served us 3 large crispy, breaded chicken fingers for lunch. Dipping them in a bowl of sweet, ooey gooey honey was just what I needed to round out the crunchy, saltiness of the tenders.

Pure food bliss.

I was talking to a blog follower the other day (Barb), and she asked for more dinner ideas.

That comment (along with my lifelong love of chicken tenders) motivated me to share this recipe for my favorite homemade version – one that happens to sneak in some honey AND turn out buttery, crunchy, salty and satisfying…

Oh, and healthy, of course 🙂

I LOVE the simplicity of this recipe...and how incredible it tastes.

It’s an easy go-to dinner option with fewer than 5 ingredients. If you have kids, involve them in the 2-step “breading” process. They’ll have fun with it.

Chicken Tenders

• 1 package chicken breast strips OR skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips and patted dry with a paper towel
• 1/2 cup Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons honey (I use raw honey, but any honey will work in this recipe)
• 1.5 cup pecans (Don’t have pecans? Try these with chopped walnuts or almonds instead…but I have to admit – using pecans is my favorite way to make this dish.)
• Sea salt, to taste

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce (basically 2 parts mustard to 1 part honey. Adjust the amount based on how much you want!)

• 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey (I used raw honey but any will work)

Honey mustard dipping sauce! Nomnomnom

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Whisk together the honey and mustard in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Toss the pecans in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Pour the chopped pecans onto a plate.
4. Use a paper towel to pat the chicken breasts dry. Taking one chicken breast at a time, place the chicken into the honey mustard mixture and coat on both sides. Roll chicken in chopped pecans.
5. Place coated chicken into a greased (or foil-lined or parchment-paper lined) glass baking dish. Sprinkle each chicken breast with sea salt.
6. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165 degrees F. (It is SO worth it to buy a meat thermometer, by the way. They’re cheap and take the guesswork out of cooking meat and seafood.).
7. While the chicken is cooking, stir the honey and mustard together in a dish for the dipping sauce.

Start dipping and eating. It’ll be hard to stop! 🙂