Oven Fried Chicken Tenders coated with Cheerios and parmesan and served up with some honey mustard dipping sauce make for a kid friendly 30 minute dinner.
One of the things I struggle with is not serving the same thing over and over for dinner. That might be hard to believe considering the fact that I have a food blog, but if it weren't for this blog we'd probably be eating spaghetti several times per week. Its easy to get stuck in a rut because, especially this time of year when school is starting and fall sports schedules start to take over our lives, we all need quick and easy dinners that the kids won't complain about and will eat willingly. What kid doesn't like chicken tenders, right? I would much rather serve these for dinner rather than the frozen and/or processed variety. Plus, I think they're absolutely delicious and will use the leftovers (which, often, there are none) on my salads at work.
One of the tricks to having moist chicken is to soak the meat in buttermilk first. This also helps the coating stick. Wait a minute... did she use Cheerios to coat the chicken? You bet I did. First of all, which home in America doesn't already have a box of Cheerios in their pantry. Second, Cheerios are perfect for coating chicken tenders because they 1) crush nicely into a great crumb, 2) have just a bit of sweet which pairs beautifully with the honey mustard, 3) whole grains are the first ingredient which is much better than just using flour and 4) most importantly, you not only is it a Box Tops product, but right now you can find Bonus Box Tops on select products at Walmart where a single purchase is worth 5 Box Tops!
To make the coating, just process the Cheerios with grated parmesan and fresh thyme. Sprinkle in a little smoked paprika and garlic powder and, voila, a delicious coating for your chicken is created.
One of the best things about this recipe is that you only need about a tablespoon of oil to keep the chicken from sticking. Since I cook on stone which is generally non-stick, I probably could have even done without the oil all together. The buttermilk keeps the chicken moist and the fat in the cheese usually produces enough oil. Here's what my chicken looked like before I put it in the oven. Have you ever seen raw chicken look so appetizing? Me neither! I only had a little over a pound of chicken so there was plenty of leftover coating to sprinkle on top, but you could easily make a good two pounds of chicken with this recipe.
Our entire family loved these and thought the honey mustard dipping sauce was perfect as well. I served this up with some corn on the cob and a green salad - both of which I made while the chicken was cooking. The entire dinner was prepped and cooked in 30 minutes!
If you've never participated in the Box Tops program, your school basically gets $0.10 for each one submitted. Alone its not very much, but think about how much money your school could earn if each family just bought a couple of these 5 Box Tops products each week. Chances are that they are already in your pantry. Here are a couple out-of-the-box ideas you can use to raise awareness about the Box Tops program:
- Have a friendly competition between classrooms to see who can raise the most money. Make it easy by decorating canisters for people to submit their Box Tops labels and keep them by the entrance of each classroom. Encourage everyone to submit as many as they can during the month of September. You can even ask your school's PTA to provide a prize to the winning class!
- Drive awareness to the program by having a cooking competition where the main ingredient has to be labeled with the 5 Box Tops program, like these Cheerios did. Offer bonus points for using ingredients that are also part of the Box Tops program.
You can learn more about how you can support your school with Box Tops at Walmart. If you have any other clever ideas on how to get more people to take advantage of this awesome program, be sure to let me know in the comments!
Oven Fried Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
honey mustard sauce
- 1/8 cup spicy brown mustard
- 1/8 cup honey
chicken tenders:
- 2 pounds chicken tenders
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 2 cups Cheerios
- 1 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- To make honey mustard sauce, mix together mustard and honey. Do this ahead of time to allow flavors to develop.
- Rinse chicken and add to shallow dish. Cover with buttermilk and allow to soak for at least 15 minutes while you make the coating.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In food processor, blend together Cheerios, parmesan, and fresh thyme for 30 seconds to create a crumb topping. Add to gallon size plastic bag. Add paprika and garlic powder to the mixture; shake to blend well.
- One at a time, pick up each piece of chicken and allow excess buttermilk to drip off. Add buttermilk coated chicken pieces to bag with crumbs. Seal bag and give it a good shake until all of the coated has covered the chicken pieces.
- Spread olive oil over bottom of baking sheet. Lay chicken pieces in a single layer on top and cover with any additional crumb coating from bag.
- Cook in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until chicken is a golden brown. Serve with honey mustard dipping sauce.
Notes
NUTRITION INFORMATION
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of General Mills®. The opinions and text are all mine.
Renee
I love Multi-Grain Cheerios right out of the box, and making them into a breading is brilliant! Love that extra layer of flavor!
Anita
The chicken tenders are delicious.What an interesting use of Cheerios!
Emily
These chicken tenders are so amazing! Love that they use cheerios and also that you bake them!
Jennifer
Using Cheerios was so tasty! I've always used Corn Flakes, but this was a totally different taste and crunch! YUM
Beth Pierce
So delicious and easy. Made them for dinner and my family loved them. I will be making these again.