Healthy Baked Sesame Chicken Tenders
Chicken is one of the most popular meats to use when lunch or dinner time rolls around, but too often we get caught up in the trap of making the same things over and over again, and that is when boredom might set in. If you usually make fried chicken with rice, spicy chicken drumsticks or another favourite family chicken dish, why not consider these chicken tenders instead?
You will need chicken breast strips, so either buy them like that or slice your own, along with soy sauce and hoisin for a delicious Asian flavour, plus garlic, honey, cayenne and sesame, to complement those flavours. We are baking the chicken tenders here, because they will still come out really crispy and you don’t need to deep-fry them, adding all those extra calories and fat.
The recipe calls for a pinch of cayenne pepper, but use your judgment, leaving it out if you’re making this for kids or adding extra if you want it extra-hot. We like to put the chicken tenders on wooden sticks to serve them lollipop-style (just because it’s fun!) so go ahead and do that if you want to.
Photo by Ulterior Epicure, on Flickr
Ingredients
- chicken breast strips – 675g
- soy sauce – 2 tablespoons
- hoisin sauce – 2 tablespoons
- minced garlic clove – 1
- salt – 3/4 teaspoon
- honey – 2 tablespoons
- toasted sesame seeds – 2 tablespoons
- sesame oil – 1 teaspoon
- cayenne pepper – 1 pinch
- cooking spray – as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C.
- Use foil to line a shallow baking tray and spray some nonstick cooking spray on there.
- Toss the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic, salt, honey, sesame seeds, sesame oil and cayenne pepper until well mixed.
- Add the chicken strips and toss to coat.
- Arrange them on the baking pan in one layer.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then turn them over.
- Bake for another 10 minutes or until done.
- Serve hot, with your preferred dipping sauce.
