Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers – Easy oven fried chicken tenders tossed in a delicious sweet and spicy honey chipotle sauce!
Ever been to Chili’s? Annnnnd did you try their Chicken Crispers? I bet you can’t guess where I’m going with this. Chili’s Chicken Crispers were my inspiration for this dish. My husband and I went to Chili’s often when we were dating and he always ordered their Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers. The sauce here is the real star of the show, so sweet and sassy with that chipotle spice… I just can’t. get. enough! You won’t believe how easy these are. Simply coat the chicken strips, let em bake til crispy, dip them in the sauce, and then smother them in cool and creamy ranch dressing.
Ranch dressing: not a requirement, but totally recommended.
Easy oven fried chicken tenders tossed in a sweet and spicy honey chipotle sauce!
What people are saying about these Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers
“OMG. THESE THINGS RIGHT HERE……..THE MOST AMAZING DINNER I HAVE EVER MADE!!! My boyfriend DEVOURED them. I loved them. They were still good heated up. Made them with those infamous crack potatoes. My bf asked when I was making these again and asked what I needed haha. Seriously bangin. I have been looking for the recipe to elicit this reaction from him.” – Amanda
“I made this tonight for my family. My husband said it was “Wonderful!!” I asked him if he wanted to try it with the Ranch Dressing and he said, No, it doesn’t need anything else. I made macaroni and cheese, with steamed broccoli crowns for the sides and a baked potato for him because he hates macaroni and cheese. When asked if they wanted me to make it another time and they said, “Yes, this is great.” Bad thing, should have doubled the recipe, cause my son’s wanted to take some for their lunch tomorrow. We got a winner! Thank you for the winning yummy picture!” – Patty
“Thank you for sharing this recipe! Made it For the 2nd time tonight… yummy both times and easy to make. I used chicken tenders. 1st time I used crackers crumbs because I didn’t have bread crumbs.. Good but bread crumbs were better!” – Dana
“Made this dish for supper tonight and my son and husband inhaled them. We definitely could have had them spicier so next time I will dice up a bit of the chipotle pepper and add it to the sauce. We will be having these again and again.”
You might also like my Strawberry Bacon Chopped Salad, Maple Dijon Chicken, and Garlic Parmesan Chicken.
Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts - pounded to ½ inch thickness and sliced into strips
- 1 cup flour
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 2 eggs, - lightly whisked
- 8 tablespoons butter - melted
Sauce
- ⅓ cup honey
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons chipotle adobo sauce - (the sauce that chipotle peppers are packed in inside the can! These can be found in the latino section at the market near the canned jalapeños.)
- 1 tablespoon hot sauce - (I used Franks)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- ⅓ cup cold water
- optional: ranch dressing for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400. Pour melted butter onto a large baking sheet and brush to coat entire surface.
- Whisk together flour, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Place bread crumbs in a second bowl, and eggs in a third bowl. Dip chicken into flour and turn to coat. Next, dip chicken into egg, turning to coat, and lastly into panko bread crumbs, tossing to coat well. Place coated chicken strips in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, then flip strips over and bake another 8 minutes. Remove from oven.
- While the chicken strips are baking, prepare the sauce. Add all ingredients except for water and corn starch to a large sauce pan and bring to a gently boil, whisking throughout. Whisk together cold water and corn starch until corn starch is dissolved. When sauce reaches a boil, add corn starch-water mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Reduce heat to low.
- When chicken strips are finished baking, dip chicken strips in sauce, tossing to coat. Serve warm with ranch dressing for dipping if desired.
Hi Tiffany–
Do you ever marinate the chicken before doing all the other stuff? Whether in milk or brine or vinegar? It seems no one does. Curious if there’s “science” behind not marinating. Too much of a good thing, perhaps? Personally, if chicken isn’t marinated, I always notice the bland chicken flavor underneath all that exterior yumminess…
Hi Betty, I haven’t tried marinating chicken for this recipe – might be good though!
These look so good!! I can’t wait to try making them!
My only question is in regards to the ketchup. Do you think there is an alternative to use/can it be left out? Maybe just use a little more hot sauce or even sub it for sriracha?? (we LOVE spicy in our house so that would not be a problem!) I personally just hate ketchup and while I’m sure I wouldn’t notice it, I don’t have any in my house so I would probably use it in this recipe and that’s it!
Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Maureen! Shoot, I haven’t tried this recipe with anything but ketchup…. I would say that you could swap out maybe half for sriracha but that still leaves you with the problem of not having ketchup in the house… maybe try some tomato sauce? I’m so sorry I’m not sure what might be a better solution! you could try bbq sauce instead and it will change up the flavor but I still thing it would be really delicious!
I ended up using sriracha instead of ketchup. I also couldn’t find chipotle in adobo sauce (in the Mexican aisle – I later discovered it in the Asian aisle!) so I used sweet chile sauce. It actually still turned out good – my dinner guests said the sauce tasted like the sweet and sour sauce you get with chicken balls at Chinese food restaurants. So still worked out! But I caved and bought ketchup as a lot of recipes I want to try call for it, so I will have to try it properly soon 🙂
Wow! I have never ordered this at Chili’s but I am so glad I came across this recipe. My husband and I loved this soooo much! The only thing I did different was to spray the baking sheet with cooking spray instead of butter. I have tried butter with breaded chicken and it usually is soggy. These were crispy on the top and bottom, I broiled for a couple minutes to add color. I can’t say enough how wonderful this sauce is, I love that I didn’t need to season the bread crumbs, the sauce had so much flavor. Your pictures are so pretty, you rock for sharing this recipe! Thanks so much!
OMG !! Where have you been all my life !! Delicious delicious delicious. Tx !!
Tenders are delicious. Sauce too sweet, so just served with Ranch dressing for dipping.