Paleo Nacho Tortilla Crusted Chicken Tenders

These Paleo tortilla crusted chicken tenders are nacho average chicken tender! Nacho flavored, super crispy and oven baked. Serve with a delicious vegan avocado lime crema dip.

Crunch, crunch, baby....that's the song I kept singing while eating and admiring the easiest paleo tortilla crusted chicken tenders you can ever make.

Yep, dubbing it that wha wha!! You my friend can have freaking amazing super crunchy, feel like your eating at a restaurant paleo freaking chicken tenders with three ingredients.

And you definitely read the title right and did not stroke out on me. I did use paleo and tortillas in the same sentence. These are coated in tortillas, nacho tortillas. So these are nacho average chicken finger.

Speaking of, why is there a chicken tender and a chicken finger. I needed to know so I looked it up for you. It apparently has to do with what part of the breast it came from. But what if you use the entire breast and cut it up is that a chicken strip? And why the eff are there so many breaded chicken foods?

I got sick of trying to figure that out, so if you know the answers lmk, ok?

Back to the tortilla crusted tenders. These chicken tenders are made with Siete grain free tortilla chips. Siete chips are made with paleo friendly ingredients and are actually labeled paleo on the bag. If you haven't tried their products yet, you will be blown away by the taste and the price. Sometimes they are expensive, but they are always delicious.

But if you think about the chips as a dinner and divide it among 4 people the price becomes a little more bearable. I should have named this the Siete food week here on the blog because Monday I posted the best tasting gluten free/grain free chicken enchiladas made with their tortillas.

Siete should heart me forever, but alas they don't even know I exist.

Let's dig into all the details you need to make these asap stat.

Ingredients for Paleo Tortilla Crusted Chicken Tenders

To make these cripsy af gluten free, grain free chicken tenders you will need:

• Siete Grain Free Nacho Tortilla Chips
• Egg
• Chicken breast or tenders
• salt

Step by Step

1. Pre heat your oven to 400°F. Prepare a baking sheet by placing a baking rack over it. If you do not have a baking rack I would recommend parchment paper.
2. Crush your chips. I crushed by hand and then gave them a few zips in the blender. I made the pieces about the size of half of a pencil eraser. Place in a medium shallow dish.
3. Place your egg in a shallow dish. Shallow is key!! I used a dish that was 3 inches tall and 6 inches long. Whisk until frothy. I did add about 1 tsp of water to my egg because it was pretty thick. This made it easier to whisk frothy and easier to not coat the crap out of chicken.
4. If you are using chicken breast then you need to cut your chicken breast into tender size pieces. Keep in mind whatever size you cut the tenders will determine how long they will have to cook. Mine were not cut even but I tried to keep them so they were less than ¼-1/2 inch thick.
5. One piece at a time, dip your chicken into the egg mixture and coat. Be sure to let any extra drip off, then place into the chips and coat.
6. Place on the baking rack evenly and not touching.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until your chicken reaches an internal temp of 160°F. If you are using a baking rack you will not need to flip the tenders. If you are using parchment paper, know the underside is not going to be as crispy as the top.

A few pro tips:

When dipping and coating your chicken the best way to keep your hands as clean as possible, is to designate one hand your dry hand and one hand your wet hand. For example, use the left hand to place the chicken in the egg, then to grab it from the egg to place it in the chips, and to flip the chicken when coating in chips. On the first side of coating, grab the chicken by the side that hasn't been coated to flip. Once the entire chicken piece is coated in chips, use the dry hand to remove it.

Another optional pro tip: To make these even tastier and prettier, about 5 minutes before these finish baking, brush them with some melted ghee very gently. This really gives them a nice golden shiny color.

Vegan Avocado Lime Crema Dip

If you are looking for something super fun and different to dip your chicken tenders in definitely try this vegan avocado lime crema dip. It is a fun twist of a dip and my husband used the leftovers as a dip for his plantain chips the next day!

It is super easy to make.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cashews
• ½ of a ripe avocado
• ½ cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or avocado oil
• 1 tablespoon of cilantro ( I used freeze dried)
• 1 green onion, chopped (I used it all except trimmed the bottom and top some)
• 2 garlic cloves
• the juice of 1 lime
• ½ teaspoon of lime zest
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of apple cider vinegar

Directions

Throw this all into a blender and blend until smooth and thick. Stick this in the fridge. I think it tasted best after sitting in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

I think fresh cilantro would taste way better with this dip, but you know #quarantine. So I used what I had. If you use fresh, I would just pick a small handful off and throw it in the blender.

Tips for extra crispy paleo tortilla crusted chicken tenders

I have a few tips for making these the crispiest baked tenders you will ever eat.

1. Be sure to drain off as much egg as possible before you dip them in the chips
2. Bake these on a baking rack or if you don't have that check to see if your cooling rack is oven friendly and use that. This will make a HUGE difference in crispiness of the underneath of your tenders.
3. Brush the tenders with melted ghee, gently. Do this about 5 minutes before they finish cooking.

Are these kid friendly?

Truth. I didn't share these with my two older kids. Is that bad? They just don't have the love and respect for food that deserved to eat these chicken tenders. Instead I made them chicken tenders covered in pretzels with some very questionable ingredients.

Should I be mom shamed for that?

I didn't want to share the deliciousness. Sorry not sorry.

But these are totally kid friendly. I have to admit I don't think that the Siete Nacho Tortillas have a taste that most kids would like. They are definitely no Doritos! So I figured they wouldn't like them anyway. But turns out these chips are freaking amazing as a breading. The taste was perfect and there was no flavor that I tasted that I think a kid would turn their nose up at.

I did serve the tenders and the crema to the baby, but begrudgingly peeled off the tortilla coating so he didn't choke to death. See, I am not that bad of a mom.

How to serve your paleo chicken tenders

I cannot wait for you to make these chicken tenders. They will change your paleo life forever. Here are a few ways you could serve these in case you need some ideas:

• on a taco salad
• on top of any salad
• as your main meat with a side of veggies
• in a paleo friendly wrap
• as an appetizer on game day or any ol' day
• in a closet hiding from your family so you don't have to share (no shame)

Don't forget to tag me on Instagram when you make these! Use #livelearnmom and tag me at @sweetrusticbakes. And if you are feeling super frisky you could come back and leave a review so the whole wide world web knows how amazing these are. I would really love that.

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