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Crispy, crunchy Keto Chicken Tenders are perfect for lunch and dinner. They’re easy to make and kid-friendly! I love dipping these into my keto bbq sauce or copycat chick-fil-a sauce, but these work great for making a Homemade Low Carb Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich too! Ready in 30 minutes.
Ingredients Needed
- chicken: I’m using chicken breast tenders since they are already cut to size, but you could also use sliced chicken breasts.
- heavy cream: I’m using this along with an egg to help the keto breading bind the the chicken tenders. But, you could swap this with buttermilk if you wish.
- egg: helps with coating the tenders with the breading
- keto-friendly breading: a mixture of spices and a low-carb flour that creates a crispy result on the chicken tender without as many carbs as regular flour.
How to Make Keto Chicken Tenders
- Make the breading: I just mixed the spices in a small bowl with the low-carb flour.
- Whisk the heavy cream and egg
- Coat the tenders in breading: this is a two-step process of adding the chicken to the wet mixture (cream and egg) then coating it in the breading.
- Fry the chicken: You can use any high-smoke point oil that you prefer. Some of my favorites are avocado oil, coconut oil, peanut oil, and vegetable oil.
DIY Low Carb Popeyes Chicken Sandwich
Chicken tenders are fantastic on their own, but they also taste great as part of a homemade Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich. To make the sandwich, I did the following:
- toasted a keto-friendly roll: I used this keto-friendly dinner rolls recipe, but you could also buy these low-carb hamburger buns.
- topped each bun with spicy mayo (click for the recipe)
- added a few kosher dill pickles: I pick these up from the refrigerated section of the market
Top Cooking Tips and Recipe FAQs:
- Heat the oil to 350 degrees before cooking: the best way to get crunchy, golden brown chicken tenders is to pre-heat the oil properly.
- Double the keto breading and store it in an air-tight container – I use this breading for things like crispy fried fish and shrimp as well. I simply start with 1/2 cup of the finished breading for chicken tenders and add more to coat the tenders if needed.
- Don’t double coat or add breading ahead of time: this breading is meant to be used to coat the chicken once. Double coating usually results in salty chicken. Adding the breading ahead of time (I added the breading hours before once) and it changed the texture of the meat so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Recommended Sauces & Dips
- Copycat Bang Bang Sauce
- Keto BBQ Sauce
- Keto Chick-fil-A Sauce
- Spicy Mayo
- Sugar-free Honey Mustard
Do you have to deep fry these?
No. You can shallow fry these like I did in my crispy buffalo shrimp recipe. This means that you just add enough oil to the frying pan to cover one side of the chicken completely. Then, you flip the chicken halfway through to cook both sides evenly.
Can you use another breading?
Yes. The breading in the recipe mimics regular flour much more than grain-free flour and is still low-carb (4g net carbs per serving). But, you can use the breading I shared in my keto bang bang shrimp post, if you need a completely grain-free option.
Can you add the breading ahead of time or double coat?
No. Double coating usually results in salty chicken so I’d just coat the tenders once. Adding the breading ahead of time (I added the breading hours before once) can sometimes change the texture of the meat so I wouldn’t recommend it.
If you try this recipe, please stop back and leave it a star rating and/or a review in the comments. Stay connected & share photos of your creations with me & others on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!
Keto Chicken Tenders
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Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Breast Tenders, or chicken breasts sliced into strips
- 1 Eggs
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream, or buttermilk
- Oil, for frying, see the blog post for recommendations
Keto Breading
- 1/2 cup Keto Wheat Flour, use KWF20 to get 20% off
- 1 tbsp Seasoned Salt, I used Lawry's
- 1 tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1/2 tbsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 tbsp Dried Parsley
- 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper, optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oil in a frying pan or cast iron pot to medium heat.
- Whisk the egg and cream in a large bowl to combine them.
- Add the chicken tenders to the milk and egg mixture. Use tongs to coat the chicken breasts in the liquid
- Add the keto breading ingredients to a small bowl and whisk them to combine.
- Use your tablespoon (the one used to make the breading) to add 1 tablespoon of the milk and egg mixture to the breading (this helps create some of the crispy crunchy bits on the tenders).
- Coat the chicken tenders one at a time in the breading
- Fry the tenders in oil that is 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes per side. You want them to be golden brown.
Nutrition Details
The nutrition facts come from entering the recipe ingredients into Spoonacular API, a database of food ingredients. They may vary for any recipe based on the exact product used. The keto sweeteners I use have 0g net carbs & are not included because sugar alcohols do not impact most people. This is provided as a courtesy, but you can do your own calculations if you wish!
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