Doritos Crusted Chicken Tenders
These baked Doritos Crusted Chicken Tenders are the ultimate game day snack—crispy, bold, and packed with flavor in every bite. Juicy chicken strips are dipped in milk, flour, and eggs, then coated in crushed Doritos for a crunchy, cheesy crust that takes them over the top. Baked to golden perfection and ready in just 30 minutes, these chicken tenders are perfect for football parties, tailgates, or an easy weeknight dinner.
Try my easy air fryer chicken tenders, firecracker chicken wraps, or hot honey fried chicken sandwich next!
Baked Doritos Chicken Strips
My boys used to love ordering these Cool Ranch Doritos Baked Chicken Tenders at a local restaurant. Then, they took it off the menu.
After being asked multiple times to try and make this recipe at home, I finally got around to it! Hope you like it as much as my boys do.
It has become one of our favorite game day finger food snacks!
Serve them with your favorite dipping sauce for a crowd-pleasing appetizer or finger food everyone will devour!
YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE!
- Your favourite Cool Ranch Doritos, Nacho Cheese or flamin’ hot (if you dare!) combined with favourite chicken tenders!
- Only 5 ingredients and nothing fancy required to make these tasty chicken strips!
- This recipe is fun and family-friendly and always enjoyed by everyone!
- A quick and easy recipe that can be ready in 30 minutes! Combine this with Crispy Sweet Potato Wedges and a side salad for a delicious and fun meal.
INGREDIENTS & SUBSTITUTIONS
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2.5lbs.)
- 1 bag (255g) of Cool Ranch Doritos. You can also substitute any of your other flavour of your favourite Doritos.
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup milk. I usually have 1% in the house but you can use any type of milk here.
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
If you love Dorito recipes, then you will love my Dorito chicken casserole recipe. Ready in 35 minutes, it’s a satisfying family-friendly meal.
How to make easy Doritos Chicken Tenders – Step by Step Instructions
There are only a few easy steps to making this recipe and they’re going to be a hit at your next party!
Slice the chicken
For this recipe, I used 2.5 lbs. (4 large chicken breasts) of boneless, skinless chicken.
4 chicken breasts makes 24-28 chicken tenders.
Slice them into strips about 3-4 inches long by 2-3 inches wide depending on your preference.
Try to keep them as uniform in size as possible so that they all cook evenly and within the time frame.
The Doritos
This is the fun part about making Dorios chicken. Open the bag. Roll the top down and crunch up the Doritos until you have crumbs. You want to leave a few a bit chunkier and don’t crunch them up to a powder.
Assemble all other ingredients
Quick and easy – one bowl for milk, one for flour, one for eggs.
To make things easy, line the ingredients up in order and get yourself a wet cloth because you’re going to need it 🙂
These are a bit messy. Trust me, if you don’t start with the wet cloth right away you will end up with an accumulated blob of batter on your hand that gets bigger every time you dip a chicken tender.
Line them up in a row like this:
Chicken, milk, flour, eggs, Doritos, cookie baking pan, wet cloth.
The dunking production line
And that is it!! Dip the chicken in the milk and follow along down the row with the flour, eggs, crunched up Doritos, then place them on the baking sheet.
Line two baking pans with foil or brush them VERY LIGHTLY with olive oil. Just enough so that the chicken strips don’t stick.it
Bake them – no frying!
Pop them in the oven for 10 minutes, then turn over and bake for another 8-10 minutes. I baked mine 20 minutes and they were perfectly juicy. Make sure they’re no longer pink inside. Cut one open to check.
My top tips for Dorito chicken
- Don’t crush the Doritos up too finely. You want small pieces that will crisp up in the oven.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled for a crowd.
How to serve Cool Ranch Dorito Baked Chicken Tenders
There are so many possibilities, BBQ sauce, Ranch dip, or a drizzle of honey.
Carrot and celery sticks on the side with blue cheese dressing. A little side dish of Creamy Coleslaw.
What can I do with leftover Doritos chicken?
If you’ve made a big batch and have leftovers, they would be delicious sliced into a taco salad the next day. My kids love to reheat them in the microwave for a few seconds and put them into a taco.
FAQ’s
You can use any flavor of Doritos that you like, but Nacho Cheese or Cool Ranch are the most popular options for this recipe.
Yes you can. Place the cooled chicken strips in a freezer bag or airtight freezer container for up to 3 months.
Doritos Crusted Chicken Tenders
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 servings 1x
Description
Crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, these tenders are packed with flavour, easy to make and ready in less than half an hour!
Ingredients
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (2.5 lbs.)
1 255g bag of Cool Ranch Doritos
3/4 cup all purpose flour
4 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with foil or brush very lightly with olive oil to prevent sticking. If you have a wire rack that sits in a baking sheet, that will work very well.
3. Slice chicken into pieces about 3-4 inches long by 2-3 inches wide. Place in bowl and set aside. Depending on the size of the chicken breast, you will get 5-7 pieces in each one.
4. Open top of Doritos bag, then hold the top closed and squeeze to crunch up the Doritos. The pieces will resemble crunched up corn flakes.
5. In separate bowls, place milk, flour, and beaten eggs. Line up bowls in the following order: milk, flour, eggs, Doritos, cookie tray, wet cloth.
(Before assembling, have a wet cloth handy as this can get a little messy!)
6. Dip each piece of chicken, one at a time, into the milk, then flour, next eggs and finally crunched up Doritos. Place on baking sheet.
7. Bake in 400F for 15-20 minutes, turning over once halfway through. Test to ensure that chicken is no longer pink inside.
8. Serve with BBQ sauce or ranch dipping sauce and garnish with sliced green onions.
Notes
Storage: Store cooled Dorito tenders in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
Freezing: You can freeze cooked tender by placing cooled tenders in a large freezer bag or airtight container. Freeze for up to three months. I like to reheat them in the air fryer at 350°F for a few minutes.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Oven Baked
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: One quarter of the helping
- Calories: 481
- Sugar: 5.6 g
- Sodium: 677.9 mg
- Fat: 34.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.2 g
- Trans Fat: 0.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.3 g
- Fiber: 0.6 g
- Protein: 17.5 g
- Cholesterol: 224.2 mg
Our teens had this at a restaurant and raved about it so we found this and tried it. They loved it so much now we love it as well. The Doritos add flavour and crunch that is irresistible. It is going to be our main dish for Super Bowl. Thanks for this amazing recipe!
i was looking for an easy recipe of chicken breast! i think I found one!
You had me at Doritos. I’ve made all kinds of recipes with Doritos, and they’re always fantastic. I can’t wait to add this one to my list!
Thanks Beth!
This recipe has it all – easy, quick and there are no leftovers in my home! Delish!
These are fantastic. My kids definitely approve! Going to be making these tenders again soon. Thanks!
Thanks Jill! I appreciate that 😉
These are quite tasty. I love the crunch.
You’ve combined my grandsons 2 favorite things, chicken tenders and cool ranch Doritos. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I make this deliciousness!
Enjoyed this for dinner last night and it was a hit all around the table! Easily, my family’s new favorite meal!
I tried this with two kinds of Doritos, the Cool Ranch and the Spicy Sweet Chili (my favorite) and absolutely loved both varieties. Such a fantastic recipe!
Thanks Nathan! Love those two flavors!
Using crunchy, flavor packed, cool ranch Doritos is genius. I can’t wait to make these for my grandkids.
Okay, these tenders were amazing! I love Doritos anything so it was a no brainer to make these for my kiddos.
I love my air fryer and I love this recipe! So easy to make and is always gobbled up by my family! Perfect busy weekday dish!