Crispy Chicken Fingers with Homemade Honey Mustard

Chicken Fingers are comfort food!

You may find this hard to believe, but I have not always had a refined palate. Some might argue that I am still lacking such an attribute. But let me make one thing clear. Chicken fingers are the shit. 

Growing up, I ate chicken fingers for roughly 69% of all meals. 

“But Matt, that seems impossible! Even for an active child. Surely you can’t have eaten THAT many chicken fingers.”

Homemade is the way to go!

Don’t check my math, but my point is, I’ve eaten a lot of juicy chicken fingers in my day. But as I got older, I realized that not only were 16 weekly chicken strips or as some call them fingers, not part of an ideal balanced diet, it was also really hard to find quality, fresh homemade chicken fingers. Most of the options you can find at restaurants, and certainly in your local grocery stores, will not be homemade chicken fingers, but rather frozen and made with blends of meat and other chicken scraps in a factory. They are not made with chicken breasts or probably even thighs. Don’t get me wrong, McDonald’s chicken nuggets, that are made with (probably) more chicken organs and bones than they are meat, are absolutely delicious but they have their place and time. That place and time is drunk at 2am. Also, please don’t sue me, McDonald’s, for my comment on the ingredients of your nuggies. But like, we all know. We all still eat them.

Don’t forget about the honey mustard.

What if I told you that making your own homemade chicken tenders is insanely easy, simple, and fast? What if I told you that these homemade chicken fingers I’m about to describe are more delicious than anything you can buy in the store? These homemade chicken fingers are made with fresh chicken tenderloins, they have a surprise kick of dijon under their golden brown panko bread crumb crust, and are perfect for almost any meal. This chicken fingers recipe is all you are ever going to need to have a delicious comfort meal quickly at home.

And you can’t have homemade chicken fingers without a dipping sauce. Some people will tell you ranch is the ideal chicken finger dipping sauce, but these people are likely what I would describe as “basic”. Some might tell you that ketchup is the way to go. These people are sociopaths. 

Honey mustard sauce is the supreme dipping sauce partner for chicken fingers. And guess what? I’ve got a recipe for that too.

Here is what you will need to make these chicken fingers.

Chicken tenderloins (these can be cut yourself from whole breasts, but most stores will carry ones that are already sliced into perfect “fingers”)

3 to 4 cups of panko breadcrumbs

2 eggs for our egg mixture

2 tbs of dijon mustard

1 to 2 cups of all purpose flour

Salt and black pepper

Neutral-tasting oil for frying, like grapeseed or veggie

And here is what you will need for the honey mustard.

3/4 cup dijon mustard (tip, do not try and cheat with brown mustard or classic yellow, those are for hot dogs. You must use dijon for this to get the best result)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

3 tbs honey (you can always add more for additional sweetness)

Salt and pepper to taste

Trust the process

Ok, now let’s start cooking. 

Start by breading your chicken fingers. If you’ve ever watched your Italian grandmother make chicken cutlets, just do that. I like to have my three separate prep stations; flour, egg mixture, and panko bread crumbs. Make sure to season all of these with some salt and pepper. We probably use near a teaspoon salt and pepper for each. Think of it like a little assembly line.  

Mix your eggs small shallow bowl with dijon mustard until they are well combined. This mixture should be thin, so be sure not to add too much mustard. If your eggs happen to be huge, you might need to add a dash of water to keep this mixture thin. 

Season your flour with salt and pepper and then coat each chicken finger in the seasoned flour. 

Next, coat each homemade chicken strips in the egg mixture. Let any excess egg mixture drip off. 

Finish by placing homemade chicken tenders in the panko bread crumbs and place aside until you’re ready to fry. 

In either a deep skillet or a dutch oven, add a small layer of your neutral tasting oil and bring to temperature over a medium heat. These are best done as a shallow fry rather than a deep fry, though you can always add more oil and deep fry them. I prefer to do a shallow fry as that will have less excess oil. 

Time to fry!

Depending on the size of your pan or pot, place chicken fingers in making sure not to crowd the pan. Fry on each side for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown on each side. 

As you’re frying, make your honey mustard sauce. Simply combine all of the honey mustard ingredients into a bowl and whisk to combine. Add more honey or mayonnaise to taste. The dijon will provide a nice bite, so if you’re looking for more sweetness, add more honey. If you’re looking to cut the dijon more, add more mayonnaise. 

Place your cooked chicken fingers on a wire rack to let any excess oil drip off. Look at these crispy tenders!

Tools we use to make these Chicken Fingers!

• We adore this Lodge Cast Iron Skillet and we use it for so many things around the kitchen. At this price point, you really can’t beat it!
• We use these Nordicware quarter baking sheets for everything other than baking. They work really well here as a shallow dish for the flour and bread crumbs!
• I’ve been addicted to these skinny tongs lately for my cooking. I got them on Amazon and you’ve probably seen chefs on the cooking shows use them for plating, but I’ve been using them for cooking more often. They’re just more precise than your standard larger-scale tongs.
• I like to use my All-Clad saucepan for frying. It’s a perfect size to fit a thin layer of fry oil without lots of splatter. I typically prefer to avoid deep frying – unless the recipe specifically calls for it – just simply to avoid the excess oil and, honestly, shallow frying is easier.
• We also love these wire racks to place the chicken on after frying. We place a paper towels under them to catch the excess oil.

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