Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers
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Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers – Easy oven fried chicken tenders tossed in a delicious sweet and spicy honey chipotle sauce!
Winger’s Sticky Fingers, Crispy Coconut Chicken Tenders, and Baked Firecracker Chicken Tenders are more chicken recipes to try next!
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!
More Recipes to Try
- Strawberry Bacon Chopped Salad – turn healthy into irresistible.
- Maple Dijon Chicken – hits sweet and savory in all the right ways.
- Garlic Parmesan Chicken – pure comfort with every bite.
When you make this recipe, snap a photo and tag me on social – I love connecting with you and seeing what you’re up to in the kitchen!
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.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are amazing!! We’ve made these for the 3rd time tonight! This time we didn’t pound the chicken and it still turned out great. We do reduce the butter by a TON. We only use 1 tbsp of butter plus a drizzle of olive oil. Still works and is just as tasty for us! This recipe is going on my list of food to make again and again. Great job!! Yum. 🙂
Tenders are delicious. Sauce too sweet, so just served with Ranch dressing for dipping.
OMG !! Where have you been all my life !! Delicious delicious delicious. Tx !!
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!
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 🙂
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!
I have to admit that I only had the time and energy to make the sauce, not the crispy chicken – sorry! But in my collection of “copy cat” recipes, this is the one that is actually spot on. Thank you for sharing this with us!
I totally get it – I have those days!! But isn’t that sauce to die for?? So glad you liked it Hallie!!
I accidentally bought adobo sauce, without chipotle peppers in it.. Do you think this will be okay?
P.S. Thanks for posting- this sounds amazing!
Hi Karli! I’ve actually never come across the adobo sauce without chipotles – that’s just fine though for this recipe cause you don’t need the peppers!
Tried these a few weeks ago and hubby requested them so thought I’d leave a comment. These are soooo good! I’m not a fan of super spicy food but these were just right. I did not add the hot sauce though and the ranch dressing brings out the sweetness. I’m going to make a lot and share with my brother, I’m sure he’ll love them too.
Hello! I love this recipe and I can’t wait to try it! I already have a can of chipotle chili peppers open from my salsa yesterday, so this recipe is perfect for me to use them up!
I have a question, though.
I noticed you did the same recipe but in the slow cooker (and in my opinion, brilliant method for the chicken!) but I was curious as to which chicken/cooking method you prefer? I wanted to make the most perfect crispy strips that are still tender and amazing! I’m sure either method would work. But I can’t decide on the best. Any suggestions as to which one to do?
Thanks!
Hi Page! Sorry for the delayed response, been out of the country for two weeks! As for the two baking methods… at the end of the day my favorite is the baked version. I feel like the chicken coating gets crispier this way!