Chicken Tender Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Crispy chicken tender salad on a white plate with a gold fork.

5 from 1 vote

Chicken Tender Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Crispy, oven-baked chicken tenders on top of a fresh salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, thinly sliced red onion and a drizzle of homemade honey mustard dressing.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: lunch, Main, Main Course, Mains, Salad, Salads

Cuisine: American

Servings: people

Calories: 580kcal

Author: Jessica

Equipment

Ingredients

Crispy Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders

1 pound chicken tenderloins
1.5 cups seasoned Panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 large egg
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
½ teaspoon Italian seasoning
¼ teaspoon salt
avocado oil spray

Honey Mustard Dressing

¼ cup dijon mustard
¼ cup honey
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon garlic powder

Salad Ingredients

8 cups lettuce
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup sliced English cucumber
½ red onion thinly sliced
1 large avocado sliced

Instructions

Crispy Oven-Baked Chicken Tenders

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spread the Panko breadcrumbs out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Lightly spray the crumbs with avocado oil and stir to coat. Toast in the oven for 3-4 minutes until light golden brown. Gather the parchment paper ends and use it as a funnel to transfer to a shallow dish, set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together all purpose flour, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, egg and Italian seasoning. Add the chicken pieces to the batter and use tongs to toss until thoroughly coated.
Use tongs to transfer a piece of the chicken to the toasted panko crumbs. Use your hands to sprinkle crumbs over the chicken and gently press to help them adhere. Use your hands to turn the chicken over in the crumbs several times until it's fully coated. Transfer back to the baking sheet and repeat this process with all of the remaining chicken pieces.
Spray breaded chicken tenders with oil spray and bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes. Flip and spray the other side and bake for another 6-8 minutes for a total cook time of 14-16 minutes. Use an instant-read thermometer to check that the internal temperature in the thickest part of the chicken is 165 degrees.

Honey Mustard Dressing

In a medium bowl, whisk together mayo, mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar and garlic powder. Drizzle in olive oil and whisk until smooth.

Assemble the salad

Evenly divide lettuce between four plates. Top each salad with halved cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, sliced red onion and avocado.
Place crispy chicken tenders on a cutting board and cut into bite sized chunks.
Arrange crispy chicken chunks on top of the salad and serve immediately with honey mustard dressing.

Notes

Soak sliced red onion in ice water for about 5 minutes and then dry with paper towels before adding to the salad. This helps remove the "bite" from a pungent red onion.

Crispy chicken tenders can also be made in the air fryer. Follow the steps to bread the chicken, spray lightly with oil spray on both sides and air fry at 390 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Nutrition