Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders – Emily Bites

These Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders are a great way to turn a favorite snack food into a satisfying, protein-packed meal! These chicken tenders are tossed in a seasoned flour mixture and coated with crispy crushed Doritos, so there is a ton of flavor and crunch packed into every bite. If you love Doritos, this will give you the flavor you crave! Our whole family loved it. They’re tasty on their own, but they’re also great served with your favorite dipping sauce (may daughter loved them with ranch dressing). Better still, these Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders can be made in your own or air fryer, so you can choose the method that’s more convenient for you. A serving of these tenders (for me this was three tenders) is just 383 calories, 36 grams of protein, and 6 Points on the WW program. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app, click here!

Serving Size

I know people will want to know “how many chicken tenders are in a serving?” I decided to post the serving size by weight, because whether you buy chicken tenderloins pre-cut or cut your own tenders from chicken breasts, the size of each tender may vary. This recipe uses 20 ounces of raw chicken strips. I used 20 ounces of chicken breasts and cut them into 12 tenders (about 1.6 ounces each). It’s okay if they’re not all exactly the same size, as long as they’re similar. You can also buy chicken tenderloins already in strips to skip this step if you prefer. When breaded and cooked, the finished tenders weighed a little over 24 ounces total, so it makes four servings at 6 ounces each. Since I had 12 tenders, my 6 ounce servings were three tenders each. If your chicken strips are larger or smaller the number per serving may vary.

Recipe Notes

• Oven-Baked or Air-Fried? I tested this recipe in the oven and the air fryer and they both turned out great! The air fryer gets them slightly crispier, but you have to cook them in batches, whereas the oven can do them all at once. It’s completely up to you which method you want to use, but the results are delicious either way.
• Do I need to pre-heat my air fryer? I’ve seen lots of mixed information about this. Some sources say you absolutely must pre-heat your air fryer and some say you needn’t bother. I think it probably depends on the brand of air fryer you own, so you may want to check your manual. I have a COSORI brand air fryer and do not pre-heat for this recipe. I see that Philips brand also says you don’t need to pre-heat. If you’re not sure about your particular model, feel free to just run it for a few minutes before you add the chicken tenders to be sure.
• Doritos: I used the traditional Nacho Cheese Doritos for these tenders and they turned out great! I’m sure other flavors would also be good, so feel free to try it out with your favorite flavor. I want to try the spicy ones next time!
• Chicken: Raw chicken tenderloins are sold in the meat section of most grocery stores, so definitely feel free to just grab those for this recipe. I almost always have chicken breasts on hand, so for me it’s easier to just cut those into strips using kitchen shears. Either will work just fine!

More Tasty, Lean Protein Chicken Recipes

Looking for more tasty, lightened up recipes using chicken breasts like these Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders? Check out my Air Fryer Chicken Tenders, Chori Pollo, Cheesy Bacon Ranch Baked Chicken, Italian Sausage Stuffed Chicken Bake, Mushroom and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken, Herb and Cheese Chicken Fritters, Mexican Street Corn Chicken, Cheesy Broccoli Stuffed Chicken, Lemon Pepper Chicken Bites, Baked Chicken Tenders, Crispy Onion Dip Chicken, Nashville Hot Chicken Bites, Crispy Chicken Parmesan, Apple and Brie Stuffed Chicken, Blackened Chicken Bites, Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Bake,  Cream Cheese and Herb Stuffed Chicken, Tuscan Olive Chicken, Barbecue Bacon Wrapped Chicken Tenders, Pimento Cheese Stuffed Chicken, Cream Cheese Stuffed Everything Chicken, and many more in the Chicken section of my recipe index!

Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 20 minutes mins

Total Time: 30 minutes mins

Yield: 4 (6 ounce) servings

These Doritos-Crusted Chicken Tenders are turn a favorite snack into a satisfying, protein-packed meal!

• 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 ¼ lbs (20 oz) raw boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 12 strips (you can alternatively buy chicken tenderloins)
• 1 large egg
• 5 oz Nacho Cheese Doritos

• In a small dish, add the flour, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and cayenne, and stir to combine. Place the chicken strips into a gallon Ziploc bag and add the flour mixture. Seal the bag and shake to coat the chicken.

• In a shallow dish, beat the egg and set aside.

• Place the Doritos in a Ziploc bag and crush into crumbs using your hands, a rolling pin, or a meat mallet. Place the Doritos crumbs in a separate shallow dish from the egg.

• One at a time, take the flour-coated chicken strips and coat them in the egg, allowing the excess to drip off.  Then press them into the dish of Doritos crumbs and flip so that both sides are coated in crumbs.

• Air Fryer: Transfer the crumb-coated strips to the basket of your air fryer in a single layer without the tenders touching each other. My air fryer basket fit six tenders comfortably with space around them, so I was able to cook the tenders in two batches of six (12 tenders total). When you have a batch of chicken tenders positioned correctly in the air fryer basket, lightly mist them with cooking spray. Set the air fryer to 380 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 5-6 minutes. Flip the tenders over and continue to cook your tenders for another 5-6 minutes until cooked through.Oven: Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. When all the chicken tenders are coated and on the baking sheet, spray the tops of them with cooking spray and place in the oven to bake for 16-20 minutes (flipping the tenders over once halfway through) until cooked through.

To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
WW Points per serving*: 6 (Points calculated using the recipe builder in the WW app)
Nutrition Information per serving*:
383 calories, 24 g carbs, 1 g sugar, 15 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 36 g protein, 2 g fiber, 328 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com)
Weight Watchers Points Plus:
10 per serving* (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition information)
*Since people may cut/buy different sized chicken tenders, I recommend determining the servings by weight. My finished tenders weighed a little over 24 ounces, so each serving was about 6 ounces by weight. For me this was around 3 tenders.

Author: Emily Bites

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American