When my husband and I lived in Boston, we loved getting together with friends and family for dinner at Not Your Average Joe’s, a local restaurant chain. Baked Chicken Fingers with Panko and Dijon is my healthy version of their famous Mustard Crusted Chicken.
Pan-fried, crispy, juicy perfection in all of its mustard glory- I can’t even begin to estimate the calorie count. Fortunately, we were fat, happy and in love so it didn’t matter.
Lighty, fluffy and airy – panko is my go-to ingredient whenever I need a crispy, crunchy crust without gallons of oil. Dijon mustard adds flavor, spice and tang with minimal added calories. Bake at a high temperature on an elevated cooling rack and you are well on your way to a skinny-jean friendly chicken fingers dinner.
Your family is waiting.
- Serves: 4
- Serving size: 4 oz
- Calories: 302
- Fat: 6.4 g
- Saturated fat: .5 g
- Unsaturated fat: 5.9 g
- Trans fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 25.5 g
- Sugar: 2.2 g
- Sodium: 1087 mg
- Fiber: 1.1 g
- Protein: 37.8 g
- Cholesterol: 90 mg
- 1½ pounds chicken breast – boneless, skinless cut in strips
- ¼ cup dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic – grated
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- Pre-heat oven to 475 and lay a metal cooling rack flat on top of a baking sheet. Spray cooling rack with non-stick spray and set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine mustard and garlic. Using a small brush, gently “paint” the chicken strips with the garlic mustard.
- In a shallow bowl, use fork to combine panko, salt, pepper, olive oil and paprika. Working in batches, add mustard coated chicken to the panko mixture and press to evenly coat all sides. Place panko covered chicken strips on metal rack lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until browned, turning once halfway through.
- Serve with BBQ or dipping sauce of choice.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
My kiddos would love these ; ) Happy Friday Liz xoxox
My kiddos… I mean husband and son… LOVED these! Gobbled them right up. I need to make them in bulk and freeze. HAPPY FRIDAY! xoxo
This is something my boys would absolutely devour!
My boys did exactly that!! It’s amazing how tasty a simple chicken finger is!!
These chicken strips look great! I can see these appearing on my super bowl party menu!
Oooo good call! I can’t believe we are almost at the super bowl time of year!!
Yummmm. I can’t resist crispy panko and love the addition of paprika. These would be great to have stock-piled in the freezer!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you too friend!! Cheers to a happy and healthy 2013!
I love these!! Easy to make and great option for the kiddos!
My husband enjoys eating like a child, most of the time, so he will loooove these! I love anything with a good yet healthy crunch!
That’s funny – my husband loves eating like a child too – haha!! Let me know if you give them a try!!
I seriously love panko. I could eat anything covered and baked in it!! Happy New Year my friend! So happy to have met you in 2012! xoxo- K
haha I could eat anything covered in panko too!!! I’m going to sprinkle them on baked mushrooms tonight. So good! Happy New Year friend – I’m so glad we got the chance to meet as well!! xoxo
Chicken fingers are my favorite food ever! Sometimes I’m naughty and fry them and then eat about a dozen. Just because, you know… fried food is just bad reheated.
So I’m happy that baked chicken fingers exist! These look especially nice.
hahha – so true about fried food being horrible reheated!!! I hope you like these – we loved them!
Made this for dinner tonight. It was quick, easy and delish! My son said I hit it out of the park with this one! Thanks.
Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! I never cooked chicken at such high heat before and I have to say it kept it very moist! Instead of paprika I used Pecorino Romano and it was delish! Will try the paprika some time, too.
I also have never combined oil into the bread crumb mixture. It was a little difficult to mix, but I stuck with it.
Thanks again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the chicken!! Let me know if you try anything else!!
I can’t wait to try these!! Thanks for sharing,
Let me know what you think!! I hope you enjoy!!
Hi Liz, these were amazing and so easy to put together! I just loved the punch from the mustard and paprika, genius! I think this recipe is going to be on my regular rotation from now on
So glad I found your blog!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!!!!
I made these last night. Amazing!!! I made my own honey mustard sauce too which was a fantastic complement. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Wow I love that you made your own honey mustard!! Sounds incredible! Thanks for sharing!
I made this dish for my son and myself last week and it was delicious! Best oven baked chicken strip recipe I have tried and there have been many. I never would have thought of adding the olive oil to the panko. It really helped crisp them up. Thank you!
Oh my goodness that makes me so happy!!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!!
These sound perfect! I’m making them tonight and adding some parmesan cheese to the panko crumbs! Serving them with a cucumber/pepper salad to be extra healthy!=)
Made these for dinner and we all loved them!!! My husband went back for more and ate some cold out of the fridge and said he wouldn’t mind just keeping them in there for snacks! My three year old had fun helping me do the breading as well. All around fun and yummy:) Thanks Liz, can’t wait to try some more of your recipes!
Oh I’m so glad to hear Cami! Let me know if you try anything else!!
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