May is Food Allergy Awareness Month, so I asked my Instagram followers to suggest meals for me to try making top-8-free to celebrate. The top two ended up being dairy-free cottage cheese ice cream (!!) and gluten-free crispy chicken tenders, and ultimately (and thankfully) the tenders won out in the end!
This recipe, which uses cornflakes, unsweetened coconut and sesame seeds as the crispy coating features and a vegan version of Bang Bang Sauce, is a modified version of Half Baked Harvest’s Coconut Chicken Fingers with Bang Bang Sauce. I used oat milk in place of eggs as the initial coating on the chicken to make the “breading” stick, and it worked like a charm.
My son loved these so much, he asked if I could make another batch the same night. I hope you love them, too!
Equipment
- Food processor or blender
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced into thin tenders
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup gluten-free cornflakes
- 1 ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- ½ cup oat milk
- 1 tbsp soy-free hot sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil or olive oil
For the Vegan Bang Bang Sauce:
- 1 cup soy-free vegan mayonnaise
- 1 tsp soy-free hot sauce
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- zest of one lime
- 1 tsp fresh-squeezed lime juice
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Season chicken on all sides with salt and pepper.
- In a food processor or blender, pulse corn flakes, shredded coconut, smoked paprika, garlic salt and onion powder until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
- Pour cornflake mixture onto a large, flat plate, then add sesame seeds and stir so that seeds are evenly distributed throughout.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together oat milk and hot sauce.
- Working one at a time, coat each chicken tender in the oat milk mixture, then the cornflake mixture, coating evenly on all sides.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and place the tenders on the sheet, spaced out from one another, then drizzle with sesame or olive oil.
- Bake about 15 minutes, until crisp and cooked through.
Make the Vegan Bang Bang Sauce:
- In a small mixing bowl, combine all of the Vegan Bang Bang Sauce ingredients and whisk until smooth. Serve alongside hot chicken tenders.
