Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken Fingers
Okay, okay… I eat a lot of chicken. Like a LOT you guys. My “chicken” pinterest board has wayyyy more pins and recipes than my other boards, and when I’m planning out meals I usually count up and realize that I’ve chosen 90% chicken meals… DOH! So consider me a chicken expert (lol, just go with it 😉 )… and trust me when I tell you that this chicken recipe… will become one of your favorites, if not your TOP favorite!
I mean come on you guys… come ON… tell me that doesn’t look like you just have to take a bite?!
This recipe came to me from my homegirl (dear lord, did I really just say that? Yikes, I’m weird) Stephanie from The Cozy Cook, and ever since she posted this recipe, I’ve been itching to try it! Her website is awesome, her recipes always make me hungry, and she’s super sweet… so go show her some love 😀
I love that these chicken fingers are baked, but you’d never know it from tasting them… they are incredibly crunchy! And it uses Panko breadcrumbs, which I’m completely obsessed with, so yay!
Just set up your breading area with 3 dishes and work your way down the line, breading your chicken fingers. Now you can use actual chicken tenders from the store, or just slice some chicken breasts into strips like I did. I find the chicken tenders in my store are kind of measly, not very big, and are mostly that gross white tendon thing. No way man, no way.
Tip: Breading chicken can be very messy and frustrating, so here’s how I do it. Have one hand your designated “wet hand”. It’s the one you pick up the raw chicken, toss it in the flour, give it a bath in the egg mixture, and place it in the breadcrumbs dish. Then use your other designated “dry hand” to coat it in the breadcrumbs. It helps a lot 🙂
Place your chicken fingers on a foil lined baking sheet that’s been sprayed with cooking spray and bake for about 20 minutes or so. They get nice and toasty.
While they’re baking, go ahead and whisk your sauce together in a saucepan. It will bubble and smell deeeeelicious!
Once the chicken is done baking, either dip the chicken fingers into the sauce, or place your chicken in a big bowl and toss it with the sauce. I tossed them and tiny amounts of breading came off of a couple of the chicken fingers… no biggie to me, but if that would bother you, just dip the chicken 🙂

I think I wanted to toss the chicken just so I could pour the sauce over the top… it always looks so pretty!
This chicken has a kick… but definitely a delicious one! The sweetness tones down the heat, and you can always drizzle some ranch dressing over the top to cool them down even more if you’d like 🙂 Stephanie also suggested some blue cheese dressing, which would be sooooo good!
You know me, and you know my love of sauces… so you know I just had to make extra of that sauce to drizzle it allllll over those bad boys!
Ohhhhhhh yeah! Can’t you just imagine licking that sauce off your fingers?
I had some of my roasted corn and poblano salsa leftover, so I thought about making these into a chicken taco!
You guys… Best. Chicken. Taco. EVER. You have to try this 🙂
Ummm let’s just say… those two tacos… they didn’t last very long after this photo was taken. Yep, that’s right, I stopped mid-photoshoot to chow down. They’re that good!
If you like some rice on your tacos, some cilantro lime rice would work really well. I used my homemade flour tortillas, but store-bought would totally be good too 🙂
Come party with us at Fiesta Friday with the wonderful Angie of course, and Juliana @ Foodie on Board, and Hilda @ Along the Grapevine !! It’s always such a fun time! 😀
Don’t miss a new recipe, enter your email below to stay updated!
[mc4wp_form]
You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +, so follow me if you’d like… I love keeping in touch with all of you 🙂
Linked to Made By You Monday | Melt in Your Mouth Mondays | Munching Mondays | Tickle My Tastebuds Tuesdays | Try a New Recipe Tuesday | Take A Look Tuesday | Totally Talented Tuesdays | Lou Lou Girls Fabulous Party | Simple Suppers | What’s Cooking Wednesdays | Whimsy Wednesdays | The Wednesday Roundup | Wordless Wednesday | Showcase Your Talent Thursdays | Full Plate Thursdays | Favorite Things Blog Hop | Foodie Fridays | Fiesta Fridays | Pure Blog Love | Pin Junkie Pin Party | Foodie Friends Friday | Foodie Friday and Everything Else | Fresh Ideas for Your Home | Friday Favorites | Show Stopper | Best of the Weekend | Show and Tell Saturday | Link Party Palooza
Recipe adapted slightly from The Cozy Cook

Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken Fingers
Ingredients
- Chicken:
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts - sliced into strips
- 1 tsp salt
- black pepper - to taste
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- 1 cup flour
- 2 large eggs and about a tablespoon of water - whisked
- 2 cups Panko bread crumbs
- Sauce:
- 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 2/3 cup Frank's hot sauce - I used original
- 2-3 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 4 Tbsp water
Instructions
- For the chicken:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray.
- Set up your breading "station" by having three dishes all side by side. Place the flour in one dish, egg mixture in another, and the bread crumbs in the last dish.
- Add your paprika and cayenne to your flour and stir together to combine.
- Lightly salt and pepper your chicken, then coat chicken strip in flour. Place chicken in the egg mixture and turn to coat. Next, place the chicken in the breadcrumbs and press the bread crumbs into the chicken to coat thoroughly. Repeat with remaining chicken strips.
- Place the chicken on prepared baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, or until chicken is brown and cooked through.
- For the Sauce:
- Whisk the brown sugar, honey, and hot sauce together in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it bubbles. Add the garlic powder and water, and whisk to combine thoroughly.
- Coat the chicken with the sauce and set aside on a serving plate. Garnish with green onions if desired.
Notes
If changing the recipe serving quantity, the recipe plugin will change the ingredient values for you, but it does NOT change the written instructions, those are manually added and not subject to a slider/button. You will have to extrapolate that multiplication to any amounts listed in the instructions.
For example: if an ingredient calls for 4 cups, and you doubled the recipe, it will automatically change to 8 cups. In the instructions, if I say “use 4 cups of cheese”, you will have to realize that since you doubled it, you use 8 cups, not 4
Did you recipe get added correctly? What is “2 Tbsp eggs and about a of water” Does that actually mean two eggs and about 2 tbsp water?
Thanks for the heads up! Sometimes when a new website theme is implemented, older recipes get a bit garbled. I’ve been going back through them, but with over 500, it takes a while 🙂 It should read 2 eggs and a Tbsp of water. I’ve fixed the issue for the future.
This looks so delicious.. mouthwatering?
Those look so good! That sauce sounds wonderful. I love Franks hot sauce. I’ve never used it in a sweet and heat recipe. I think we would love this! Pinning to try!
Thank you Carlee!! Franks hot sauce is super tasty and I hope you love these as much as we do!! 😀
Wow! Your recipe looks delicious! Thank you very much for joining in the celebration of #purebloglove, we enjoy having you each week. I hope to see you on Thursday at 8PM, EST through Sunday night. ~Cydnee
Thank you Cydnee!! I love joining the #purebloglove party each week 😀
Another mouthwatering recipe Amanda! Love this spicy version of chicken nuggets and the sticky sauce. thanks for the tips on breading technique. I always get frustrated! I will try your method now! 🙂
Thank you Indu!!! 😀 I hope you love the breading method and how yummy these chicken fingers are 😀
Amanda,
These look awesome. My mouth is watering looking at them. The breading tips are brilliant too!
Thank you so much Sandhya!! I spend many a time with two completely coated hands and thought, “there has to be a better way!” 🙂
I bet those tacos were amazing, what a great combnation of crunchy – sweet – and spice. Yum!
Thank you Liz!! They’re crazy good 🙂
OMG! OMG! This is sheer torture. Not just one bite. I can live on that for days and weeks. It looks incredible……
Thank you SO much skd!! 😀
Totally making these!! Look crazy good! You and Stephanie sure know how to cook chicken. I’ve already bookmarked her maple waffle nuggets, and now I’m bookmarking this! 🙂
Thank you Angie!! 😀 Ohhh yes, we sure do love our chicken! And I know what you mean, those maple waffle nuggets look SOOOOO good!
Oh my goodness your Sweet and Spicy Sticky Chicken Fingers look fantastic! Thanks so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great week.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
Thank you Miz Helen!! 😀 Enjoy your weekend!
These look great! I would probably end up eating at least 25% before serving these! Yum!
Thank you Sonal!! I *may* have taste tested one or two before they hit the table 😉
Ooh, these look delicious! And they look really good in the tacos too (clearly tacos on the mind this week 🙂 – me too!) Will definitely have to see about trying these.
Thank you Caroline!! Tacos are allllways a great idea, and yours look yummy too 😀
Another great chicken dish! I also appreciate the tips on breading without breading one’s own fingers in the process.
Thank you Hilda! I swear sometimes I would end up with more breading on my fingers than on the actual food lol
Oh, these are lip-smackingly good!! Happy FF!! 😀
Thank you Jhuls!! Happy FF to you too 😀 😀
I love panko, and the chicken looks good too! Pinned. 🙂
Thank you Dee!! 😀
I am all over this recipe…I LOVE It! It’s going on the menu SOON! I actually pinned it earlier today! 🙂
Thank you so much Michelle!!! I can’t wait for you to try it 😀
This chicken looks so AMAZING! I am thinking we will give it a try this weekend. Thanks Much. Dropping by from Foodie Friends:)
Thank you so much Jen! I hope you LOVE them as much as we do 😀
You can bet that I will be making these!! We eat SO MUCH chicken at home and I’m ALWAYS looking for new ways to try them! This is number one on the list!! 😀
Thank you Dini!! We’re the chicken twins lol… I buy so much chicken, it’s insane. I hope you LOVE these 😀
You “girls” hit it out of the park with this one! I love the sticky stuff and is a big reason I love Asian dishes.
Thank you Julie!! 😀 I’m so with you, sticky is awesome 😀
These chicken fingers are so tempting that a vegetarian like me cannot stop gawking! Lovely pictures and amazing preparation! I could not believe they are baked! I like your breading station and the technique to follow. Good…good job, Amanda!
Thank you so much Sridevi!! That’s a great compliment, that a vegetarian loves the look of the chicken 😀 I love baked chicken that is so crispy it tastes like fried, but much healthier 🙂
YAAAAYYY!!!! OMG, Gorgeous pictures!!! I love the one where you’re pouring the sauce on the chicken, totally worth having a little breadcrumb come off 😉 ….I’m so glad you loved these as much as I did… they’re so sticky, I found it hard to take a pic of them but you did amazing! The idea of putting them in tacos is too much for me to handle, I have to make that tonight! You even have the homemade tortillas and everything, you killed me!! 😉
…Sincerely, Your homegirl. Love it.
Thank you girl!!!! I tried a few different picture ideas, and finally found a shot that showed the crispiness and stickiness 😀 You know me and tacos… I put just about anything into a taco 😉 I had such a blast both making and eating these, thank you SOOOO much for sharing them. My family all loved them, and we’ll be making them A LOT 😀