These easy Dorito Chicken Tenders are going to be the hit of your next party (and put a huge smile on your kids’ faces)!
Tender juicy chicken breasts crusted in our favorite cheesy Doritos and baked to crispy perfection.
Serve them with ranch or blue cheese dressing for dipping!
If I indulge in one snack, I’m pretty much going guarantee it’s going to be Doritos! They’re one of my all time favorite treats and while the Nacho Cheese is my favorite, I’ll eat ANY flavor!
My kids love chicken and I usually make a Crispy Baked Parmesan Chicken into perfect crispy chicken strips.
When I happen to run low on bread crumbs or corn flakes, I use pretty much any kind of cereal or cracker I happen to have in the pantry. Anything from Ritz crackers to tortilla chips will make an awesome crust for chicken.
In this recipe, instead of the typical breading we have crusted these chicken tenders with crispy cheesy Doritos!
The result is a perfectly crispy crust loaded with flavor. I personally prefer traditional Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos but I have made these with Cool Ranch and they were great too… any flavor of Doritos will work!
When crushing your chips, you’ll want them to be be crushed quite small but not made into a powder, you still want some texture.
We use chicken breasts and slice them into 3/4″ strips (you can also cube them if you’d prefer Doritos chicken nuggets), dip them into an egg wash and press them into the crushed tortilla chips.
If you’re doing a large batch of these, I would suggest working in batches and only putting some of the crushed Doritos in the bowl at a time.
If they end up too wet they won’t stick to the chicken well.
If you’d prefer, you can certainly use a whole chicken breast (which is great served with a taco salad) or even chicken thighs.
We serve it alongside a fresh green salad and roasted potatoes for a delicious meal!
To keep the chicken moist and juicy, be sure not to overcook them! We serve these with either ranch or blue cheese for dipping! They make the perfect party food!
Dorito Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 1 Bag of Doritos any flavor (I used Nacho Cheese)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut chicken into strips (about ¾″)
- Place crush Doritos until you have 1 ½ cups of crushed Doritos.
- Whisk together egg & milk in a separate bowl.
- Dip each strip in the egg mixture and then into the Doritos mixture. Press the chips into the chicken making sure the whole strip is coated.
- Place on a foil lined pan and lightly spray the tops of the chicken with cooking spray.
- Bake 15-17 minutes or until cooked through.
- Serve with ranch or sour cream.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Snack
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Note: The original recipe added bread crumbs to the Doritos. After trying this a few times, the breadcrumbs have been removed for a better flavor .
This recipe was inspired by Alida’s Kitchen!
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great recipe when the grandkids are here
Honestly don’t know what everyone is talking about. These have become a staple regular rotation in my meal recipes. I use half a bag of cheese doritoes but I also use a half a bag of the zesty doritoes as well (extra cheesy, we only have them in Canada, the USA doesn’t have them) and I add a cup of Kraft Parmesan cheese to the mix too. I use mayo instead of the egg mix for getting it to stick. Works flawlessly every time and so delicious! I started making two pans of these cuz they’ll be gone in no time for leftovers if I don’t. And I end up not getting any leftovers! Lol!
wondering if they could be made about a half hour before serving and how it would be best to reheat or would that make them too dry? Better to cook and serve then reheat even if it’s only a half hour later?
They should be fine if making half an hour before serving. The Dorito mixture will soften a bit but should still be yummy. To reheat I would place it back in the oven until heated through, to help retain the moisture I would cover with tinfoil as well. I hope that helps!
Cooked perfectly but I forgot that doritos is a corn tortilla so all I got was a strong flavor over that over the nacho cheese flavoring and I am not a fan of corn tortillas. Found them absolutely disgusting
If you don’t like Doritos perhaps you’d prefer these Honey Garlic Chicken Tenders or Oven Baked Crispy Tenders.
I used Cool Ranch, unimpressed. Original Doritos may be better.
My house loved this recipe I had to tweak because I didn’t have eggs so I used olive oil and seasoned with a taco seasoning pack!!!
Delicious thank you so much!!
Subbing with mayo would have worked well too :)
Loved the recipe!!! It was a hit was my family. THANK YOU SO MUCH. This will forever be in my rotation of meals. TIP: For people saying the chicken lost the fflavor, or was plain etc, drizzle some honey over the chicken when its finished or dip them in honey. BOOM MAGIC It’s delicious
It’s actually pretty good if you add a flavorful side like parmesan garlic noodles or Mac n cheese, it makes for a good mix in chicken that you prepare on the side. I wouldn’t recommend just eating them alone as strips but as a coating it turns out really nice! Screw these negative vibes floating around here, this is a good, base recipe to expand on, which is exactly what I was looking for! A crunchy chicken coating to serve with a noodle side…
Thanks, Darrian! Glad you enjoyed it. Serving it with parmesan garlic noodles sounds so delicious!
Righteous idea!
So, they weren’t horrible, just wasn’t what I was expecting. I expected more of a nacho flavor, but like others have said, the chips lose their flavor. The chicken was moist and there was a tiny bit of flavor that made these okay, but I probably wouldn’t make them again, or I’d alter the recipe somehow. My 12 year old nephew did love these though, and he’s pretty picky.
Made this tonight and served with ranch to dip, roasted broccoli and mashed potatoes. We all thought it was ok. Not a lot of flavor but nice and crunchy. I’d probably add some taco seasoning to the doritos next time.
Made this according to the instructions and my family loved it! Very yummy! Will make again!
I haven’t tried this recipe per say, but I have been reading all the positive and negative comments, and I was wondering if you could use plain Doritos and add your own seasonings, you could add dry ranch dressing to the plain chips, and then add some hot sauce to the milk and egg mixture. It may work. You could also use dry Parmesan or Romano cheese if you to taste more cheese. Get out the garlic or onion powder. Experiment a little. I have made skinless boneless chicken thighs with barbeque chips, and they were delicious.
I fully support experimenting Cindy! We have only made this recipe as listed, but your suggestions sound great!
I tried this with the Doritos Jacked Buffalo Ranch….I do NOT recommend these. They lost all flavor and tasted soft and stale(almost no crunch at all). I usually can’t eat more than 3-4 of these chips without a drink because they are so full of flavor with a kick, that was not the case at all here. They are a little thicker than regular Doritos so maybe that was it? I will have to try again with normal Doritos.
Hi Amy,
I have only made this as written, so I couldn’t give you any ideas of why this was a flop for you. But I am glad you let us know about the Jacked Buffalo Ranch. I saw these and was thinking to try them in the tenders recipe.
Can’t wait to this
We hope you enjoy it Martin!
Excellent sounding and looking recipe, and I happen to have a bag of nacho chips in the pantry, on my to make and taste list and soon, will come back with a review as well. Thank you for the recipe, Holly.
I hope you love this recipe Lee!
This recipe doesn’t work. The chips won’t stick unless you add a coat of flour and a second coat of chips.
I had no problems with this recipe working and the chips sticking (as shown in the video). Were your chips crushed quite fine?
made it exactly like directions said & the chips ended up getting burnt:( thought it was gonna be good
I’m sorry to hear that Natalie. Your oven must run hotter than mine as we haven’t had ours burn.
I made these tonight – weren’t as crispy as I thought they’d be? Used Chilli Heatwave Doritos and found that they went slightly dry and lost their flavour…What am I doing wrong?
I can’t say for sure Rose. Perhaps you had a little too much egg mixture on the chicken or perhaps your oven temperature was not quite high enough. Hope that helps!
It was AWESOME!!!❤
Easy recipe the chicken was moist and flavorful.