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Keeping things fun and easy with these baked Spicy Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken Fingers. They’re seasoned with homemade honey mustard, breaded in salty pretzel crumbs, oven baked, then dipped in a spicy-hot honey sauce, followed up with a cooling ranch. These are the “grown up” version of chicken fingers…that kids love too. And yes, they’re even healthier (these tenders are baked, not fried), and so much tastier. Serve with oven baked french fries and veggies for an easy dinner that’s different, sweet and spicy, and full of flavor.
So what do you do when life tells you to stay and home and work with what’s in your pantry? You make chicken fingers…breaded in pretzel crumbs…and you serve them with your favorite spicy honey sauce. At least that’s what I do. When you don’t have a lot to work with, you gotta try and make the best of what you got. And these chicken fingers are some of the best I’ve made.
Tangy from the honey mustard glaze, salty from the pretzel coating, and sweet from the spicy honey sauce, these flavors are hard to beat. Not only are these chicken fingers fun to eat, but they’re pretty easy too! Perfect for a quarantined Wild Wednesday night.
The story.
If you look back through past HBH recipes, you’ll see a handful of chicken finger and popcorn chicken recipes. There’s also my beloved (and popular) southern hot honey chicken as well. Yes, breaded chicken recipes are big favorites in my family. Personally, I love to bake the chicken fingers…and then add plenty of sauces for dipping. They’re so good, fun, and a nice switch up from the average weeknight dinner. You know?
But these chicken fingers are extra special, they’re a mash-up of a few oldie recipes I’ve shared in year’s past. For those of you who’ve been following along all the way back since the start of HBH (in 2012). You might remember that I once shared a pretzel crusted chicken salad with honey mustard. For whatever reason, as I was staring at the back of a pretzel bag I had in the pantry, I thought back to that chicken. And then, I knew I was making pretzel coated chicken fingers. I mean why not? I had frozen chicken tenders in the freezer. What else would I make with those two ingredients? It was a no brainer.
From there, I added the seasonings, plus the spicy honey sauce. In less than a few hours, I had these pretzel chicken fingers perfected. From there, I sent photos to my older brother Creighton, who loves chicken fingers more than anyone I know. Wishing he could have been here to enjoy them. Very much missing the rest of the family these days.
Creighton loved the photos and said to freeze some for his next trip out to Colorado.
The steps.
To start, mix up the honey mustard and toss it with trimmed chicken tenders. The honey mustard is our flavor and our “glue” that helps adhere the pretzel crumbs onto the chicken tenders.
Next, finely crush the pretzels into crumbs to bread the chicken. The finely crushed pretzels are key. They flavor the chicken with the perfect amount of salt, which pairs wonderfully with the sweet and tangy honey mustard.
Tip? Pulse the pretzels in the food processor to really break them down into a fine crumb. If you don’t have a food processor, just add the pretzels to a ziplock bag, then step on the bag with your feet to finely crush them. Trust me, this works. You can even just use the actual pretzel bag and step on that. It’s what dad used to do when he’d make potato chip chicken when I was a kid. This trick is an oldie but a goodie.
Next, bake the chicken in the oven until it crisps all over. My secret is to gently dab/brush the chicken with olive oil before it bakes. This helps the coating to really crisp up nicely in the oven. You can’t skip this step, it’s crucial.
On to the sauce.
No chicken finger is complete without a dipping sauce…our two. In this family, you can never have enough sauce.
So first…the Spicy Honey Sauce. It’s inspired by the famous Nashville Hot Chicken and it’s the same sauce I use on my southern oven fried chicken. It’s spicy, but balanced with a touch of sweetness. The classic way to add sweetness to this spicy sauce is with brown sugar, but I prefer using honey for better flavor and texture.
In addition to the spicy honey sauce, I wanted to pair the fingers with something cooling…
Enter the cool ranch. I like to simply mix up a quick homemade ranch, but you can easily use your favorite store-bought ranch too. I like to use both sauces. Then you get a little buttery sweet and spicy sauce mixed in with a little creamy cooling ranch.
It is SO GOOD!
Once the chicken is done cooking, serve it up along with the sauces. I like to add these Tuscan style fries. If you’re going to do a chicken finger night, you might as well add the fries. Hey, this is quarantine life, we have to try to make some fun. Plus, just like the chicken, these fries are baked, not fried.
To sum things up, the chicken is a touch tangy and perfectly salted. The sauce is spicy, yet buttery. Put everything together and you’ll have tangy, salty, sweet, and spicy chicken fingers. So much (really) good flavor.
The best part about this recipe is that you’ll hopefully be able to find all of the ingredients in your pantry and your freezer. With such a large family, I always try to keep chicken tenders in the freezer at all times. They thaw much quicker than chicken breasts, and they make for a great last-minute protein source. The rest of the ingredients are all taken from the pantry shelves… honey, mustard, spices, and dried herbs.
Simple and easy!
Lastly, if you make these spicy honey mustard pretzel chicken fingers, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Baked Hot Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken Fingers.
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 888 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt, sour cream, or olive oil mayo
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 pounds boneless chicken tenders
- 2 cups finely crushed salted pretzel twists
- 1 teaspoon each garlic and onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- extra virgin olive oil for brushing
- ranch dressing for serving (optional)
Spicy Honey Sauce
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper using more or less to your taste
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- kosher salt
Instructions
- 1. In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, yogurt, and honey. Add the chicken and toss well to coat. 2. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.3. Add the pretzel crumbs, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and a pinch of pepper to a medium sized bowl. Stir to combine.4. Remove each piece of chicken from the honey mustard, and dredge through the crumbs, pressing gently to adhere. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all the chicken has been used. Make sure not to crowd your pan, if necessary use two baking sheets. Lightly brush/drizzle the chicken with olive oil. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.5. Meanwhile, make the spicy honey sauce. Melt together the honey, butter, cayenne, chili powder, paprika, and a pinch of salt. 6. Serve the chicken topped with flaky salt and spicy honey sauce for dipping. I'd add a side of ranch too. Enjoy!
This post was originally published on April 1, 2020
I will be trying this tonight! But I do have a question… every time I bread something, I feel like the breading never sticks extremely well. I have done many different types of breading (‘flour, egg, breadcrumbs’, wet batters, making sure the item is as dry as possible before breading, etc). Am I making sense? haha anyway.. any tips of helping your breading stick? Thanks 🙂
Hi Katie! I hope you love this recipe! I usually push the chicken down with my knuckles to get the breading to hold on better.. Before baking if you have any pretzels left, you can use them on chicken that doesn’t have much. I hope this helps, but please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
Hi Tieghan,
A quick question on the black pepper, which I love! Does a tsp get mixed in with the pretzels or a pinch?
Also, any suggestions should we not have any onion or garlic powder on hand?
So glad for your wonderful recipes these days!
Sarah
Hi Sarah! You can use either, depending on how much pepper you like! Also, for the garlic you can substitute minced garlic and for the onion I would use 1/3 cup of chopped onion. I hope you love this! Please let me know if you have any other questions! xTieghan
tried it last night, amazing! we already had mikes hot honey so we didn’t make it (basically the same ingredients) but dipping the chicken in that was amazing! Second recipe of yours we made this week and both very delicious!
That is so amazing to hear! Thank you so much Katherine! xTieghan
I was so happy to see a recipe that didn’t include an egg wash. I’ve never thought of using yogurt. I did have some substitutions due to food allergies. I used cashew yogurt and gluten free pretzels,. We did attempt using the air fryer, and cooking in batches, made the tenders at 390 for 9 minutes and they were perfect. A great recipe and i’m excited to utilize the yogurt base for coatings in other recipes!
Hi Bre! I am really glad this one turned out so well for you! Thank you so much for trying this recipe! xTieghan
This recipe was easy and delicious!!
Thank you so much Victoria! I am so glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
These were great! My husband could not eat them fast enough. I used homemade mustard instead of Dijon, because that’s what I had on hand. Very easy and came together quickly. Thank you, we will make these again!
Haha that is so amazing! Thank you so much for trying this Kirsten! xTieghan
I made these for dinner tonight and OMG I was blown away. I was so worried about them coming out soggy but they turned out amazing. My boyfriend said it’s going on the weekly dinner rotation. A must try !!!
So amazing to hear! Thank you so much Brielle! xTieghan
These are soo delicious…. love all your recipes… I love this one because it tastes good but also because the ingredients are things I have in my pantry. The spicy honey sauce is amazing. I didn’t have the Cheyenne so I use chipotle power instead.
Amazing! I am so glad you liked this and others of mine! Thank you Anna! xTieghan
This honey mustard! It’s my new go to in general, let alone combined with the rest of this!
Thank you so much Ashley! xTieghan
This sounds wonderful! Beginner’s question here: what is the benefit of using parchment paper? I don’t have any on hand. Would you recommend a nonstick pan instead, or does the paper really make much of a difference? (I’ve never used it at all before.) Excited to start trying your recipes!
Hi Emily! I use it and do not use oil on the pan then! I also like the way it comes out with it! It is not necessary, so if you do not have just omit! I hope you love this recipe! xTieghan
The spicy honey mustard pretzel chicken was amazing! I have 2 young kiddos, and I cannot begin to tell you how amazing it was to only have to cook one meal for dinner; they went nuts for the chicken! They loved it plain, with mustard and also with ranch. My husband said it may be one of his favorite dishes I’ve ever made, which is saying something, because I cook constantly! He said the spicy honey butter and crunchy chicken checked all of his fried chicken boxes, and even calmed his craving for wings.
This is the first hbh recipe I have made, and I will definitely be making more! This was super fast, easy, and ingredients were incredibly accessible, especially during quarantine.
Hi Beth! I am really glad this recipe turned out so well for you! I hope you continue to enjoy other recipes of mine! I also hope you are staying well! xTieghan
Flavor was great, texture was lacking. I call BS on the picture, there’s no way they got that uniform golden brown crisp by baking, even brushed with olive oil. They fried them suckers. They weren’t quite firm enough to pick up and dip like your standard chicken fingers, we ended up going fork and knife on ’em…but they were very tasty, I’ll probably make them again.
The spicy honey butter was AMAZING and super easy to make, I’ll have to remember that for other things. Waffles and such.
Hi Ian! I am glad you liked these chicken fingers! The photos are not BS, and it is just me here creating these recipes. If you have any questions, I would love to help you out! Thank you! xTieghan
Ah – ma – zing! That is it.
Thank you Sarah! xTieghan
I made this last night for the 6 of us and everyone loved it. I turned out so crispy and tender on the inside. The sauce is to die for!! Buttery with some nice heat to it, perfect for dipping. I will definitely make it again as it was super easy,.
Thank you so much Linda! I am so glad this turned out so well for you all! I hope you are staying well! xTieghan
Used about half the cayenne & thought they were plenty hot. Delicious sauce with diverse flavors, sweet, hot & smokey. Would recommend!
Thank you so much Cam! xTieghan