Garlic Lemon Chicken Tenders

By Sarah On May 5, 2015 | Updated: May 6, 2026

Oven fried to perfection until perfectly crispy and drizzled with a fresh lemon garlic butter, these lemon chicken tenders are always a dinner favorite.

I won’t lie to you, a good chicken tender is one of my biggest weaknesses in life.

Double that weakness if it happens to be a homemade OVEN-fried chicken tender all dressed to impress in fresh lemon and garlic.

That’s exactly what we’re doing here today and my gosh, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to a freezer chicken strip for the rest of my life.

I mean, the crispiness, just WOW.

One bite of these crispy chicken tenders and I think you’ll agree that those freezer chicken strips can be kicked to the curb once and for all!

These Chicken Tenders Feature…

A crispy garlic panko breading
Flavorful garlic lemon butter brushed on top
Completely oven-fried in minutes

Making the Chicken Tenders

(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)

Ingredients You Will Need

Egg
2% or skim milk
All-purpose flour
Panko breadcrumbs
Spices
Lemon
Chicken tenders
Unsalted butter
Garlic

Choosing Your Chicken

For this recipe you will need either pre-cut chicken tenders or boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into tenders.

I generally opt to cut my own tenders out of breasts since breasts are a little less expensive at the grocery store. Use a sharp knife to cut breasts into roughly about 2×6-inch tenders.

Tips for Perfect Chicken Tenders

Use standard breading procedure – this means coating the tenders in flour, beaten egg, and then rolling in the breadcrumbs. This method will help your breading stick to the chicken.
Preheat pan and melt butter – place butter on sheet pan and place in the oven to preheat for about 2-4 minutes. Preheating the pan with a layer of melted butter before adding the chicken will help them brown.
Bake tenders at 425F – this high temperature will help the exterior of the tenders crisp up nicely.
Flip tenders halfway through cooking – this helps both sides of the tenders crispy up evenly.
Brush tenders with garlic lemon butter after cooking – this adds a lot of lemon + garlic flavor to the tenders and will prevent the garlic from burning.

Recipe Variations

Try these ideas for a different twist on these tenders.

Add cheese to coating – toss 1/4 cup grated Parmesan or asiago to the panko coating.
Make them spicy – add 1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper to the panko coating to taste for a spicy chicken tender.
Use another citrus – try fresh lime in place of the lemon.

Reheating Chicken Tenders

These chicken tenders reheat very easily if you plan to store leftovers or meal prep! Oven bake them at 400F 10-15 minutes or air fry at 375F 8-10 minutes. Brush tenders with garlic lemon butter after reheating.

Oven-fried for the WIN, y’all! You’d seriously never guess it with how crispy these little babies bake up. A good drizzle of that fresh lemon garlic sauce and we’ve got a winner on our hands.

BRB while I eat this goodness straight off the sheet pan.

Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.

Try these other chicken tender favorites next!

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