Easy Baked Garlic Butter Chicken Tenders, beautifully succulent and flavourful, made with just a handful of ingredients. It's a super simple recipe for a quick dinner, and it can be paired with your favourite carbs and greens for a wholesome dish that is healthy, filling and absolutely delicious.
As popular as chicken breast is, it can be tricky to bake it in the oven without it drying out and resulting in a rather tough and chewy texture. So how do you keep it moist and juicy without using kitchen foil either?
The answer is simple: smother it in a flavourful garlic butter sauce, and you have a succulent chicken breast that simply melts in the mouth, it's that good! The sauce is ridiculously easy to make with melted butter, garlic and herbs, and it's ready in literally a couple of minutes.
I used this delicious sauce for my Baked Seabass, although for my chicken recipe I omitted the lemon juice, and it was a treat with both dishes. By all means, you can definitely use lemon juice for this recipe too, it's entirely optional though.
Infusing the chicken with this herbed garlic butter sauce means there is no need for gravy or any other sauce, it's ready to serve as soon as it's out of the oven. How good is that?!
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Ingredients used
- chicken breasts - I cut them into strips, but you can also cut them into bites, or leave them whole
- butter - I used salted butter, but you can use what you have
- salt and pepper - to taste
- dill and parsley - I highly recommend using fresh herbs for this dish, they bring out the flavour way better than dried ones
- garlic- finely chopped, minced also ok
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Step-by-step photos and instructions
- Heat up a frying pan on a medium heat.
- Add the butter and allow it to melt.
- Add the chopped parsley and dill together with the finely chopped garlic and give it a good stir.
- Leave it to cook for 30 seconds so that the butter can be infused with the garlic herb flavours.
- Cut the chicken breasts into strips, and arrange them onto an oven-safe dish.
- Season them well with salt and pepper.
- Pour over the sauce and bake in the preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit) for 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Expert tips
Cutting the chicken breasts into strips not only makes it more practical portion-wise, especially if you have kids, but it also cuts down on the baking time.
If you cut it into bite-sized chunks, I would expect the baking time to decrease even further to around 20-23 minutes. Whole chicken breasts will take a long longer, possibly around 30-35 minutes, but do keep an eye on them.
Recipe FAQs
The garlic butter sauce keeps the chicken moist and juicy, so there is no need to cover the dish with kitchen foil.
Definitely! Apart from lemon juice, which can give the sauce a nice kick, you can also add chilli flakes for some heat, other fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme or paprika.
If the chicken had been previously frozen, it is best not to reheat it. Only chicken cooked fresh is ok to be refrigerated and reheated.
What to serve with garlic butter chicken tenders
I serve this dish with creamy mashed potatoes, but you can also go for rice, bulgur wheat, pasta, orzo or couscous.
As for greens: peas, green beans, mixed veggies, asparagus or a green salad are a great accompaniment.
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Baked Garlic Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts (cut into strips)
- 30 g butter ( 2 tbsp)
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 Fahrenheit).
- Heat up a frying pan on a medium heat.
- Add the peeled and chopped garlic and chopped herbs, give everything a good stir, and leave it to cook for 30 seconds so that the garlic can release its flavour.
- Arrange the chicken tenders onto an oven-safe dish and season with salt and pepper.
- Pour over the sauce, and bake for 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Video
Notes
- Cutting the chicken breasts into strips not only makes it more practical portion-wise, especially if you have kids, but it also cuts down on the baking time.
- If you cut it into bite-sized chunks, I would expect the baking time to decrease even further to around 20-23 minutes. Whole chicken breasts will take a long longer, possibly around 30-35 minutes, but do keep an eye on them.
Shirley says
I prefer to use chicken tenders vs breasts. What weight is needed to serve 3 ? Thank you.
Kay Stevens Miller says
Can I use vegan butter?
ThThanks
Daniela Apostol says
Yes, that should work.