Crispy chicken tenders with a sweet-salty honey Dijon dipping sauce and zucchini rice make a delicious meal!
Rarely a day goes by when I don’t pick up a paintbrush. But instead of mastering fancy landscapes and portraits, I’m preoccupied with the four walls of every room we take on in our house. It’s great fun taking care of our new home, adding our touch here and there, but sometimes it leaves no time to think about dinner.
It’s always good to have some staples on hand for quick fixes, though, and some of my must-haves are boneless chicken breasts, panko breadcrumbs, zucchini, and white rice… not to mention a variety of dipping sauces (sweet barbecue and honey mustard sauces are my favorites, but my husband likes a mix of Ranch dressing and sriracha sauce)!
All I did was coat the chicken in a mixture of dijon mustard and melted butter, sneaking in a drizzle of honey for a touch of sweetness. Bread the chicken with panko breadcrumbs, or you could also use crushed crackers like Ritz or Saltine. Meanwhile, just boil some white rice, toss it with butter, salt and pepper, and sprinkle in some freshly grated zucchini. The crispy chicken is moist, flavorful and absolutely scrumptious with the soft, buttery zucchini rice. When you’re ready to serve, dip the chicken in a little sauce, do a little dance, and praise yourself for making a delicious, easy dinner in just thirty minutes!
Honey-Dijon Chicken Tenders with Zucchini Rice
Ingredients
Honey-Dijon Chicken Tenders
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. pepper
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp. paprika
- 3 tbsp. butter, melted
- heaping 1/4 cup Dijon mustard
- 1 Tbsp. honey
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced vertically into strips
Zucchini Rice
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
- 3 tbsp. butter
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Honey-Dijon Chicken Tenders
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a large baking sheet and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, Dijon mustard and honey; whisk until well combined.
- Place the chicken strips into the mustard-butter mixture, then into the breadcrumbs. Coat evenly. Place onto the baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the zucchini rice (see below for recipe).
- Zucchini Rice
- Cook rice according to package directions. Remove from heat, add butter and sprinkle zucchini over the rice. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork. Salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately with the chicken tenders, or with your own favorite main course.
- Enjoy!
That zucchini rice looks amazing! Great pictures too!
This meal looks so delicious! Really great photos too!
Love the idea of zucchini rice. We often make chicken tenders this way as well – so quick + satisfying. I love your styling as well. Super elegant.
The chicken tenders look great, but I’m even more smitten with the rice. What a good idea putting some zucchini in there! I’ll definitely be trying that next time I make rice. :)
My goodness, Georgia, that plate looks absolutely incredible… not very many people can make chicken tenders look so elegant :) YUM!
Zucchini rice will be on my menu today. Love your pictures they always make me smile.
The textures of this dish look very enticing. I love using panko, even switched to using it for my chicken parmesan–love it!
The chicken tenders look delicious, but the rice is what is making me drool. What can I say? I’m a veggie nerd. :) I’ll have to try this soon. Good luck with your house projects.
What a great idea with the zucchini rice. A nice way to hide a veggie with a picky eater in the house. Love it!
Zucchini rice sounds fantastic! I’m definitely going to try this Georgia. Thanks for the recipe. :)
Even your comfort food is so pretty and colorful! Glad you’re having fun with all the house stuff…and hope you’re keeping cool. This summer has been hot, even by Texas standards. My term for this year’s heat? Gross hot!
Yum! These looks great.
Yep..this is my kinda dinner! Coat it in butter .yes please.
Mustard and honey are so classic together. This looks perfect.
This dish looks fantastic! I think I’d get in a lot of trouble with too much of that yummy sauce!
beautiful pictures as always Georgia
and I love the recipe..so easy yet packed with flavor
I constantly proselytize about buying whole chickens and dismantling them at home. You can see a hundred youtube demos of how to do it and it is so cost-friendly. On the other hand, I am slobbering over your chicken tenders and it isn’t even anywhere near lunch time yet. lol
love the zucchini rice. that’s a good way to use it up – which we need! we’re stocked with it right now from the garden :)
StephenC – I try to do the same thing at home as often as possible. You’re right, very cost effective and a valuable cooking lesson. Thanks for stopping by!
This looks lovely, Georgia. We need to get together soon! Thank you for sharing such a yummy meal with me. My long day at work will be all the more sweeter now that I’ve visited your blog. Hugs and love.
Sounds like a great meal, love the new spin on rice! Now I’m hungry for dinner :)
Yum! I’ve made a tilapia with similar flavors but I didn’t use honey – it looks so good! Maybe I missed it, but did you dip them in something?
Lindsay – I dipped them in a honey mustard sauce, but like I said, feel free to dip them in any sauce you like. The honey-dijon mixture that coats the tenders isn’t so overpowering that they wouldn’t be delicious with a barbecue sauce or something else.
You know, I’ve been horribly off chicken for weeks now after a bit of a chicken overdose when I made chicken kievs some weeks back, but your picture above just looks so delicious it’s winning me back again. So crispy and golden… yummy! :)
Yum!! Looks so good. I love breaded chicken baked in the oven, all crispy and not greasy! That rice sounds great as well!
I made this today and it is simple and delicious. It will be on my favorites list. I even got my husband to eat the rice – he is a notorious veggie-hater, but he liked this dish very much. Thank you. I am your fan form now on. :)
Looks like you made something out of nothing! Something wonderful!
Yum! Both of these recipes look fabulous! I have some zucchini in the house right now!
I agree with Rachel’s comment–both recipes look great. I have some zucchini in the fridge that I had planned to use your zucchini fries recipe on, but now I’m thinkig one could be zucchini fries and one could be zucchini rice . . .
Perfect weeknight meal – yum!
Georgia this looks so delicious and your pictures are gorgeous as always! :)
this looks so simple and SO delicious. mm!
I love the zucchini in rice trick! I’m always on the hunt for simple ways to spice up white rice. Genius! I love decorating :) Have fun painting!
Looks incredible…and a lot healthier than the chicken tenders that tempt me when eating out.
I made these chicken tenders tonight and they were great! I used about half the honey-mustard mixture on the chicken and then the other half was used as a dip for my husband. We loved it!
this looks so pretty:) i love mixing honey dijon with chicken:) perfect combo really! thank you for sharing this.
Hi Georgia..First time to your say and I must say you have an amazing space.
Zucchini rice sounds fantastic! Loved the colours. Thanks for sharing such wonderful recipes..
Anonymous, Anne and Christina – Thank you so much for stopping by. I’m so glad that you and your husbands all enjoyed this recipe! :)
I love the sound of this dish. So beautifully presented. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Georgia! I know I already commented but I wanted to tell you that I made these chicken tenders last night for my husband and I. He took one bite and said, “oh my god.” :) Needless to say, we loved them. Thanks for the recipe!
Hey Georgia I have missed you girl! Glad to hear you are having fun in your new home :) My kids would go nuts for this chicken.
Hey Georgia…long time no read :-) I needed a dinner recipe on the fly and I knew exactly where to come to get it and of course you delivered. The flavor from the honey dijon is amazing and everyone loved the zucchini rice! Thanks
I’m so glad you enjoyed this dish, Debbie! Thanks for stopping by to let me know.
HI. I am excited to try this recipe. Can you tell me is the honey mustard sauce drizzled over the finsihed chicken reserved from the butter, dijon, honey mix or store bought honey mustard. Your recipe indicates to “Place the chicken strips into the mustard-butter mixture, then into the breadcrumbs” without reserving any for dipping.
Thanks,
Dalia
Dalia – The honey-mustard mixture I dipped the raw chicken into isn’t meant to be reserved for dipping. The sauce I used for dipping was just a storebought honey-mustard sauce.
I love it!!! I love that the chicken tenders were so flavorful instead of dull!!! Is there anything that could give the zucchini a boost of flavor with the rice?
So yummy! Thanks for the great recipes. I used brown rice with chicken broth and everything was fresh and fabulous.
WOW ! this is great blog thanks for sharing this recipe because I love zucchini rice again thanks…..gluten free recipes
I made this chicken tonight and LOVED it!
I made this last night for dinner with friends – it was a huge hit. I was especially happy with the zucchini rice: one of the men doesn’t like rice, the other doesn’t like vegetables, and both raved over it and cleaned their plates! Will definitely be making this again.
Had these tonight for dinner and loved them! The only change I made was to use chicken tenders and I baked them on a rack, other than that left everything the same and they were perfect. We’ll definitely be having these again.
I made both of these recipes tonight and they were both delicious! Every recipe I make from your site is so good!! Thank You!
We had this tonight and everyone enjoyed it! My girls (5 years and 1 year) gobbled them up!
I got a bunch of boneless, skinless chicken breast meat on sale. Will the prepped , unbaked chicken tender freeze well?
I’ve never frozen these after breading them, but if you do, thaw then reheat in your oven on top of a cooling rack.