Three things you need to know about me:
1. I hate frying things. I do it anyway, but I am grumbling the whole time.
2. I don’t exactly eat healthy.
3. I am in love with sweet chili sauce.
You may remember a few months ago, I posted a recipe for General Tso’s Sweet Chili Chicken Strips. As much I love that recipe, it’s fried (please refer back to 1 and 2 above). One of my goals was to make a baked, CRISPY version, crispy being the deal breaker. I’ve made baked chicken strips before, but they weren’t too crispy. Want to know the secret to crispy baked breading?
Cornflakes. Yes, the breakfast cereal that I will never eat yet have one giant box of it in the pantry as we speak. Crushed up, they make a nice, crispy breading. My parents were visiting when I went grocery shopping. As soon as my mom saw the cereal in my cart, she goes, “Are you baking chicken?” See? You can’t fool her.
One of my goals this year is to eat healthier. Not necessarily to lose weight but to balance out all of the bad stuff I tend to eat. I know these chicken strips aren’t as healthy as a salad, but baking definitely cuts back on the fat. Plus I ate a big helping of vegetables on the side (like my Roasted Brussels Sprouts). And now that the weather is warming up, my coworkers and I are starting to walk a lap during lunch.
You do have to eat these crispy chicken strips right after baking because they will lose their crispiness if you wait to serve them, especially after being tossed in general tso’s sweet chili sauce (don’t you know that food photographers eat their food cold?)
Crispy Baked General Tso's Sweet Chili Chicken Strips
Ingredients
Sauce
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Chicken
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
- 1/3 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup cornflake cereal, crushed
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- For the sauce: In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken stock, soy sauce, vinegar, sweet chili sauce, sugar, and cornstarch. Bring to a boil and cook for a few minutes or until slightly thickened. Reserve 1/4 cup sauce for dipping.
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Place a wire/cooling rack inside a cookie sheet. Set aside.
- In one bowl, pour the buttermilk. In another bowl, mix together the crushed cereal, garlic powder, and salt. Dip each chicken strip into the milk then coat with the cereal mixture. Place on the cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining chicken.
- Bake 18-20 minutes or until brown and cooked fully. After baking, immediately toss into remaining sauce. Serve immediately.
Notes
© Chocolate Moosey. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish a recipe, please rewrite it in your own words or link back to the post for the recipe.
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If you liked these Crispy Baked General Tso’s Sweet Chili Chicken Strips, then you may also like these recipes:
From me:
- Sweet Chili Sauce
- Baked Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
- Copycat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets with Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce
From other bloggers:
Alex says
I would never have thought of using cornflakes on my chicken but HEY, I don’t know if it’s your photos, your description or the prospect of dipping them in the sweet chili sauce (saved for later), you sound really convincing today (as usual, but hey hey!).
90% of the meat I eat is probably chicken. Not because of any diet / philosophy / particular likes, but it just happens to be so, so I appreciate any new ways I can have my chicken. :P
Carla says
I was skeptical of the cornflakes too until my mom tried it once and told me it was crunchy. I still have most of the box left. Guess I better make more chicken ;)
[email protected] & Trinkets says
I hate frying things. I have a phobia. Me plus hot oil equals disaster. But I love this sooooo, so much! They look crazy crispy, I love it!
Carla says
I just think it is annoying, not to mention how smelly it is afterwards. But look! Now you can have crispy chicken without hurting yourself ;)
kelly @ kellybakes says
If you were going for a cliff hanger with your email, it totally worked. I was waiting to read on and thought, why yes I *DO* want to get crispy baked coating right now! These look fantastic. I hate frying too, so it looks like I need to get me a box of corn flakes :)
Carla says
Yay glad my plan worked! And now everybody is off buying cornflakes ;) (if we lived closer, I’d share mine! I have a ton of cornflakes left…)
Renee says
Great tip! And now I can use up the box of cornflakes in my pantry too.
Carla says
Dinner is served ;)
Jennie @themessybakerblog says
I beg to differ. They’re made with cornflakes, so they have to be healthy, right? They look amazing–so crispy and delicious!
Carla says
Absolutely! Cornflakes also means chicken strips for breakfast, right?
Michelle @amourbeurre says
These look wonderful- cant wait to try! Thanks for the recipe!
Carla says
Thanks Michelle!
Heather says
Looks delicious!
Carla says
Thanks Heather!
[email protected] says
I’m with you, I hate frying. These look amazing, I will definitely be giving these a try!!!
Carla says
Judging by these comments, I think the whole world hates frying haha Thanks Lisa!
Miriam @ overtimecook says
Love that these are baked! Totally gotta try this!
Carla says
Yes you must!
Pamela says
Yay Carla! You rock! Hmmmm…I wonder if something like this would work for chicken fried steak?
Carla says
I’m not sure! I’ve been craving chicken fried steak though. Hmm
Sarah Reid, RHNC (@jo_jo_ba) says
Amazing!!! We used to get Gen. Tso / George / Tao chicken all the time here
Stacy says
I am with you on the frying. I love to eat fried things but really hate frying. So I tend to order fried stuff when we go out. Your chicken strips look wonderful, Carla, so I will have to give these a try. Also, ANYTHING dipped in sweet chili sauce tastes good. Love that stuff!
Dorothy @ Crazy for Crust says
Seriously. I’m drooling!
Lane @ Supper for a Steal says
You know what else works great for getting a crisp when baking kettle cooked potato chips, but that probably defeats the purpose of baking to make it healthier… :)
These chicken tenders look delicious. I have been waiting to use up my thai sweet chili sauce collection so I could use your recipe to make my own and now I finally have!
Kelly Senyei | Just a Taste says
This looks incredible! I’m a fan of every variety of General Tsos chicken and can’t wait to try these strips. Thanks for sharing!
[email protected] says
Carla,
I just plain don’t fry anything. I’m not sure if it’s similar to the marathoner’s rule that “did not start” is worse than “did not finish”, but “did not fry” is not better than “did bake chicken strips”.
I’d use some of the cornflakes in cookies, myself, since the box is so big.
Thanks!
Jocelyn @BruCrew Life says
Thank you for the great tip to use the corn flakes in my cupboard for chicken. I don’t like to fry things either…I love fried food but hate the smell it leaves behind. That chili sauce sounds awesome too!!!
Veronica says
Sorry, this was not very good. My chicken was soggy and tasteless, as the garlic powder and salt sank to the bottom of my corn flake crumbs. The sauce (with chili sauce reduced to 1 Tbsp) tasted good though. Hope other people have better luck than I did; I’ll fry mine next time.
Carla says
Sorry to hear they didn’t turn out. They’ve always been crispy for me. Did you use a wire rack on the baking sheet?
Adam says
Just made this, except I fried the chicken :). Used Less chili sauce. Not a huge fan of hot heat. But added enough just to add that spicy to the sweet. Very good. next time I would bake them though.
Carla says
I actually do have a fried version if you’re interested, but they aren’t much different (sauce is the same): https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2013/01/31/general-tsos-sweet-chili-chicken-strips/ It sounded like you enjoyed them either way!
Spacey Kay says
Found this on Timblr just now. I’m trying this tonight! My mouth is watering from reading the recipe.
eric says
Carla,
Please reply.
The recipe says mix broth, soy, vinegar….oil….. What oil? You didn’t say a thing about oil. How much oil? What kind of oil?
Also, you fail to say what do with the sauce. The recipe merely says, save some sauce for dipping. Save some….when did we receive instruction on what to do with it in the first place?
Carla says
That’s my mistake on the oil and has been fixed. Thanks for pointing that out. A lot of my recipes are variations of other recipes, so I tend to copy and paste so I don’t have to retype everything.
As for what to do with the sauce, check out step 3 when making the chicken: “Bake 18-20 minutes or until brown and cooked fully. After baking, immediately toss into sauce. Serve immediately.” I can see how that may be confusing. I edited the recipe to clear that up more.