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Easy oven-baked Crispy Turmeric Chicken Tenders. Each crispy tender is tossed with brown rice flour, turmeric, black pepper, and shredded coconut, then oven-baked and dipped in a spicy homemade “special sauce”. Serve these turmeric tenders up for game day, or cook up some baked french fries and call these fun, yummy tenders dinner! It’s a homemade version of everyone’s favorite crispy chicken. These are the best!
I’m so excited about this recipe. These are my crispy, oven-baked turmeric chicken tenders! And they are so good!
Inspired very much by the tenders everyone orders at the LA grocery chain, Erewhon. The turmeric chicken tenders on their menu are served with their homemade special sauce. I saw these tenders on my good friend Cait’s Instagram story the other week, and the picture looked so yummy!
I messaged her to find out what she was eating, and she quickly explained. The idea of tenders sounded really fun. I knew this could be a great recipe to share ahead of the Super Bowl, so I picked her brain even more about the details.
Of course, I won’t know for sure if my tenders are similar, but what I created is a delicious, happens to be gluten-free, crispy chicken.
And the sauce! The chicken is really just a vessel for the sauce. When you read the recipe, you’ll think that the combination of ingredients is odd, but it’s one of the yummiest special sauces. Creamy with some spice, some tang, and the slightest bit of sweetness. Delish!
Let’s jump into the details
Ingredients
- chicken tenders – these are so convenient, no need to cut the chicken!
- brown rice flour – you can also use all-purpose, but I like the texture the brown rice flour provides
- onion and garlic powder
- black pepper
- buttermilk – or you can also use canned coconut milk
- fine shredded unsweetened coconut – like to use Let’s Do Organic brand or Bobs Red Mill. These two brands come finely shredded, almost crumb like.
- ground turmeric
- smoked paprika
- lime zest
- olive oil
- flaked sea salt
Ingredients – for the Special Sauce
- mayo
- buffalo sauce
- ketchup
- garlic powder
- black pepper
Special Tools!
None here. Just a bowl, a sheet pan, and another bowl for mixing up the sauce!
Steps
Step 1: bread the chicken
Toss the chicken tenders with the brown rice flour, onion powder, and garlic powder. Add a good pinch of black pepper.
Now, in a separate bowl, mix brown rice flour, the coconut, paprika, and turmeric pour over the buttermilk or I also like coconut milk, but not that will lend to more coconut flavoring.
Toss the chicken until a thick paste-like batter forms around each tender. It’s OK if it’s a bit chunky.
Step 2: baking
Next, arrange the chicken on a baking sheet. I like to grease my baking sheets with olive oil. I think using oil instead of parchment gives you crispier pieces of chicken.
Arrange the chicken in an even layer, don’t overcrowd the pan. There should be some batter left in the bowl, set this aside.
Drizzle each tender with olive oil, then bake until the breading begins to get crispy all around!
Now, pull the chicken out and spoon over the remaining batter left in the bowl. These clumps will get crispy! Drizzle the chicken once more with olive oil. Don’t skimp using the olive oil, this really helps the coating get crispy. Bake another few minutes, get them crispy all around!
Step 3: make the sauce
While you have the chicken baking, mix up the sauce. Use your favorite mayo or vegan mayo and mix in some buffalo sauce, ketchup, garlic powder, and black pepper.
Step 4: serve
When the chicken comes out of the oven and it’s sizzling, sprinkle with some flaked sea salt.
Put the special sauce in a bowl for dipping, and serve the chicken up with lots of sauce. SO YUMMY! And fun too!
The chicken has just the right amount of crisp. You might think it’s fried, but it’s not!
The sauce is spicy, creamy, and tangy. It’s really great with the turmeric chicken. To finish the meal off, I always serve with home fries. Such a fun, easy dinner or game day appetizer!
Looking for more recipes? Here are a few to try:
Sheet Pan Honey Garlic Chicken and Feta Potatoes
Sheet Pan Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Lastly, if you make this Crispy Turmeric Chicken Tenders, 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!
Crispy Turmeric Chicken Tenders
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 494 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless chicken tenders
- 2 tablespoons + 3/4 cup brown rice flour
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- flaked sea salt and black pepper
- 3/4 -1 cup buttermilk
- 1/4-1/2 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/2-1 teaspoon ground turmeric, use to your taste
- 2 teaspoons lime zest
- extra virgin olive oil, for brushing/drizzling
Spicy Sauce
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 1/4 cup buffalo sauce
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or rub with olive oil. 2. In a bowl, combine the chicken, 2 tablespoons brown rice flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and black pepper. Toss well to coat. 3. In a separate bowl, mix 3/4 cup brown rice flour, the coconut, paprika, turmeric, and lime zest. Pour over 3/4 cup buttermilk and mix until a thick batter forms. Add additional buttermilk to loosen if needed. The batter should be thick.4. Add the chicken and toss to coat. Place each piece on the prepared baking sheet. Do not overcrowd the baking sheet. Reserve any batter left in the bowl. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, spoon the remaining batter in the bowl onto the chicken. Drizzle again with oil. Bake another 15 minutes until crisp all around. Sprinkle with sea salt. 5. To make the sauce: combine all ingredients in a bowl.6. Serve the chicken with the sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Important Note: I have updated this recipe due the amount of trouble many have had. I apologize for anyone is if finding this recipe a challenge! This has been tested and made many times now. We really enjoy the chicken as I have written!
This post was originally published on January 30, 2025
Doubling down and only responding to fake “five star” purchased bot comments? How very typical of you. Both you and your brand have become a complete train wreck. This recipe is an abject failure. Any real cook, or anybody with any degree of pride in their business, would take this recipe down properly retest it, and fix it, then explain and apologize to their followers. Nobody is expecting you to be perfect, because nobody is perfect, but acknowledge your mistakes, own them, and take accountability. It would do wonders for you and your public image. I don’t even know why I’m bothering to say this. People have been begging you to do this for years, but you refuse to grow up. It’s truly sad.
These were so bad – a soggy mess (nothing like the pictures) – such a waste of expensive ingredients. I wish I’d read the comments first.
Terrible. Please take this recipe down, it reflects so poorly on your abilities as a cook (although perhaps that is a correct reflection as you are not a good cook)
Just making sure my rating sticks.
I made these for my family last night, and my son could not get enough. I did substitute for some of the flour based on what was in my pantry when I ran out of rice flour; I used a blend of coconut flour and almond flour. I used coconut milk instead of buttermilk. My only recommendations would be to start slow with adding the milk to the batter to make sure it stays thick, and maybe double up on the batter recipe if you like a thicker coating. The dipping sauce is delish. Thank you for this fun recipe idea!
You should take this recipe off your website. It’s legitimately awful.
Tieghan, you must take this recipe down. People are trying to help you here. This is a disaster. Nobody believes the fake positive reviews on this recipe, or any others like it. You must take a break from what you’re doing, and try to heal. The more you try to pass off failed recipes on your blog and pretend that nothing is wrong, the more credibility you lose. Get some help.
I don’t know where I went wrong but this did not work for me at all. I love Erewhon’s chicken tenders but these were barely edible and I don’t say that lightly 🙁 Could the recipe author confirm the recipe is written as it should be?
For the love of god, please delete this recipe before more people waste their hard earned money at the grocery store. It takes a pretty selfish person to not feel guilty about providing a recipe that has gone horribly wrong for so many people. Please show your long time followers and financial supporters who buy your cookbooks the respect they deserve.
Every one in my family loved these! Thank you for the recipe.
Laranne, did you follow the recipe as written or did you have to tweak it? Or are you a liar and never tried it, considering how many people have complained about it not working at all?
It’s a bot. This site pays for fake followers who post fake reviews. Like how a recipe will be posted in the early morning, then a few hours later someone is giving five stars on a lasagna or something claiming they made it and it was amazing. Complete BS.
Lucy is a bot too, they are trying to bring the rating of this god-awful abomination up. Literally nobody is making this recipe and liking it. It is absolutely not a workable recipe.
Hey Laranne,
Wonderful! So glad to hear this recipe turned out well for you, thanks a lot for giving it a try! xxT
Tieghan why have you stopped responding to any reviews that aren’t 5 stars? What a mess.
It’s unbelievably tone deaf and rude to only respond to comments praising your recipe, when there have been a number of people that had poor and inedible results.
By the way, “tone deaf” means “having or showing an obtuse insensitivity or lack of perception particularly in matters of public sentiment, opinion, or taste,” because I know you’re not Google.
Could someone from this blog or one of the commenters kindly clarify why/how this recipe was changed and what the note about the “amount of trouble” means? It’s all so vague and I don’t know if I should make this recipe or not.
Diana – check out this page which outlines all of the changes that have been made: https://www.reddit.com/r/FoodieSnark/s/Gu4GueGumS
The main consensus is no, you should definitely not make this recipe.
Please don’t claim a recipe to be dairy free, which you do in the introduction, and then use buttermilk as a main ingredient.
I thought after all the tweaks that I would make this for my kids because their dad has been in the hospital. Its been a stressful couple weeks and they LOVE chicken tenders so I figured this would be worth the effort. Sadly, this was a waste of my money and time. The chicken never crisped and the breading was soggy and goopy. Needless to say, I made second trip to the store and just bought frozen chicken tenders to save the day. Those came out great.
This recipe doesn’t work at all as written. Erewhon flash fries their tenders in avocado oil, and if you wanted to recreate theirs, you should have used the same cooking method. Using a heavy, wet batter and attempting to oven bake them is a disaster, unfortunately.
The batter doesn’t crisp
It falls off the chicken in sodden, gluey clumps
The chicken is overcooked at 450 for 25 minutes
The soggy batter completely drowns out what could be a nice spice mix
Some suggestions: lightly dredge the tenders in buttermilk (let excess run off), coconut milk or egg, then drip them in the dry ingredients, and deep fry.
If you really want to oven bake, dredge lightly and dip in the dry ingredients, lightly spritz with olive or avocado oil, drop the temp to 425 and cook for 15-20 minutes, tops. They will not get very crispy, but it will work.
The spice mix and sauce were ok.
Tieghan, your Black Pepper Rub Chicken Fingers with Greek Yogurt Ranch from 202o and Coconut Chicken Fingers with Bang Bang Sauce from 2023 were two of your better attempts at oven baking tenders – which is difficult if you want a nice crisp. Maybe revisit these techniques, and the cooking temps/times. These worked better.
This one was sadly a miss.
This recipe has been changed 4 times in as many days! Not updated for clarity, but the ingredients flat out changed. So is THIS the final version? I don’t want to buy the ingredients and have them go to waste when the recipe fails. Thanks so much!
p.s. I don’t think it needed updating because readers weren’t understanding the instructions, I think it was failing because it wasn’t properly tested?
I did not read the reviews before making this last night. That was my mistake that I wont make again! I love the Erewhon tumeric tenders. I wish I could upload a picture of what these looked like, it is nothing like the pictures above. The breading/batter does not get crispy at all it was also really thick and a strange almost glue/gooey texture and it just peels right off the chicken which was actually really dry after cooking at 450 for 25 min. I think these could work if you put the tenders in the buttermilk mixture and then dredge in the dry ingredients. Putting them on the pan covered in wet batter did not work-the side that was on the pan had no breading at all, the batter kinda made a puddle around the chicken. Spooning the extra batter on the chicken also did not work because they had begun to cook and you were putting raw ingredients on top of partially cooked batter and it dripped down onto the pan adding to the puddle of batter. I mean it was really a mess. The sauce is good, I will say that. Recommendation to everyone, just throw some frozen chicken tendies in the air fryer and make the sauce to dip them in, it will save you a lot of time and mess!