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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
Unfortunately, these were a miss. Too much batter, and it did not crisp up. The spice mix was nice, and it was probably a good idea, but I don’t think this recipe works at all in the oven. Deep frying might have held up better.
These didn’t work out. The batter was soggy and didn’t crisp up.
After reading all of these reviews I decided I needed to try this recipe out for myself. I have made many HBH recipes and have loved all of them. I had the opposite issue of many, my batter ended up too thick, almost like a thick dough. I did add extra buttermilk and it still was very thick, but went ahead with it anyway. It did crisp up nicely in the oven and the end result was very tasty with the sauce! I will try this again soon, thin the batter a bit more, and I feel it will turn out perfectly.
Can you post an instructional video since you said yours turn out perfectly every time, but basically everyone in the comments is saying the same thing – it’s not working?
These don’t work at all. There is no way the pictures of the chicken tenders are ones that she prepared herself. This recipe is a disaster, and the batter ended up sliding off and spreading across the baking dish in an oily, burnt mess. I didn’t bother to heap more of it on the chicken halfway through cooking as she suggested (?!?!) because why would I? I had to throw this away, and I hate to waste food, but this was inedible.
This recipe was a complete flop. Waste of time, money, and ingredients. No amount of revisions can save it. It’s actually irresponsible of you to keep this up.
I remember my first AI generated recipe, it was this one.
These were a giant fail. The breading was soggy, and falling off. They tasted so bad we had to throw them in the trash. Complete waste of time & money. BEWARE!!!!!
I’m sorry, but that photo of chicken tenders is of deep fried chicken tenders. There is absolutely no way those were baked in a batter. I’d love to see you post a video of you making these with this recipe as written.
I concur with the negative reviews. This recipe was very poorly written, obviously not tested, and just…not logical. Flavorless, soggy, and a big waste of food.
The tenders pictured here are fried and likely store bought. Don’t be fooled, people.
If you follow the instructions as written, whether it be v. 1,2,3,4, or beyond, they are all a massive fail. The chicken was overcooked at that temp and time, and the batter was like soggy cement and did not adhere to the chicken. This was really, really, REALLY bad.
Nobody who made these according to the instructions T. provided would have had even a passable result. If you prepared them differently, maybe. But what is written here is absolute garbage.
Why is this atrocity still on the website? These were completely inedible.
Was nervous to try these given all the negative reviews but I’m glad I did! Will make these again for my toddler who is gluten- and dairy-free (so yes, I did thick coconut milk instead of buttermilk). As I was nervous of making it too runny and soggy, I did not add too much coconut milk. So I would add a bit more next time as it was thick in some spots. I also flipped the chicken part way and made sure to put a lot of oil. They definitely were crispy!! Some of the breading fell off but really pretty good especially for my first try!
Allow me to chime in – nope, not a bot, just an avid reader and … a shitty chef for that matter – since Tieghan appears to have caught a lot of flak here. I just did this recipe earlier today and whilst preparing everything became aware of some of you fine folks not having enjoyed it. Not sure if I was already working with an alternate version of the original recipe. When I read those comments, the chicken was already in the oven …
The verdict? It worked out well, kid (picky eater) still prefers McDonalds but wife loved it. Personally, it is probably not one of my favor ites but it hardly deserves the negativity shared here by many. Again, maybe I was working with newer and better instructions. But the chicken came out both tender and crisp, it did lack a bit of “umph”! It could have used a some more spices. I went for the buttermilk (I live over in France so I used Kefir instead) option and had no issues with sogginess …
Ok. Commercial over.
Best regards
Jens