These baked Keto Peanut Chicken Tenders have a chili lime flavor profile that makes them a little more sophisticated and adult-friendly than your average chicken tender. Low carb, gluten free, and dairy free, this is an easy keto chicken dinner that you can have on the table in less than 30 minutes!
Keto Chicken Peanut Tenders – we are here for you and your tender, tangy, spicy, peanut-ty perfection. Let’s do this.
Are you with me????
We are throwing peanuts and spices in a food processor or magic bullet.
We are whirring them up into coarse crumbs.
We are coating our keto chicken tenders in a chili lime mayonnaise and then rolling them in said peanut crumbs.
We are baking for 20 minutes.
The longest 20 minutes of your chicken tender loving adult life….
We are dipping and eating and wishing we doubled this chili lime peanut chicken tenders recipe like Mellissa told us to. (seriously though, do it because these keto peanut chicken tenders even taste amazing straight outta your refrigerator at 2am. True story.)
Can it really be that easy? Yes, yes it can!
Delicious on their own, these low carb Asian-inspired chicken tenders are even more tasty when dunked liberally in this salty-sweet-sesame sauce – which can be whisked up in 2 minutes while you’re waiting for the chicken to finish cooking.
Perfect for keto meal prep, you can make these keto peanut chicken tenders in large batches and eat them all week with salads or served with some coconut lime cauliflower rice. These freeze really well too, so you can always have some on hand for quick weeknight meals or lunches.
If you don’t want to deal with chicken tenders, you can use boneless thighs or chicken breasts, then just slice and serve. You’ll need to cook larger pieces longer than the 20 minutes called for, so use a meat thermometer to be sure they are done in the middle for best results.
Recipe Notes:
The recipe card shows the nutrition info for the keto peanut chicken tenders alone. I’m providing the nutrition info for the dipping sauce separately in the notes section below the recipe. That way if you choose to have the tenders alone or with a different sauce you won’t have to recalculate it.
You can easily substitute almonds or pecans if someone in your tribe has a peanut allergy.
PrintKeto Peanut Chicken Tenders – Low Carb
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
These baked Keto Peanut Chicken Tenders have a chili lime flavor profile that makes them a little more sophisticated and adult-friendly than your average chicken tender. Low carb and gluten free, this is an easy keto chicken dinner that you can have on the table in less than 30 minutes!
Ingredients
For the chicken tenders:
- 1 lb raw chicken tenders
- 1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
For the dipping sauce:
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon granulated erythritol sweetener
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
Instructions
To make the chicken tenders:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Combine the peanuts, salt, and cayenne pepper in a small blender or food processor.
- Pulse until the consistency of coarse crumbs.
- Combine the mayonnaise, ginger, sriracha and lime zest in a medium-sized bowl.
- Add the chicken tenders and stir to completely coat in the mayonnaise mixture.
- Place the peanut coating on a large plate. Roll the chicken tenders one by one in the peanut coating, and then place on an oiled sheet pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tenders are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.
To make the dipping sauce:
- Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Serve with the cooked chicken tenders.
Notes
Net carbs per serving chicken tenders = 2g.
Dipping Sauce nutrition info is 99 calories, 11g fat, 1g net carbs, 0g protein per 1 1/2 tablespoons.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Keto Dinner Recipes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Asian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 ounces or 1/4 batch
- Calories: 298
- Fat: 20g
- Carbohydrates: 3g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 28g
Augustin says
This dish is such a nice alternative to ones that use almond flour to for breading–that’s never as crispy as I want it to be. The peanut coating stays nice and crunchy, however, and the dipping sauce is a great flavor complement.
cheril says
I really enjoyed these. I am a chili head so I added extra sriracha and ginger to the mayo. I let the chicken marinate while I went for a walk then I coated and baked them. Great flavors. The dipping sauce works well with the flavors. For some reason it reminds me of the sheet pan chicken satay. I guess it’s the lime and peanut together.
Mellissa Sevigny says
Glad you liked this Cheril, thanks for taking the time to let me know!
Marlene Ann Miller says
Can the dry roasted peanuts be replaced with defatted peanut flour?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Theoretically yes, Marlene, but I’m not sure how that would affect the texture. Let us know if you try it, and how it turns out!
Kim says
This was amazing! I was surprised how quick and easy it was. Your cooking time was perfect for avoiding dry chicken. So many recipe sites miss the mark there but you have it spot on.
The flavors were fantastic too. I halved the spicy stuff because I a wimp but I think next time I can up the sriracha a bit. Thanks for the great recipe! This will be on regular rotation in my house.
Leanne says
Can you suggest a substitute for the fish sauce? We have a severe fish allergy and I find a lot of recipes that call for fish sauce but I never know what to use as a substitute?
Mellissa Sevigny says
Try coconut aminos!
Lisa says
This recipe is easy, quick and flavor packed. My husband really liked the peanut “breading,” and I was sort of on the fence. I liked it but didn’t love it. Neither of us were drawn to the dipping sauce. We both felt the flavor of the fish sauce was a little too obvious, and might dial it back it back next time.
Paulette says
Mellissa, this is a spectacular recipe! The peanut chicken tenders are so good— crunchy peanuts combined with juicy chicken; then when you add the dipping sauce, it is beyond incredible. We also drizzled the sauce on roasted vegetables. I will serve this to company, once the pandemic is history. So easy to make, yet such a beautiful presentation!
Mellissa Sevigny says
Thanks Paulette, so happy you enjoyed these as much as we did!
Charlotte says
Delicious! But I had a few problems… I ran out of the peanut crumb when I had only done about half of the chicken (luckily I had plenty of peanuts on hand to make more), and I clearly didn’t use enough oil on the sheet pan because they stuck like you won’t believe! But I will definitely be making these again very soon.