Crispy Oven Fried Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strips
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Crispy Oven Fried Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strips can be on your dinner table in 35 minutes! These aren’t your ordinary chicken fingers, nope! They are crisp-crusted, moist and tender, fiery buffalo sauce slathered, where’s the ranch dip…chicken fingers.
Table of Contents
Crispy Oven Fried Chicken With Buffalo Sauce
We are big chicken eaters at our house. I often joke we are going to grow feathers eventually. So I’m always on the lookout for new chicken recipes. Late last year, Karly at Buns in My Oven (one of my favorite food blogs!) posted a great recipe for Chicken strips and it quickly made its way into our dinner rotation.
The real “secret” to her oven-fried chicken is melting butter on the pan that you cook the chicken on in the oven.
The first time I tried it, I thought a whole stick of butter sounded like a lot, so I only used 4 tablespoons. The chicken still turned out good, but let me tell you when I finally tried the full 8 tablespoons of butter it made the chicken finger lickfinger-lickin’
One night while I was gathering the ingredients to make the oven fried chicken strips, a packet of ranch dressing mix caught my eye and I thought “why not add it to the flour for a little creamy ranch flavor”.
Sounded good enough, but then I spied the bottle of buffalo sauce and wondered how it would taste if I dipped the chicken in the hot wing sauce in between the ranch flour and panko bread crumbs………the rest is history, my friends!!
These Crispy Oven Fried Ranch Buffalo Chicken Strips have been rockin’ our dinner table for a few months now and realized I needed to share them with you all!
RELATED: Buffalo Chicken Meatballs Recipe + Video
Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strips are really simple to make.
5 minutes and they’re ready for the oven. (full recipe at the end of the post)
When you preheat the oven, cut up a stick (8 tablespoons) of butter and place it on a rimmed pan and toss it in the oven to melt.
While the butter is melting and your oven is heating up, place the chicken tenderloins on a plate.
Then using three shallow bowls; combine flour and a packet of Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing Mix (not the dip mix) in one bowl, pour some buffalo sauce (we like Franks or Sweet Baby Rays) in another bowl, and panko bread crumbs in the third bowl.
Line them all up on the counter in that order, and when the butter is melted, place the baking sheet at the far end.
Simply dip each chicken tenderloin in the ranch flour mix, then the buffalo sauce, then press into panko bread crumbs and place on the pan with the melted butter.
Bake the buffalo ranch chicken strips for about 15 minutes, then flip and bake for another 15 minutes.
Then, because my husband likes them extra crispy, I turn the oven to broil and leave them in about another 5 minutes, keeping a close eye on them to make sure they don’t start to burn.
and that’s it!! Perfectly baked, crispy and crunchy Ranch Buffalo Chicken Strips! They are wonderful with jasmine rice and broccoli or dunked in a little ranch dressing.
This was such a good idea!! They do have some kick, but it’s not overly spicy. Everyone devours them and they fight if there are leftovers (someone has been known to hide the leftovers in the fridge, ahem).
They make the perfect quick and easy weeknight meal the whole family loves! Come on over……I’ll make you some!
Crispy Oven Fried Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strips
These crispy oven fried Buffalo Ranch Chicken strips are crisp-crusted moist and tender fiery buffalo sauce slathered where's the ranch dip chicken fingers.
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1½ - 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
- 1½ cups flour
- 1 packet Hidden Valley Original Ranch Dressing Mix
- 1 cup Franks RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce
- 1½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs
- ranch dressing for dipping (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is preheating, place butter on a large rimmed baking sheet in the oven until the butter has melted . Remove from the pan from the oven and set aside.
- Using three shallow bowls or pie plates; add flour and dressing mix to one, and stir to combine, add buffalo sauce to another bowl and panko bread crumbs to the third.
- Dip chicken tenders in flour mixture, then buffalo sauce, then press into bread crumbs and place on pan with melted butter.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then flip each piece over and bake for another 15 minutes. Optional - set oven to broil and cook for another 5 minutes for extra crispiness (keep a close eye on them, if they start to burn, remove from oven)
- Serve hot with ranch dressing for dipping.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 707Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 188mgSodium: 1854mgCarbohydrates: 46gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 55g
Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients used and are just estimates. We encourage, especially if these numbers are important to you, to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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This chicken looks & sounds so good. I love buffalo ranch mixed together!!! What a fun idea!
I LOVE your new look. It’s so pretty & clean & tidy! 😉
xo
Oh my gosh, Cheryl – this is a brilliant idea!
(And I love how sharp and big your pictures look with your new layout!)
Love the new look!! Congrats!
These chicken strips wouldn’t last long at my house! Love that they’re baked!
Love your new look!!
These chicken strips look PERFECT! And your site is looking so fresh and clean – congrats!
Oh my – I love Karly – she’s AWESOME!
These look fabulous. I have some chicken & I have debating what I would do with it. Now I know!!!! YUM!
Thanks Cheryl!
Larry and I would be all over these!! Love buffalo – the hotter the better for us 🙂
Your blog looks fantastic!!
Well, you just blew my mind with this. I LOVE buffalo chicken and this is the perfect way to dress up those chicken strips! I think I’ll make them your way this week.
And thanks for the shout out! 🙂
LOVE the new look, Cheryl! Gorgeous! These chicken strips would be a huge hit here! Pinning!
Your site looks so lovely, Cheryl! I love it!!! Those chicken strips look so tasty, too! xo
These sound amazing! Great new site design!
Oh, yes! These would be a huge hit at my house. And I also know someone who hides the leftover chicken strips. She might cut them up and add them to her salad the next day for lunch. Maybe 🙂
Can’t wait to try this chicken! And love your new look, Cheryl! I think it really reflects your philosophy and style! Congrats!
Love your new design! Everything just pops!
These would be so great for game day! I’ll need to make a double batch because I know our crowd would devour them and be begging for more!
yummy!
I did everything you did and the coating came off when I flipped them and they never got crispy even after the broiler. Bummmed. I have used a similar recipe but drizzled olive oil on the strips and they were crispy. Dont know what went wrong.
I’m really sorry Trina. We’ve made these more times than I can count, and I’ve never encountered that problem.
Can these be made up ahead of time
Hi!! I was thinking of making something similar to this recipe for dinner. I was just going to mix the melted butter with the wing sauce and mix the ranch packet in with the breadcrumbs, dip and roll. Is the flour absolutely necessary?
I’m sure that would work too – just the other way give’s it two coatings – let me know if you make it with out the flour and how it turns out!! — you do want the butter on the pan though, not in the sauce – because that’s what gives it a much better “oven fried” texture. I forgot the butter on the pan once, and it took me a bit to figure out why that batch wasn’t as good as usual. 😉
Very good came out perfect. Crispy,tender,jucy a regular in my house thanks.
I made these tonight (2/15/16) they tasted really good, but mine also turned soggy and not crispy and were greasy as can be (i used the correct amount of butter) my breading stayed on a few and others not so much. My husband was not a fan of the buffalo taste (he likes bbq everything lol) i just wish they would have been more crisp.
Honestly debating on making these again but adding a lot less butter.
I’m sorry, we’ve made these many times (usually a few times a month) and they are a big hit every time, and if I haven’t made them in a while, my family asks for them.
I had the same problem; I lost most of the breading and it was a mess. I wondered if it because there was too much butter and that prevented them from crisping up?
I’m sorry you had trouble with this recipe. I’ve made it more times than I can count, as it’s a family favorite at our house. I’ve never had trouble with the breading.
Made these tonight and was blown away how easy and delicious they were! And melting the butter in pan made them so crispy! Was skeptical we would like the buffalo sauce, but it was just right! This will be a go to for sure from now on! Thank you!
I love this combo, thanks for this recipe with the ingredients laid out so clearly!
These were Awesome very good!!
Did not crisp and made to the letter. Disappointing
i’m sorry – I can’t even count how many times we’ve made these, and they’ve turned out crispy every time.
I’m thinking of making this soon just wondering if I can use regular breadcrumbs instead of panko?
Not sure if regular breadcrumbs would mess up the recipe.
sure you can! they are both breadcrumbs. Panko is lighter and flakier, while breadcrumbs are finer. Panko absorbs less oil than breadcrumbs, keeping food a little more crisp and crunchy.
Made these tonight and it was great!
Some of the breading did come off, but it wasn’t a lot. The flavor was good! Will definitely make again, but maybe next time I’ll keep it in the oven a little longer for that extra crispness.
Great recipe!
I was wondering if you can use the Hidden Valley Dip mix instead of the salad dressing mix will that make a difference ?
I have not used it, but I think it would be fine since it’s just being used for seasoning here.
I don’t eat buffalo sauce. Can I fix them but just leave out the buffalo sauce or do I need to add something else in its place?
you could use BBQ sauce
I made these tonight and same issue tried to flip them at 15 mins and they were a soggy mess and everything stayed on the pan.. I cooked them longer but to no avail they just remained soggy and all the crisp around it just fell to the pan.. and I am so bummed because I made a double batch and have another ready to go on.. will try second batch with no butter and see what happens.. but they smell good lol..
Quick question. I have chicken tenderloins that can be cooked from frozen. Would they need to be thaw out for this recipe?
I have never cooked chicken frozen. But this is what I found:
According to the USDA, yes, you can safely cook your frozen chicken, as long as you follow a couple of general guidelines.
In order to skip the thawing step and turn your frozen chicken into a fully-cooked, safe-to-eat dinner, use your oven or stove top and simply increase your cooking time by at least 50%. In order to do this, make sure that your chicken is frozen in such a way that the individual pieces can be spread out on a baking sheet or skillet. In other words, they’re not all frozen together in rock-hard cluster.