Chicken tenderloins are the most tender part of the chicken. Baked chicken tenderloin makes a great finger food. I love to prepare them in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Timing is important here. So how long to bake chicken tenderloins in oven at 350 degrees? Read on to find out the answer as well as how to season them and what side dishes to serve with.
Contents
Chicken tenderloins need 30 minutes to bake to perfect doneness at 350 degrees F in the oven. By perfect doneness we mean that the meat is tender and not pink in the center, or its internal temperature is 165 F. To guarantee your tenderloins don’t overcook, monitor their temperature with a probe thermometer. At 350 degrees, the chicken acquires a thin golden coating. If you are a fan of crispy chicken, we suggest you to heat the oven to higher temperatures.
Chicken tenderloins can be cooked at 400 and 425 degrees for a crispier texture. However, since tenderloins are small pieces of meat, they are easy to overcook if left without attention. Your best bet is to keep a close eye on the baking process and don’t walk away from the oven too far. You want to cook chicken tenderloins at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, and at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes. There is nothing wrong in baking this type of chicken meat at 250 degrees. In 50 minutes, you will get extremely juicy and silky tenderloins that barely need any sauce to be dipped into.
Given their small size, chicken tenderloins go best with 350 degrees F. At temperature over 400 degrees, the chicken tenderloins tend to cook faster outside than inside. This way, you may risk getting a firm and brown crust and a pink and chewy flesh. We prefer our chicken to be uniformly cooked and have a slight crisp. This result is given by 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can dedicate an hour to tenderloins, you can slow cook them at 250 degrees. Tenderloins don’t have to be flipped over or braised halfway through, so you can spend all their bake time on the preparation of other dishes.
Here’s the recipe to cook chicken tenderloins in the oven.
While you can broil large pieces of meat, we don’t recommend you to use the broiler with small chicken tenderloins. It can be too much for them. If you are badly pressed for time, turn on the convection fan to make the meat ready faster. This will change the bake time, so keep the thermometer at the ready. After about 20 minutes of cooking, insert it in the thickest part of a tenderloin and check if it has reached 165 F. Another way to speed up the process is to cut each tenderloin in half. If this doesn’t ruin your beautiful serving plans, go for it.
When it comes to amplifying the taste of chicken tenderloins, there is a large list of dipping sauces that are glad to help. Some of them include honey mustard, barbecue, garlic, creamy mushroom and spicy lemon. We suggest you to cover the tenderloins with a blanket of grated parmesan in the final minutes of baking. The combination is just so good, you won’t regret. Besides sauces and cheese, you can balance out the high-calorie chicken tenderloins with an ample plate of fresh vegetables or a hearty casserole of roasted veggies. Other side dishes that complement this type of meat greatly are stuffed tomatoes with pesto rice, smashed baby red potatoes, honey glazed carrots, french fries, and grilled spiced zucchini.
Chicken tenderloin is the most tender meat on the chicken. This is from the inner muscle found near the chicken breast bone.
If you buy a pound of packaged chicken tenderloins, there are normally 9 to 12 of them.
Chicken tenderloins are from the inner muscle found near the chicken breast bone. There are only 2 chicken tenderloin per chicken.
It takes 20 minutes to bake chicken tenderloins in the oven at 375 degrees. This gives you very tender meat with slight crisp on the outside.
Chicken tenderloins should have an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit when done. The temperate probe should be placed at the thickest part of the tenderloins to measure the temperature.
Season the chicken tenderloins with the classic pair salt and pepper. If you want them more aromatic, rub them with additional spices, like paprika, basil, oregano, onion and garlic powders. Drizzle some olive oil over the tenderloins to add flavor and help the spices to stick to the meat better.