You can’t beat fresh ingredients when it comes to these crispy fried chicken tenderloins with a tomato, garlic, basil, and mozzarella sauce on top! great with a fresh green salad and rice pilaf.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 50 mins |
| Servings: | 4 |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 egg
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, or as needed
- 1 pound chicken tenders
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 10 fresh basil leaves
- 1 small onion, chopped
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- 4 slices of fresh mozzarella cheese, or as needed – cut in half
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Whisk together the flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and cayenne pepper in a bowl. In a separate shallow bowl, beat the egg. Place the panko crumbs into a third bowl.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dip each chicken tender into the seasoned flour, then into the egg; roll in panko crumbs. Pan fry the chicken tenders until golden brown on both sides, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken pieces to a baking sheet.
- Heat 2 more tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, and stir in the tomatoes, garlic, basil, onion, and a pinch of salt and black pepper. Reduce heat and simmer the tomato sauce until it starts to thicken, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of sauce over each chicken piece; top with a half piece of mozzarella cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly, 8 to 10 minutes.
- The nutrition data for this recipe includes the full amount of the breading ingredients. The actual amount of the breading consumed will vary.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 616 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 50 g |
| Cholesterol | 166 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 50 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 1148 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 26 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Super yummy. I agree with the others, prepare sauce before chicken & add spaghetti sauce because the tomatoes don’t amount to much of a sauce on their own.
Love it, tweaked it a bit too!
There was really no sauce. Too much flour and bread crumbs.
Tried this recipe and my family of 10 thinks it is absolutely yummy.
This was very good!! I started my sauce first thing in the morning and let it simmer for an hour then reheated right before dinner. I also added a can of tomato sauce. Instead of bread crumbs I used the Shake and Bake for chicken, Parmesan Crusted. The family loved it!
This was pretty good. I also started with the sauce first so the flavours would have more time to meld together. It turned out pretty tasty, but I would have liked more sauce.
This is mediocre. It was good, but not remarkable.
I submitted this recipe, and after reading one review about being poorly written, I must agree. I do start the sauce first and let it simmer while I am frying the chicken tenderloins. This allows it to all finish at the same time, and can go into the oven for the final melting of the cheese. You may of course, spice it up with other herbs in the sauce, but I really enjoy the flavor of fresh basil, and keeping it simple. Hope this helps! PMJNSTN
Great recipe!
This was the selection for Recipe Group 10/7. I followed the recipe fairly closely but I used pounded chicken cutlets instead of the tenders and I doubled the sauce. The cooking times seemed off to me but that may have been because of my changes. I let the sauce cook for almost an hour so it wasn’t so watery. My tomatoes were extremely sweet so it had good flavor but the chicken could have used a bit more flavor. No one complained, but I didn’t get any raves either. Thanks for sharing, PMJNSTN.
This was pretty good. I felt extremely wasteful throwing away all that flour and bread crumbs however. The sauce was pretty good, but I think it would have been better with some oregano added and without the onion. Probably won’t make this again, too time consuming for something that was only “pretty good.”
This was just okay for me. I used italian seasoned crumbs instead of plain and added some spaghetti sauce to the tomato mixture cause it really didn’t seem to have much to top the chicken with by itself. I also mixed in some cheddar cheese cause I like that cheese better. Overall it was a good dish but not something I’d make again.
We enjoyed this. Hubby referred to it as “fancy chicken parm”. Following the directions exactly I think it had the right amount of kick from the cayenne. I’m not sure how the panko really fit in. I think an italian seasoned bread crumb would have suited it a little better but that is what makes this recipe unique. Thanks for a great meal!
We had this tonight for dinner and even have leftovers for a sandwich tomorrow. We felt this could have used a little more in the flavor department–like adding some herbs to the sauce mixture. It probably could have used only one tablespoon of oil for the sauce because the onions give off liquid. And it could have used something to hold all the sauce together more (maybe some Italian bread crumbs?). Mine did not look like the photos. I think if I were to make it again I would not bread the chicken at all. All those ingredients (flour and panko) kind of rejected the flavors of the sauce and didn’t let it show off what could have been! This has possibililties, so I will try it again.
Made this for the Recipe Group and we enjoyed it. I do, however, think the recipe is poorly written and sort of backwards. Here’s the way I did it. I breaded my chicken ahead of time and didn’t use nearly the amount of flour indicated in the recipe, covered and refrigerated it until dinner time. I made the sauce before I cooked the chicken, and as I suspected, the tomatoes really cook down to almost nothing. I had to add some Prego to “stretch” it a bit. I didn’t add the basil until just before serving so it’s flavor wouldn’t diminish. I kept the sauce warm while I cooked the chicken. After the chicken was cooked I left it in the skillet, topped each with the mozzarella and covered it with a lid just until the cheese was nicely melted. I skipped the oven part altogether. This was good. We thought the chicken/panko could be improved with some additional spices, maybe some Italian seasoning, and the addition of some parmesan cheese might have been good. The sauce needs some work. We thought my addition of Prego actually improved it.
The chicken itself turned out phenomenal, but the recipe could use a little tweaking on bake/cook times. Still, absolutely fantastic stuff, I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this.
most spectacular thing I have ever tasted!