Julie Clark
Posted: Updated:
Paleo Chicken Fingers
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
These healthy, kid-friendly Paleo Chicken Fingers are gluten free and dairy free. Lightly breaded and pan fried to a golden brown in coconut oil.
I’m super excited about this little Paleo Chicken Fingers recipe I’m sharing with you today. If your family is anything like ours, you are busy. Running to soccer practices, cross country practices, ballet, piano…by the time dinner comes and it’s nearing time to plop down at the table, I like something fast. And healthy. And easy. And tasty.
What makes a dinnertime recipe really stand out is when I see smiles on my kids’ faces (and my hubby’s, too!) and statements of “Now THIS is GOOD!”. These Paleo Chicken Fingers hit every single one of those requirements.
What makes these chicken strips paleo?
Years ago, we ate a paleo diet 80% of the time. This was one of the recipes I developed at that time. They are paleo because they are grain free, gluten free, dairy free and sugar free.
Even if you are not gluten free or dairy free, this is a recipe you can keep on hand for when you have friends over who may be. It’s a chicken recipe everyone can enjoy.
Chicken for Chicken Fingers
To make these best paleo chicken fingers quick to cook, I used the chicken breast tenderloins that are already trimmed and ready. I know I’m not the only one out there that isn’t a huge fan of handling raw chicken. The fact that this comes trimmed and ready to cook is genius.
How to Make Paleo Chicken Fingers
- Heat ¼ cup coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, until it reaches about 350ºF.
- While the oil is heating, prepare the chicken. Place almond flour, tapioca starch, garlic salt, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper in a bowl and mix.
- Put the whisked eggs in a separate bowl.
- Dip each chicken tenderloin into the egg and then coat each with the almond flour mixture.
- Place the prepared chicken into the hot oil and fry it for 4 minutes. Once the first side is browned, turn the chicken and fry the other side for another 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown and shows no pink in the middle. The exact timing will depend on how thick the chicken is.
- During the last minute of frying, sprinkle paprika over the chicken.
Our trick for crispy chicken
When the paleo chicken tenders are done frying, place it on a wire cooling rack with paper towels underneath to catch any drips. The wire rack will allow air to circulate around the chicken, preventing any soggy bottoms. This is how we keep our fried pork tenderloin crisp, too!
Recipe Variations
- We generally make ours Italian flavored, but add any other spice or seasonings you’d like: garlic powder, cayenne pepper or onion powder.
- Cut the pieces smaller and make healthy paleo chicken nuggets!
- I’ve not tried it, but you can most likely cook these paleo chicken strips in an air fryer, too. Spray the air fryer basket with cooking spray, then cook at 350ºF for about 10 minutes, turning once in between.
Serving Ideas
- Serve the paleo chicken fingers with several dipping sauces such as ketchup, ranch, bbq sauce, honey mustard or buffalo sauce.
- Served with spaghetti sauce over spaghetti squash: it’s your very own paleo chicken parmigiana.
- Slice the paleo chicken strips into bite size pieces and serve over a large salad with your favorite veggies.
Make it a meal.
Serve the paleo chicken fingers in a basket with sweet potato fries and a side of antipasto salad.
You may also like our paleo baked chicken and peach nice cream!
Paleo Chicken Fingers
These healthy, kid-friendly Paleo Chicken Fingers are gluten free and dairy free. Lightly breaded and pan fried to a golden brown in coconut oil.
Servings 8
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 22 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil for frying
- 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
- 1 cup almond flour
- 3 tablespoons tapioca starch
- 11/2 teaspoons garlic salt
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 large eggs whisked
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- Heat ¼ cup coconut oil in a skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, until it reaches about 350ºF. ¼ cup coconut oil
- While the oil is heating, prepare the chicken. Place almond flour, tapioca starch, garlic salt, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper in a bowl and mix. 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken tenderloins, 1 cup almond flour, 3 tablespoons tapioca starch, 1½ teaspoons garlic salt, 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Put the whisked eggs in a separate bowl. 2 large eggs
- Dip each chicken tenderloin into the egg and then coat each with the almond flour mixture.
- Place the prepared chicken into the hot oil and fry it for 4 minutes. Once the first side is browned, turn the chicken and fry the other side for another 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is golden brown and shows no pink in the middle. The exact timing will depend on how thick the chicken is.
- During the last minute of frying, sprinkle paprika over the chicken. When the paleo chicken tenders are done frying, place it on a wire cooling rack with paper towels underneath to catch any drips. ½ teaspoon paprika
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce or with spaghetti sauce over spaghetti squash.
Video
Notes
Because these chicken fingers have a light, gluten free “breading”, that crispy coating may come off if you are not careful. We used a spatula (instead of a fork) to turn the chicken fingers and remove them from the pan when they were done. Our crispy coating stayed perfectly on the chicken.
Refer to the article above for more tips and tricks.
The calories shown are based on the recipe making 8 chicken strips, with 1 serving being 1 chicken strip. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate. **We are not dietitians and recommend you seek a nutritionist for exact nutritional information. **
Nutrition
Calories: 316kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 20g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 119mg | Sodium: 2038mg | Potassium: 443mg | Fiber: 1g | Vitamin A: 170IU | Vitamin C: 1.3mg | Calcium: 50mg | Iron: 1.4mg
These are awesome! I’m on the elimination diet do to hypothyroid and hashimoto’s so I came across this. Turned out great. I couldn’t use the egg so first time using the chia seeds in water and turned out nice and crunchy. I also used chicken that was cut up for a stir fry. It made for a great little snack!! Thanks!!!
I’m not sure if I can find spaghetti squash where I live, but I will definitely make the chicken fingers and serve them with a mint lemon sauce and a simple salad. The chicken looks so crispy.
We made these tonight and they were EXCELLENT! My husband loves chicken fingers and I’ve never been able to get him to try a GF alternative. He said he’s surely eat these again. We served it with some marinara sauce and qouina
This was soooo good. We didn’t have almond flour so we combined 1 cup tapioca starch and 1 cup coconut flour instead. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
If I bake these instead of doing stove top, will they still come out crispy?
These are great! My family of four all liked these (a monumental achievement)! I did not tell them these are paleo and more healthful than our standard chicken fingers because they would suddenly decide they weren’t so great if they knew. It was awesome to serve something everyone liked and I can feel good about!
For those that can’t have egg… I dipped in avocado oil before “breading” and they came out amazing!
This was so good. And so easy to make! Everyone loved it and asked for seconds. Even my picky eaters. Thank you so much for sharing such a great recipe. One that will definitely be a part of our weekly menu for now on. My favorite part was that the flour mix crisped perfectly and didn’t fall off the chicken. Just great!
Entire family loved them!!! Thank you for a simple recipe
Making this for dinner tonight!!
I made the Italian Chicken Fingers last night and these are so good!! Both Paleo and Whole30 compliant, This recipe is definitely going into our rotation!
made the chicken fingers right now, and OMG they are delicious!!!
So haoo y I found this site of yours.
What’s up with the Tyson endorsement? I think most people looking for paleo recipes are going to shy away from buying a non-organic, hormone-infused brand of chicken. like Tyson.
These were AMAZING!! I have tried other paleo chicken fingers before and nothing else compares. Thank you for this recipe! I will definitely being making these again!
Thanks so much for the recipe! Yumm!