Coming from the south, I grew up on fried chicken but since going soy and dairy-free plus limiting my gluten intake, I haven't had much room in my life for fried chicken. Not to mention it doesn't do my waistline much good since I mostly try to eat in a way that keeps inflammation low because too much inflammation can cause weight gain and also prevent you from losing fat. I surely don’t need any help in that department!

Fried foods in general are a very high inflammatory food because of the unhealthy cooking oils used to fry the food. I’ve been eating this way for about 11 years so I really haven't missed fried foods much and on the rare instance when I do, I will have a fun meal out on the weekend and then go back to my healthy way of eating the next day.

But over the last couple years, the air fryer has made it much easier to enjoy fried-style foods but without the added fat and oil that comes with deep frying. I mostly use my air fryer to make vegetables like yellow squash during my weekly meal prep but it’s been fun to make healthier French fries and “fried” chicken tenders.

A couple months back, I found these panko style gluten-free rice crumbs from Trader Joe’s. Since then, I've been trying to perfect my gluten-free panko air fryer chicken tender recipe seasoned with everything bagel season. It’s a really simple recipe that you can really make your own depending on your personal taste since you can season any way you want!

Gluten-Free Panko Air Fryer Chicken Tenders (soy, dairy & gluten-free). Trader Joe's Gluten-free rice crumbs.

For this recipe, I have not included exact ingredient amounts for the crumbs and seasoning because the amounts will really depend on how much chicken you are using. I normally get a bag of the frozen chicken breast tenders at Trader Joe’s and thaw out 6-12 and make them in 1-2 batches.

Gluten-Free Panko Air Fryer Chicken Tenders (soy, dairy & gluten-free)

You don’t want your chicken to be crowded inside the air fryer so you should space them out that way they get nice and crispy. This is why I will usually do 2 batches if I am using more than 6 tenders.

Also, my air fryer is a 6 Qt. size so it can fit a good amount of food at one time but if your air fryer is smaller than that, you might have to do several batches depending how much chicken you make at once.

Gluten-Free Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Tenders

Ingredients:

6-12 chicken breast tenders
1-2 eggs
Trader Joe’s Gluten-Free Rice Crumbs
Salt and pepper
Everything bagel seasoning
Cayanne pepper
Garlic powder

Instructions:

In a bowl, scramble 1 egg about 6 tenders or use 2 eggs if you are making 6-12 tenders.
Spray the bottom of your air fryer pan with olive or avocado oil and set to the side.
In a separate bowl, mix the TJ’s rice crumbs, garlic, cayenne pepper, everything bagel seasoning or any other seasoning combo of your choosing. Go heavy on the seasoning to make sure you have enough to cover all of your chicken!
Use either thawed chicken breast tenders or get chicken breast and cut them into strips. Salt and pepper the raw chicken, then dip chicken into scrambled egg, flip it a couple times to cover it really well.
Then dip the chicken into crumb mixture, roll several times to cover them well with the mixture.
Once coated with crumb mixture, add the chicken to the air fryer pan, salt lightly, add additional everything bagel seasoning, and spray the top of chicken lightly with olive or avocado oil.
Set air fryer to 400° and cook 5-6 minutes per side. Internal chicken should reach 165° and the outside should be crispy and lightly browned.
Get ready to enjoy some deliciously healthy, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, NON-deep fried tenders! 😍

As an added bonus, when you are craving some chicken and waffles like Chris and I were this weekend, you can make this healthy version paired with some protein waffles and coconut whip topping and feel pretty dang good about yourself after!