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Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers

These Easy Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers are such a fun spin on a favorite dinner! Crispy Doritos coat the chicken pieces for a meal everyone will love! This homemade chicken fingers recipe is simple, and incredibly delicious.

An Easy Breaded Chicken Dinner

Making dinner for a family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

At least for MY FAMILY it isn’t.

I know some girls totally have it figured out…like this gal… and this one too.

And of course we have family favorites: Tacos, Chicken and Dumplings…but the resounding favorites are chicken fingers, chicken cutlets, chicken tenders, chicken nuggets…pretty much any type of chicken that is breaded and baked or fried.

Sometimes this makes me feel like a failure as a mother, but then other times, I’m like , “hey, it isn’t cereal”…so there’s that.

Of course we eat lots of foods over here and introduce new veggies and all that…so please, hold your judgement…but if you were to ask my kids what they wanted for dinner, I guarantee you they would say Chicken Cutlets. Guaranteeeeeee.

A Baked Cool Ranch Dorito Chicken Fingers Recipe

So in an effort to make the Chicken a little more interesting I went ahead and did what any normal person would do. I crushed up some Cool Ranch Doritos and coated the chicken in them.

These Chicken Fingers are baked and the Cool Ranch chips kept the coating crispy and flavorful on the outside! I’ve done this before for dinner with Nacho Cheese Doritos too…either way is a fun variation on chicken fingers!

How to Make Cool Ranch Dorito Chicken Fingers:

Here’s how I did it…

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

I got some chicken tenders. I was lazy and bought the chicken already cut into strips, but feel free to buy boneless chicken breasts and cut them into the strips or nuggets!

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

I soaked the chicken in buttermilk. In my experience the buttermilk helps with the texture of the meat as well as the crispiness of the crust. It’s what I like to do.

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

Let that soak for at LEAST a few hours, but an overnight is better.

Then grab a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Eat 2 and crush the rest.

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

Mix that with a little bit of flour and I also use some dry ranch seasoning to amp-up the ranch flavor. You can usually find that down the salad dressing aisle.

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

Allow the excess buttermilk to drip off each piece of chicken and then coat in your Dorito mixture…

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

Fry or bake until golden and crispy!

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!

And of course serve with more Ranch dressing!!

Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers ~ An easy weeknight meal. Chicken tenders coated in Cool Ranch Dorito chips and baked! Crispy on the outside!
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A crispy ranch chicken tender dipped in ranch dressing, held above a metal ramekin surrounded by more chicken on a white platter.

Ranch Chicken

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  • Author: Shelly
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Marinating Time: 3 hours
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Dinner
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

Ranch chicken is juicy buttermilk chicken tenders coated in crispy Doritos chips with zesty ranch seasoning. Serve this flavor-packed fried chicken recipe as an appetizer or easy dinner!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into “tenderloin” strips
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 (12 oz) bag of Cool Ranch Doritos (or whatever flavor you prefer)
  • 1 cup flour
  • *optional 1-2 Tbsp Ranch seasoning mix for extra Ranch flavor
  • vegetable oil to fry

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, marinate the chicken strips in buttermilk for at LEAST 2-3 hours (you can soak overnight).
  2. Take bag of Doritos and crush the chips inside. Now transfer Dorito pieces and flour into food processor or blender to crush and blend until the Doritos are the size of panko bread crumbs. Add in Ranch seasoning if desired.
  3. Transfer crumbs into a medium bowl.
  4. Set up a “coating station” and remove each chicken strip from the buttermilk, allowing excess to drip off and coat the chicken in the Dorito/Flour mixture. Transfer to a plate and continue with all chicken.
  5. Fill a large skillet at least 1/2- inch deep with oil and heat over medium until the oil reaches 350°F, In batches cook the chicken for 3 – 4 minutes on each side, until golden. Transfer to a paper towel lined baking sheet and repeat until all the chicken is cooked. *see notes for baking instructions. 
  6. Serve immediately with Ranch dressing!

Notes

  • Baking instructions: Bake at 400°F on a parchment lined baking sheet for 20 minutes until golden and chicken reaches 165° on a meat thermometer. 

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 plate
  • Calories: 590
  • Sugar: 4.7 g
  • Sodium: 330.2 mg
  • Fat: 19.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 58.2 g
  • Protein: 42.5 g
  • Cholesterol: 119.3 mg

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Helpful Tip… out of Buttermilk?

Buttermilk Substitution

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26 comments on “Cool Ranch Doritos Chicken Fingers”

  1. I have a question! When the chicken cooks, does it release water causing the crust to become soggy at all? Did anyone experience this?






    1. When you bake coated chicken it has a tendency to get softer on the bottom, yes, you could flip them during baking which would help that! This recipe doesn’t get too soft at all, though.

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