Perfectly crispy baked chicken fingers in a few simple steps served with a spicy maple mustard dip that everyone will love!
Preheat the oven to 400F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (you can alternately place a metal baking rack on each baking sheet, both work).
To prepare the dip, stir the mustard and mayonnaise together in a small bowl. Add maple syrup to taste, stir well, and refrigerate until ready to use.
Place the chicken in a medium bowl and season with the salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Toss to coat and set aside.
In a separate shallow medium bowl or pie plate, stir together all of the flour coating ingredients and set aside.
In a separate shallow medium bowl or pie plate, whisk together the eggs and mustard and set aside.
To make the panko coating, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the panko bread crumbs, salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon, tossing until the panko is lightly toasted and fragrant, 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat, place in a large shallow dish and set aside.
To assemble the chicken fingers, lightly dredge a piece of chicken on all sides in the flour coating (shaking off the excess), followed by the egg mixture (again on both sides) and then the panko mixture, being sure to lightly press some panko on all sides of the chicken finger. Place the finger on the prepared baking sheet and repeat this process with the remaining chicken fingers until they are all coated.
Bake the chicken fingers for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the chicken fingers are golden brown and the internal temperature is 165F. Remove from the oven and serve immediately with the dipping sauce.
To make these gluten free simply substitute corn starch for the flour and gluten free Panko for the regular Panko crumbs, being careful that all of your other ingredients are free of gluten of course.