Spicy Honey Butter Chicken Sandwich Bake (Print version)

Crispy baked chicken with hot honey butter, cheese, and pickles on slider buns for easy pull-apart sliders.

# What You Need:

→ For the Chicken

01 - 12 chicken tenders, approximately 1.5 pounds
02 - 1 cup buttermilk
03 - 1 large egg
04 - 1.5 cups panko breadcrumbs
05 - 0.5 cup all-purpose flour
06 - 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
07 - 1 teaspoon garlic powder
08 - 1 teaspoon onion powder
09 - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
10 - 1 teaspoon salt
11 - 0.5 teaspoon black pepper
12 - cooking spray or 3 tablespoons neutral oil for baking

→ For the Hot Honey Butter

13 - 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
14 - 0.25 cup honey
15 - 1.5 tablespoons hot sauce
16 - 0.5 teaspoon chili flakes, optional for extra heat
17 - 0.25 teaspoon salt

→ For Assembly

18 - 12 slider buns or Hawaiian rolls
19 - 8 slices cheddar or pepper jack cheese
20 - 0.5 cup sliced dill pickles
21 - 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing buns
22 - 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, optional for topping

# Directions:

01 - Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly grease.
02 - In a bowl, combine buttermilk and egg. Add chicken tenders and let marinate for 10 minutes.
03 - In a shallow dish, mix panko, flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, salt, and black pepper.
04 - Remove each chicken tender from marinade, letting excess drip off, then coat thoroughly in breadcrumb mixture. Arrange on prepared baking sheet.
05 - Spray tops with cooking spray or drizzle with oil. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, flipping halfway, until golden and cooked through.
06 - While chicken bakes, whisk together melted butter, honey, hot sauce, chili flakes, and salt in a small bowl.
07 - Once baked, toss hot chicken tenders in the honey butter sauce until fully coated.
08 - Lower oven to 350°F. Slice slider buns horizontally, keeping bottoms connected, and place bottoms in a 9x13-inch baking dish.
09 - Layer cheese slices, then sauced chicken tenders, then sliced pickles over buns. Cover with bun tops.
10 - Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds if using.
11 - Bake uncovered 7 to 10 minutes, until cheese melts and buns are lightly toasted.
12 - Serve warm, pull apart sliders, and enjoy immediately.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • Baked chicken stays juicy inside while the panko crust shatters like you just bit into a fried chicken sandwich.
  • The hot honey butter is dangerously addictive and masks any ordinary chicken with pure flavor.
  • Everything comes together in about fifty minutes, perfect for game day or when friends text asking what's for dinner.
  • Pull-apart sliders mean everyone serves themselves, so you actually get to eat too.
02 -
  • The buttermilk marinade is non-negotiable—it's the difference between tender, juicy chicken and something that tastes like a shoe, so don't skip it or rush through it.
  • Flipping the chicken halfway through baking prevents one side from getting too dark while the other stays pale and undercooked, which sounds obvious until you forget and wonder why one batch turned out weird.
03 -
  • Don't skip the parchment paper on your baking sheet—it's the difference between ten minutes of cleanup and thirty minutes of scrubbing.
  • Arrange everything in your nine-by-thirteen dish before the final bake so when the chicken comes out of the oven, you're just assembling instead of improvising under pressure.
Return