What to Serve with Chicken Tenders: 55 Ideas
- December 24, 2023
- Last Updated: October 8, 2024
- 0 Comments
- Recipes
Mostly everyone loves chicken tenders. So what do you serve with chicken tenders to add some variety and flavor to your plate? Here are some of my favorite healthy sides for chicken tenders that will make your meal tasty and nutritious.
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As a mom (and former McDonald’s kid), my love for chicken tenders runs deep. I could list a bunch of my favorite dips and ways I serve them to my kids.
For example, with lemon pepper baked chicken tenders, we’ve done ketchup, ranch, honey yogurt and BBQ sauce. All are good in their own right!
But, you’re here for the healthy side dishes for chicken tenders, right?
You probably want an alternative to the typical frozen fries from the frozen aisle in the grocery store, or even from the mac and cheese – even if you can sneak some veggies in there!
I get it – as a mom of 3, I also worry about nutrition and my kids’ diets, and want them to have a varied palate.
These chicken tender sides are fun, flavorful AND nutritious. Try one, or try them all!
If you need ideas for more healthy kids recipes, check out 20 of our most popular healthy recipes for toddlers and kids, check out our ebook!
Why You’ll Love These Chicken Tenders Side Dishes
There’s nothing wrong with relying on a boxed or frozen side in a pinch, but the ease of these recipes will surprise you and may motivate you to try something different.
- Delicious: First, these chicken tender side dis recipes offer a wide variety of flavors, sure to suit any palate. There include fresh salads, creamy pastas, crispy sweetpotatoes, crunchy green beans, and more.
- Quick: The majority of these recipes can be made in 20 minutes or less. A healthy meal in the same time it takes to grab takeout—major bonus! You can make them while the chicken tenders are cooking. This is especially helpful on those weeknights when you come home from work or sports practice and need to get dinner on the table fast.
- Personalized: The good thing about making your own side dish is that you can pick and choose the ingredients you want—tailoring it to your family’s needs or dietary preferences.
- Nourishing: These dietitian-curated recipes add a nutritious spin to your typical side dish. Most of these recipes are rich in fiber, healthy fats, and antioxidants.
- Great for picky eaters: Need a way to introduce new foods in a familiar way? Some of these recipes are a modified version of a classic—with a nutrient-dense twist. Plus, by offering new sides (like whole grain croutons) with an old classic and comfort food like chicken tenders, your child may be more likely to be adventurous.
Plus if you need any more ideas for lunches that aren’t sandwiches, any of these side options with your chicken tenders will do.
So whether you’re whipping up a quick lunch for the kids or a weeknight dinner for your family, these side dishes will not disappoint.
What to Serve with Chicken Tenders
Firstly, can we take a minute to appreciate how great chicken tenders and/or chicken nuggets can be? Almost a definite way to get protein into our kiddos, and they are ready quickly!
You can eat them grilled or fried, breaded or marinated – so many options!
Chicken is also a great source of B vitamins like B12 and riboflavin, iron, choline, and selenium – important for our growing kids, and even us as adults too.
I absolutely love chicken tenders paired with a high carbohydrate side for a post-workout meal.
Or, when you need a quick lunch or easy Wednesday night dinner idea, chicken tenders fit the bill.
What to serve with chicken tenders can be an opportunity to offer colorful, nutrient-dense foods that will nourish bodies of all ages.
Fortunately, chicken is versatile and goes with just about everything. Like my post on what to eat with sweet potatoes, chicken tender sides can be as easy and versatile as you’d like.
These simple sides are the perfect complement for chicken tenders. Packing in both flavor and nutrients, everyone will be satisfied.
Vegetables
Vegetables can be enjoyed in several ways as a side dish with chicken tenders. Take just broccoli – here are more than 15 ideas for recipes for broccoli recipes for baby-led weaning that the entire family will love.
Veggies make the perfect chicken tenders side dish, adding both flavor and nutrition. Plus, you can dress them up, make them heartier and more filling, or keep them light.
Need some ideas? Broccoli, carrots, parsnips, peas, green beans, spinach, cauliflower, beets, onion, and mushrooms – All are loaded with antioxidants and health-giving nutrients.
Vegetables may also include salads.
Your whole family needs a variety of vegetables for optimal immune function, digestion, growth and development, and disease prevention.
These veggie side dishes can be enjoyed plain, air fried, or roasted for a delicious spin. Plus, serving veggies with chicken tenders, which are already a safe food, can help get toddlers to eat veggies, or at least try them.
One of my favorite ways is to use the steamable frozen bags – because they are ready in minutes. I’ll serve them up with chicken tenders and rice, and it’s a quick, easy meal!
Starchy sides
You may also want to include a starch, or carbohydrate, along with your chicken tenders. Starches provide the energy our bodies need, as well as fiber, B-Vitamins and more.
Starches include pasta, breads, rice, oats, potatoes, sweetpotatoes, quinoa, corn, beans, and cereals – and an opportunity to provide whole grains.
Adding starchy foods can be an easy side dish for chicken tenders, ready in minutes.
Pasta
Pasta can be a super easy side dish for chicken tenders, and one that usually is well-loved by kids.
Whether you want a plain cheesy pasta, a creamy pasta bake, or just noodles with butter, pasta can be a great vehicle to serve along with chicken tenders.
You can find a gluten free pasta, or even mix in other nutrient-dense additions, like beans, legumes, vegetables or healthy fats.
Plus, pasta is ready in under 10 minutes!
Fruit
Most kids love the sweetness of fruit, so it can be a great side dish for chicken tenders. You can even serve fruit and veggies together, like in this toddler mac and cheese!
While fruits do have more natural sweetness compared to vegetables, rest assured that they are still very nutritious and provide similar amounts of fiber and nutrition.
Plus, they are generally easy without much preparation needed and can be taken on the go if needed.
Snack Foods
If you’re slowly trying to incorporate more variety into your picky eaters, serving chicken tenders with a variety of snack foods may work well!
This could include veggie sticks or pea crisps, grapes, pepperoni, sweetpotato apple muffins or a fun baked good, string cheese, ants on a log, etc.
The idea here is to pair the familiar chicken tenders with some new foods, to urge your children to at least try them. And sometimes a “snacky” meal is more enticing than a normal balanced meal.
Miscellaneous
Just to drive the point home that side dishes for chicken tenders can pretty much entail anything, here are some other easy ideas from your pantry or pre-made from the store.
- Coleslaw
- Cornbread
- Minute rice
- Charcuterie board
- Chips or crackers
- Garlic bread or breadsticks
- Salsa or guacamole
- Quickbread
55 Ideas For Easy Chicken Tender Sides
Whether you want side dishes for fried chicken tenders or chicken tenderloin side dishes, these nutritious and easy ideas can help bring a spark to your table!
Let us know what you think.
Easy Chicken Tender Sides
Here are 50+ ideas for chicken tender sides that can appeal to kids and adults alike. You no longer need to worry about what to serve with chicken tenders for dinner!
This Mexican Street Corn Zucchini Dip is going to be your new favorite dip! Made with cotija cheese, spices and veggies, this cheesy corn dip is sure to be a hit at any party!
These oven roasted sweetpotatoes and carrots are simple yet flavorful. In just 35 minutes, you'll have a vibrant, nutritious and flavorful side option for any meal.
Air Fryer Frozen Brussels Sprouts with a Horseradish Aioli is a recipe that is quick, easy, simple, nutritious, and delicious.
These bacon and corn fritters are too good to put down. Crispy on the outside and cheesy and sweet on the inside, these corn fritters with bacon work great as an appetizer or easy meal.
Sesame sweet potatoes are an easy side dish with an Asian flair. These are a tasty and nutritious side dish made on the stovetop.
These baked carrot fries are great for baby led weaning - full of flavor!
This simple Kale Caesar Salad recipe needs just five ingredients. This is hands-down (no pun intended) the easiest massaged kale salad you’ll ever make, inspired by the traditional Caesar salad.
Easy roasted brussels sprouts and carrots are full of flavor and come together quickly. Perfect for a weeknight meal addition, or to impress your holiday guests, these are the best maple roasted veggies you'll find.
This garlic bread recipe uses extra virgin olive oil to make a heart-healthy version of a classic side.
Make it simple to get some fruit and fiber in your day with Creamy Greek Yogurt Fruit Salad recipe!
Mix this easy sweet potato spaghetti with traditional pasta or enjoy these sweet potato zoodles on their own, with a creamy sweet potato pasta sauce!
This Veggie Pasta Bake is a perfect easy and comforting vegetarian pasta casserole. With a variety of veggies and cheese, this vegetable pasta bake is great for crowds, easy to freeze and reheat, and convenient for meal prep!
Serve up pomegranate-smashed butternut squash just like you might mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes for a scrumptious change of taste.
This Toddler Mac and Cheese with pears is the easiest pasta for toddlers and also works as some of the best pasta for babies. It's ready in 15 minutes, only uses one pot, and combines fruits and vegetables!
Get ready for a flavor explosion in your mouth! This Greek Quinoa Salad is loaded with delicious Mediterranean flavors.
Baked Goat Cheese Pasta, adapted from the viral tik tok recipe, is filled with creamy pasta and goat cheese, and decorated with fresh vegetables, making it a delicious, one-pot family meal!
This sautéed green beans recipe is a mouthwatering vegetable side dish that will add a pop of color and flavor to any meal and can be prepared in less than 20 minutes!
This Tropical Fried Rice with Tomato Jalapeño Relish is the perfect combination of sweet and spicy and makes for an easy vegetarian meal option. !
Maple mustard Brussels sprouts - when you take deliciously crispy Brussels sprouts and combine them with a sweet and salty sauce, you get an amazing twist on a craveable standard.
This Din Tai Fung cucumber salad recipe is the most refreshing and flavorful copycat side dish you’ll find!
These Slow Cooker Roasted Potatoes are one of the easiest crockpot potato recipes. This tender combination of hearty potatoes and carrots is flavored with bits of bacon, butter and herbs.
This Japanese sweet potato air fryer recipe leaves you with the perfect smooth and creamy texture in just 30 minutes!
These Spinach Sweet Potato Tots are a fun way to offer nutrient dense toddler vegetable recipes to your little ones. Packed with iron, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and carbohydrates, this veggie tots recipe is great for meal prep and the side to any meal.
Cilantro Lime Coleslaw is packed with fresh flavor and it also ranks high nutritionally. It is an easy, delicious, and healthy addition to any meal.
This Healthy Sweetpotato Mac and Cheese is the answer to your cheesy pasta dreams. A mixture of whole wheat pasta, mashed sweetpotato, cheese and kale make this sweetpotato pasta bake a winner!
It’s super simple to put together this quick, nourishing side dish that’s deliciously seasoned with a little kosher salt, fresh lemon, and fresh ground black pepper.
These Sweet Potato Pretzel Bites look fancy but are an easy sweet potato appetizer recipe, great for any time of day. They provide a combination of sweet, savory and salty and are quite addicting!
These sweetpotato and zucchini fritters are a tasty, vegetarian meal that adults and kids will love! Made with shredded zucchini, sweetpotato, chickpea flour, eggs and cheese, this easy zucchini sweetpotato recipe will become a family favorite.
This squash in the air fryer without breading is a quick and easy vegan side dish that’s also and gluten-free.
This Mediterranean Vegan Cold Pasta Salad is a creamy, colorful plant based pasta recipe. Swap out your typical pasta salad recipe for this healthy, roasted vegetable pasta salad.
This is the perfect salad for a get together or summer cookout. With the array of colors and whirl of nutritional benefits, this salad hits all the bright spots!
Potatoes from a can are a cheap, easy, and delicious way to eat more veggies. This recipe comes together in 20 minutes and is a great addition to your meal.
Mango Quinoa Salad is gluten-free and a fun spin on pasta salad. Full of light and refreshing veggies, it's an easy and delicious quinoa salad.
This cantaloupe salad with mint, pineapple and cous cous is a light, colorful and flavorful side salad. Plus, this salad with cantaloupe and pineapple meshes perfectly with creamy mozzarella and a light olive oil dressing for a nutritious mint fruit salad.
Move over chips, BBQ roasted chickpeas are the perfect crunchy side to have with your meal. Barbecue chickpeas are full of that barbecue flavor you know and love.
This Cranberry Strawberry Chia Jam is the perfect, hearty combination of tangy and sweet. Don't just save it for your Thanksgiving table - this cranberry jam recipe is great all year round.
These colorful chickpea pepper poppers are a great side or appetizer for groups. With melted cheese and spices, it's hard to put these down!
Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Bread is a healthy option for your sweet tooth! Made with sweet potatoes, whole wheat flour and oat flour, this bread is soft and fluffy and provides a healthy pre or post workout option.
These baked oranges are a delicious family-friendly snack! Enjoy them with this honey feta dip for more staying power.
Whole Wheat Sweetpotato Zucchini Muffins are a tasty, portable snack option for your little ones. These zucchini and sweet potato muffins are full of veggies and provide a dairy-free option for those who need it
This quinoa and sweet potato salad blends savory quinoa and sweet potatoes with a variety of fresh fruit options, topped with a smooth citrus honey dressing.
This colorful vegan couscous salad is a great addition to your meal. It's filled with fresh veggies, whole grains and plant protein.
This easy broccoli orzo salad is a great make ahead summer recipe that's accented with a delicious lemon honey dressing. It's ready in minutes and the best way to enjoy an orzo salad with broccoli.
These customizable sweet potato black bean nachos are great as a side to chicken tenders or a weeknight dinner. Easy to make for groups and great for kids!
This Roasted Beets and Butternut Squash Salad with Apple Maple Vinaigrette is the perfect combination of flavors. A mixture of farro, goat cheese, squash, beets, and spicy arugula makes this butternut squash beet salad a fall favorite.
These Garlic Turmeric Crispy Parsnip Fries are the perfect "fry" shape and sprinkled with cheese and herbs. An easy parsnip recipe for the whole family and a quick side to any meal.
These Cheesy Sweet Potatoes only require 6 ingredients and are the perfect mix of sweet and savory. A cheesy and buttery outside combines with a soft and sweet inside that will tantalize your tastebuds.
Bacon Wrapped Sweet Potatoes are an easy, family-friendly appetizer or snack that requires minimal ingredients and prep time. Just stick them in the oven or air fryer and you're done! Paired with a delicious and refreshing lime yogurt sauce, these are irresistible!
Air Fryer Parsnips are an easy and healthy side option, ready in just 20 minutes. Honey mustard parsnips combine honey, dijon mustard and a handful of spices for a healthy veggie side.
These air fryer sweet potato wedges are incredibly easy and tasty to make - you'll never want to make them any other way!
These crispy frozen green beans in the air fryer are ready in a flash, and make for a healthy veggie side that taste like green bean fries. Make them in under 15 minutes.
Looking for an easy one pot meal recipe? This plant forward instant pot quinoa with vegetables is ready in minutes, and brings a healthy twist of Mediterranean flavors.
Did you know how easy it is to make acorn squash in the air fryer? It's flavorful and perfectly crispy, and after making this air fried acorn squash, you won't want it any other way!
Air Fryer Butternut Squash fries are flavorful and fun for kids! If you have picky eaters, roasting butternut squash in the air fryer is a great way to get a delicious and crispy texture!
This instant pot lemon rice is an easy side dish to nearly any meal. It's ready in under 20 minutes and garnished with basil and cheese, this lemon basil rice will be enjoyed by all.
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