Smoky Corn Chip Crusted Chicken Tenders

This one came out of wanting tenders that tasted like more than the breading. A standard panko crust is fine, but it is a blank slate — you season it and hope. Crushed Sweet & Smokey Pepper Mitten Chips skip that step entirely, because the flavor is already baked in. The oak-smoked sweet pepper turns into a crust that reads smoky up front and finishes with a faint sweetness, so the chicken tastes seasoned all the way through instead of just on the outside. We crush the chips to medium crumbs rather than dust, since the bigger pieces are what give you that real crunch when you bite in. The three-station dredge — flour, egg, then a firm press into the chip crumbs — is worth doing with both hands; really lean on that last step so the coating grabs hold and stays put in the oven. Baking on a wire rack over a sheet pan lets the heat circulate underneath, which is the trick to getting the bottom as crisp as the top without flipping a dozen times. They land somewhere between a tender and a treat, and they pull double duty: honey mustard for the kids, a smear of BBQ for everyone else.