This oven baked, crunchy Cornflake Chicken is an easy, flavorful dinner that everyone will love! A butter drizzled, crispy crushed cornflake coating keeps the chicken moist and juicy. This comforting chicken dinner will be on your permanent recipe rotation!
Baked Cornflake Chicken Recipe
If you’re looking for smiles all around at the dinner table, this Cornflake Chicken is the recipe to make. A super crispy, butter drizzled cornflake breading surrounds this juicy, flavorful chicken. It’s easy to make with only about 15 minutes of prep time and pairs wonderfully with almost any side dish.
You can make this chicken recipe with whole chicken breasts or use chicken tenderloins or even cut the chicken into pieces to make chicken nuggets. Same method, just different cooking times.
Read on for tips on how to make this cornflake chicken taste the best and ideas on how we like to serve it!
Ingredients To Make Cornflake Chicken
- Boneless, skinless chicken breast: Like we mentioned above, you can use whole breasts as this recipe is written – or you can use chicken tenderloins and even chicken pieces to make nuggets. The cooking time for the smaller pieces of chicken will be less, but the other methods will stay the same.
- Cornflakes: For the best flavor, use whole cornflakes right from the cereal box and crush them yourself. Add them to a plastic bag and use a rolling pin or a large can and crush the cornflakes until they resemble bread crumbs.
- Eggs/Milk/Salt and Pepper: This is the “wet” past of the breading station. Whisk together to combine.
- Butter: Melted butter gets drizzled generously over the breaded chicken before baking to add flavor and help the breading crisp up.
- Seasonings: A spice rub made of garlic powder, onion salt, paprika, salt and pepper to season the chicken before breading. Dried parsley is added to the crushed cornflakes.
How To Make Cornflake Chicken
The breading process is fairly straight forward, we’re doing a single coating, not a double dip for this cornflake chicken recipe.
- Season the chicken by generously coating both sides with the prepared spice rub.
- Add the crushed cornflakes to a bowl with dried parsley and mix together. Add the eggs, milk, salt and pepper to another bowl and whisk to combine.
- Dip the chicken first in the egg/milk mixture, letting the excess drip off. Place the chicken into the cornflake breading and press to adhere the crumbs to both sides of the chicken. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts.
- Drizzle the breaded chicken with melted butter and then bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the breading is brown and crispy. Use a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the chicken breast to make sure that it registers at 165 degrees.
Tips For Success!
Most importantly, use whole cornflakes from the box and crush them yourself for the best flavor. We tried this recipe with store bought cornflake crumbs and the flavor wasn’t even comparable.
Also, do make sure when you’re breading the chicken that you let the excess egg mixture drip off the chicken before adding it to the cornflakes. You’re looking for a thin coating, just enough so that the breading adheres to the chicken, otherwise the breading will clump and fall off.
We like to season the chicken breasts before breading them for the best flavor. Some recipes call for adding all of the seasoning to the breading instead of right on the chicken. So if you don’t use all of the breading mixture then the seasoning is left behind.
The other reason we like adding the seasoning right to the chicken is that chicken is bland in flavor, so adding layers of seasoning results in the best flavor.
Variations On Cornflake Chicken
You can definitely switch up the flavors in this baked chicken recipe to your liking. Spice it up with cayenne pepper and even add a dash or two of hot sauce to the egg mixture.
Use different herbs in the breading like Italian seasoning or even fresh parsley instead of dried. Old Bay would be delicious on this chicken, or your favorite chicken seasoning blend.
To finish the chicken, drizzle with more butter before serving, or even drizzle with hot honey and a splash of hot sauce.
Even try using different cereals for the coating like cheerios, crispy rice cereal or something more outgoing like a sweeter cereal.
What Sides Go With Baked Chicken?
If you’re not just crunching on this cornflake chicken right from the pan…we won’t tell…serve it with some delicious sides for dinner!
In addition to serving this chicken as the main course, we also love slicing it up for salads and using it in chicken and rice bowls.
- Perfect Mashed Potatoes
- Baked Steak Fries
- Party Potatoes
- Microwave Steamed Broccoli
- Air Fryer Asparagus
- Roasted Butternut Squash
- Parmesan Bacon Orzo
How To Store And Reheat
Store leftover cornflake chicken in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If you’re not going to use the chicken within that time, transfer the chicken to a freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
The best way to reheat this chicken so that the cornflake coating crisps up again is in the oven or in an air fryer. For the oven, place the chicken on a sheet pan and reheat at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. If using an air fryer, heat at 375 degrees for about 5-6 minutes until crispy and warmed through.
Looking For More Easy Chicken Recipes?
- Slow Cooker Taco Chicken
- Buffalo Chicken Sliders
- No Peek Chicken
- Parmesan Baked Chicken
- Chicken Francese
Cornflake Chicken
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeThis crunchy baked Cornflake Chicken is sure to become a favorite dinner! A butter drizzled, crushed cornflake coating keeps the chicken super moist and juicy!
Ingredients
- 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts – about 2 pounds, see note*
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon onion salt
- 4 cups whole cornflakes
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon milk or cream
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of melted butter, divided
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Mix the garlic powder, salt, paprika and onion salt together in a small bowl. Season the chicken breasts with the spice rub, generously coating both sides.
- Add the cornflakes to a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin or large can until they resemble bread crumbs. Add the crushed cornflakes to a bowl along with the dried parsley and mix together. Add the eggs and milk to another bowl and season with a couple of pinches of salt and fresh black pepper. Whisk to combine.
- Dip the chicken in the egg mixture, letting the excess drip off. Place the chicken into the cornflake breading and press to adhere the crumbs to both sides of the chicken. Place the breaded chicken on a baking sheet that’s been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Repeat with the remaining chicken breasts and place on the prepared sheet pan.
- Drizzle the breaded chicken with 4 tablespoons of the melted butter and then bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the breading is brown and crispy. Use a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the chicken breast to make sure that it registers at 165 degrees.
- When the chicken comes out of the oven, drizzle with the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and serve.
Recipe Notes
You’ll need approximately 2 pounds of chicken, which is about 4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If you’re chicken breasts are smaller, use more to equal 2 pounds of chicken.
