Grandpa’s Firehouse Chicken–An easy 5 ingredient recipe for tender and moist, breaded chicken tenderloins. You can cook the chicken in the air fryer or the oven.
Grandpa’s Firehouse Chicken (Air Fryer Recipe)
I found a recipe on A Family Feast for firehouse chicken. The author stated that, “My father-in-law – Grampa to all of us in the family – worked as a firefighter in Brockton, Massachusetts for most of his career. During that time, each firefighter took turns cooking dinner for the rest of the guys working the shift at the firehouse. Grampa developed this recipe (named Firehouse Chicken by our family) one night, and it was an instant hit with the crew! In fact, it became so popular that Grampa’s Firehouse Chicken recipe was shared among five other firehouses in the city of Brockton, and it became part of the regular menu rotation for years.”
I decided I needed to try it! I was intrigued by the use of mayo and horseradish sauce. I was unsure how that would taste. Turns out the mayo is the key to keeping the chicken super moist! The chicken was so tender. And it’s weird because although there is quite of bit of mayo in the recipe you wouldn’t even know…it doesn’t taste like mayo.
I changed the original recipe by adding in some garlic salt, using panko instead of regular breadcrumbs and using the air fryer to cook the chicken instead of the oven. The air fryer crisps up the chicken tenderloins. You get the crispy benefits of frying without deep frying in oil. If you’re looking for a fun recipe to try in your air fryer give this one a shot! I think you’ll be surprised!
Ingredients/Substitution Ideas
- Boneless skinless chicken tenderloins–or boneless skinless chicken breasts that have been cut into chicken tender size (slice across the grain)
- Mayonnaise–or miracle whip
- Prepared horseradish–I found this in the salad dressing aisle
- Garlic salt–or use 1 part garlic powder to 3 parts salt
- Panko breadcrumbs–or regular breadcrumbs
Steps
- Make the sauce: In a medium bowl stir together the mayonnaise, horseradish and garlic salt.
- Spread the panko breadcrumbs out on a plate.
- Dip the chicken in the mayo mixture on both sides until coated. Shake off any excess. Then lay chicken in panko turning to coat on both sides. Place chicken into air fryer. Repeat until all chicken is used. You may need to cook in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer. You’ll only want to have one layer of chicken so that it can crisp up properly.
- Air fry at 350° F for 12 minutes. You may want to turn the chicken over with about 5 minutes remaining so both sides can get properly browned. (You can bake the chicken in the oven if you’d like. Place chicken in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 20 minutes at 425° F. )
- Serve and enjoy! You may want to have a side of BBQ sauce, ketchup, marinara or buffalo sauce to dip the chicken in.
Notes/Tips
- Is it spicy? No not at all! It is very mild.
- Serve with your favorite dipping sauce (BBQ, ketchup, marinara, buffalo etc.) and a side of vegetables or potatoes.
- Another idea is to use the crispy cooked chicken as the base of chicken parmesan. You can cover the chicken in a marinara sauce and top with mozzarella cheese.
- I used my Instant Pot brand vortex air fryer*.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container* in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat in your air fryer to maintain crispiness. I would start with about 3-5 minutes to heat up.
- This recipe can be gluten-free if you use crushed gluten free cornflakes in the place of the panko breadcrumbs.
- This recipe can be low carb if you use crushed pork rinds in the place of the panko breadcrumbs.
- Other recipes you can make with panko are: Instant Pot 3-Cheese Macaroni And Cheese, Instant Pot Garlic Cheddar Chicken, Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Casserole and Instant Pot French Onion Salisbury Steaks.
More Air Fryer Recipes…
- Air Fryer Almost Chick Fil-A Chicken
- Air Fryer Weeknight Meatballs
- Keep a Man Chicken (Air Fryer or Oven)
- Air Fryer Heavenly Chicken
- Air Fryer Sunday Dinner Chicken
Did you know you can filter the recipes on my website to search by meat type, IP or Crockpot, low carb, gluten free, etc.? Use the filter to find exactly what you are looking for.
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Grandpa’s Firehouse Chicken
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 4–6 servings 1x
Description
An easy 5 ingredient recipe for tender and moist, breaded chicken tenderloins. You can cook the chicken in the air fryer or the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken tenderloins
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 3 Tbsp prepared horseradish sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt
- 1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
Instructions
- In a medium bowl stir together the mayonnaise, horseradish and garlic salt.
- Spread the panko breadcrumbs out on a plate.
- Dip the chicken in the mayo mixture on both sides until coated. Shake off any excess. Then lay chicken in panko turning to coat on both sides. Place chicken into air fryer. Repeat until all chicken is used. You may need to cook in batches, depending on the size of your air fryer. You’ll only want to have one layer of chicken so that it can crisp up properly.
- Air fry at 350° F for 12 minutes. You may want to turn the chicken over with about 5 minutes remaining so both sides can get properly browned.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
You can bake the chicken in the oven if you’d like. Place chicken in a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 20 minutes at 425° F.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Air Fryer or Oven
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SLAM….DUNK!! So easy & so very good. I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands because my hubby does not care for chicken breasts at all. Priced the tenderloins at the grocery and after my blood pressure went back down I decided to just buy the breasts & cut them like you suggested. He loved them, his dipping sauce was a homemade cocktail sauce & it was delicious. Served with steamed cauliflower & some macaroni & cheese. Thanks for another keeper.
★★★★★
Grocery prices are making all of us have high blood pressure these days! That is for sure 😉 So glad he liked it.
When you say horse radish sauce what kind of sauce is it ground horseradish?
Horseradish sauce is a sauce that includes horseradish It is in the aisle where Mayo,ketchup etc are .found.Made by Kraft or woeberss. both very good!.Am sure there are other manufactures
I do not have an Air Fryer, but do have a CrispLid which fits on my Instant Pot. For this and other Air Fryer Recipes, can the CrispLid be used? Do times/temperatures need to be adjusted?
Thanks for all your delicious Instant Pot Recipes!
Yes it can and temps and times should be the same
Thanks for responding! I’ll give it a go using my. CrispLid.
Kindof looks like “Shake & Bake” chicken recipe. We’ll have to try this. Looks very good, but I’d hope that all of the panko crumbs could be equally crusted. But, I’m not sure it’s that way on the picture, but hard to tell.
Mine were mostly even…I probably could have left it in longer