5-Ingredient Dynamite Chicken

I always keep a few bags of frozen lightly breaded chicken breast chunks in my freezer for the nights I can’t be bothered to properly cook. The macros are surprisingly good for a crunchy chicken option, with 16 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat, and 140 calories per three-ounce serving in the Kirkland brand.

While it’s easy enough to pop the chicken in the air fryer or on a sheet pan alongside sweet potato fries for girl dinner, I like to spruce things up with sauce pairings. In this recipe, the low calorie dynamite sauce makes the chicken perfect for rice bowls or Asian-inspired salads.

If you’re unfamiliar with dynamite sauce, it’s a sweet, tangy, spicy, and creamy sauce that was made popular on fried shrimp. I’ll run you through the ingredients to make it below as well as alternatives for frozen chicken. Feel free to jump to the printable recipe card at the bottom of the post if you’re in a hurry.

Ingredients and Substitutions

To make a low calorie dynamite sauce, you will need light mayo, sriracha, sweet chili sauce, and ketchup. You can add salt and pepper to taste or adds a bit extra with something like sesame garlic crunch or a chili crunch of sorts. Freshly chopped chives or scallions also work well.

The ingredient amounts listed in the recipe card are for enough sauce to coat the chicken, but you may want to make a bit extra to drizzle over the finished chicken or rice bowls.

Want a mayo-free sauce? Go for my honey chipotle or firecracker sauce.

For the chicken, I used the aforementioned Kirkland lightly breaded chicken breast chunks from Costco. These are always on my list of high protein Costco finds, but you can find plenty of alternatives in other stores. Perdue Farms, Just Bare, and Tyson all make versions.

If you have trouble finding any options, you can make something like baked chicken nuggets for crispy breaded chicken bites. This recipe would also work great with plain seasoned and air fried chicken breast pieces. For the latter, just toss one pound of diced chicken breast with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and a little salt and pepper before air frying at 400ºF for 8-10 minutes until its cooked through to 165ºF internally.

Step 1: Air Fry or Bake Frozen Chicken Breast Chunks

As you probably know by now, it’s hard to replicate the level of crisp that an air fryer can create. That’s my method of choice, but the oven works fine. I typically use the oven when I need to roast other vegetables alongside the chicken like in my sheet pan buffalo chicken bowls.

With either method, I like to go a few minutes extra than the instructions recommend to make sure the exterior is nice and crispy. In my experience, the extra time doesn’t dry the chicken out or make it tough.

Step 2: Toss the Chicken in the Low Calorie Dynamite Sauce

I like to mix the sauce ingredients together as soon as the chicken goes in the oven or air fryer before covering at room temperature. This allows the sauce to come closer to room temperature before it goes in with the cooked chicken. It’s also easier to coat the chicken in the tempered sauce, in my experience.

Use a large mixing bowl that’s big enough to properly toss the chicken around in the sauce. I try not to use a spatula until the very end to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. This helps prevent any of the breading from falling off the chicken.

If you want to add any herbs like chives, throw them in with the warm chicken and sauce to wake up the flavors a bit. And that’s a wrap. Time to eat!

Ways to Serve Dynamite Chicken

While you typically see dynamite shrimp or chicken in the starters section on menus, I like to make rice bowls with sliced cucumber, carrots, and cabbage. Though you can definitely keep things simple and serve as an appetizer as lettuce wraps or in protein tortillas like my crunchy buffalo chicken wraps or crispy chicken caesar wraps.

I’ve also roasted veggies like brussels sprouts and broccoli alongside the frozen chicken to make high volume protein bowls. Check out my bang bang chicken for an example of chicken and sprouts together.

If you go the rice bowls route, you can save some carbs with cauliflower rice or my go-to jasmine and cauliflower rice blend. I can see zucchini noodles and other protein noodles working with this chicken as well. And if you’d like to zhuzh the veggie pairings a bit, try something like this Asian slaw.

I recently used the same chicken breast bites to make fried chicken tacos. This sauce and chicken combo would be great for Asian inspired tacos with some type of slaw or pickled veggie toppings.

No shame in hovering above the mixing bowl with this one, right?

Have a question about an ingredient substitution, cooking method, pairing, or anything else? Leave a comment at the bottom of this post. Otherwise, I hope you love this dynamite chicken.

You can save or print the recipe card below. Happy cooking!