Back before we had kids, my husband and I would frequently leave work and head to a local happy hour on Fridays. It was a fun way to decompress, and we were always on a budget at that time. So we feasted on half price appetizers! HA! Looking back, those were some pretty great memories we had together, and I always smile whenever I think about those “dates.”

One of our favorite places to go was Wingers, which has amazing wings. One of their specialties was called “Sticky Fingers,” which were basically chicken strips coated in a perfectly spicy and sweet sauce. They were some of my absolute favorite appetizers, and I was sad I would have to miss out on them after we left Idaho. However, much to my delight, the internet is full of copycat recipes to help you create that amazing sticky sauce. Once I found it, I knew I had to get my fix.

The Recipe

The recipe for the sauce is actually pretty simple to make and contains just 3 ingredients: brown sugar, Frank’s hot sauce, and water. But as you can imagine, the carbs start to add up pretty quickly, especially when you take that sauce and coat a breaded chicken strip. So, to make this a little lighter, I decided to omit the breading on my chicken and really celebrate the sauce (as it is my favorite part anyway!).

Another issue I thought of when prepping this meal is my kiddos. If you don’t already know, Frank’s hot sauce is pretty spicy. Even though the recipe contains brown sugar to tame down the heat, it still has a kick that probably only adults could appreciate.

Since we were omitting breading and grilling these tenderloins, I thought it might be a good idea to marinate the tenderloins in the chick-fil-a nugget marinade. This would give the tenderloins for the adults a good base flavor and be pleasing to the kids without a sauce, too! Bonus if you serve it with the skinny chick-fil-a sauce. Just to remember to double the chicken tenderloin portion of this recipe for your kids, so you’re sure to have enough.

After the tenderloins are marinated and seasoned, they get grilled to perfection. Once they come off, they get coated in the sweet and spicy sauce. From there, the options are kind of your call. They would be great as an appetizer, dipped into some lighter ranch dressing and served with crudites like celery and bell pepper. Or you can serve them as the protein portion of your entree with some sweet potato fries and veggies on the side. We opted to serve them in a big salad. We filled it with chopped romaine, avocado, cheddar cheese (although blue cheese would be a welcomed addition!), chopped tomatoes, pickled onions, and some light ranch.

The Macros

Macros for 79 g of chicken tenderloins in the sauce are 0.5F/13.5C/24.9P, 152 calories. Although they are a little higher in carbs than I like my protein to typically be, they are not a bad trade off when you compare them to wings at a restaurant.