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This Ritz Cracker Chicken Recipe uses buttery Ritz crackers instead of bread crumbs for a crispy coating. Juicy baked chicken in 30 minutes! Your whole family will love this delicious chicken dinner.
Looking for a quick and easy recipe tonight? Try my Ritz cracker chicken. It’s basically baked chicken with Ritz crackers and butter, and it is super simple. Just coat chicken breasts in crushed Ritz crackers, toss in some butter, bake, and you’ve got a delicious dinner and a new family favorite!
We had Ritz chicken growing up — some call this butter chicken. It’s one of my favorite chicken recipes, and I even included it in my cookbook. My kids love buttery Ritz crackers — actually their favorite cracker! So even my picky eater loves this easy dinner recipe as much as I do.
Serve this chicken dinner with a simple salad or rice, green beans or mixed veggies! My son even likes it with cheese sauce!
Why you’ll love this Ritz Chicken Recipe!
The chicken turns out moist, flavorful and fork tender — never dry.
This easy weeknight meal takes minimal prep, and you only need 4 basic ingredients — nothing fancy.
Best of all, it’s simply delicious. Honest!
What You Need
This is a quick overview of ingredients. Full amounts are in the printable recipe card below.
- Boneless Skinless chicken breasts — look for smaller pieces around the same size so they cook evenly
- Ritz crackers — or any round butter cracker. I’ve used Trader Joe’s brand and Sprout’s brand with great resullts
- Beaten egg — to help the cracker crumbs stick to the chicken
- Butter — an essential ingredient for this recipe. I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted butter as well.
- Seasonings — garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper. These are optional, but I love the added flavor. You can add salt if you like, but it’s not essential because there is plenty of salt in the butter crackers.
How to Make Ritz Cracker Chicken
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees f. This is the best temperature to bake chicken without burning the coating. Next, crush up a sleeve of Ritz crackers or any buttery type of cracker. Kids can help with this part. Mine love crushing crackers with a rolling pin or meat mallet in a plastic bag!
I like to crush buttery crackers in a freezer bag and use that to bread the chicken — kind of like Shake and Bake! Then, season the cracker crumbs with the seasonings for extra flavor.
Whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl or dish. Then, dip the chicken in a beaten egg. This will help the crackers stick to the chicken. If you don’t want to use an egg, you can substitute a little mayo for the egg. I do this sometimes — it also works well with baked breaded pork chops!
Use a dry hand or kitchen tongs to dip each chicken breast into the crumbs in the bag. Then, place the breaded chicken into a casserole dish or baking dish. Technically, you don’t have to coat the baking dish because of the melted butter. But, I usually spray the dish with nonstick spray anyway. You can also use a little olive oil if you want.
Next, add cut-up butter. Mom used to dip the chicken into melted butter, but I like adding it around the sides of the chicken. As the chicken cooks, the butter melts and makes an awesome sauce. You can spoon some sauce over the coated chicken when you serve it.
Bake the chicken for about 30-40 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees f according to a meat thermometer. I usually try to get smaller chicken breasts, but if your chicken is large, it may take a little longer to bake. Total cooking time depends upon the size and thickness of the chicken and your oven.
Baked Ritz cracker chicken has a gorgeous golden brown crust. It’s tender, juicy, super flavorful and absolutely delicious chicken! Seriously, this is some of the best chicken ever, right here. This simple recipe is also picky eater approved. My family gobbled this chicken dinner right up without one single complaint!
Quick Tips
Use a gallon freezer bag to crush the crackers and use the same bag to coat the chicken with crackers — easy clean-up!
Thinner chicken breasts or breast halves will cook faster than larger ones.
Don’t place the cubed butter directly on top of the chicken as the cracker crumbs won’t be as crispy
Variations
This is such a versatile chicken recipe that you can easily change it up to suit your tastes. Use chicken tenders, chicken thighs or chicken legs instead of chicken breasts.
You can make Ritz cracker chicken without eggs. Use a thin layer of mayonnaise or sour cream to coat your chicken instead of eggs. Then, press the cracker crumbs onto the chicken. You can also dip the chicken in the melted butter instead of adding it as the chicken bakes.
To make Ritz chicken with cheese, add about 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese or Parmesan cheese to the cracker crumbs.
For extra flavor, add a little Italian seasoning or dried parsley to the cracker crumbs. You can also add smoked paprika for color and flavor. Or use a different flavor buttery cracker.
How to Store and Reheat Leftovers
Store leftover chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will last for 3-4 days. You can freeze the chicken for longer storage — up to 3 months for best taste. Reheat leftover cooked chicken in an air fryer, in the oven or in the microwave.
More Easy Baked Chicken Recipes
Try these Cheetos chicken tenders or this easy Honey Mustard Curry Chicken, Baked Cranberry Chicken or Baked Mayo Parmesan Chicken.
Ritz Cracker Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts about 1 pound
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 large egg beaten
- ½ cup butter 1 stick, cubed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Remove crackers from sleeve, place in large zip top freezer bag, and crush with rolling pin. Season with pepper, garlic powder and onion powder
- Dip the chicken into the beaten egg, place in zip top bag, and coat each piece well with the cracker crumbs
- Place chicken into lightly greased 13×9 casserole dish (I use non stick cooking spray) and place cubes of butter around and in between the chicken
- Bake for 30 minutes or until internal temperature is 165° according to a meat thermometer
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I hope you enjoy this wonderful comfort food as much as my family does. If you try it, please be sure to leave a star rating and comment.
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I’m planning on making this tomorrow for a crowd. My husband is insisting that I brine the chicken. I’ve never done that before and feel a little uncomfortable about doing it as brine recipes vary so much. Would brining improve this recipe enough to make it worth it?
This chicken stays moist due to the butter and cracker breading. But, it’s really up to you. 🙂
Thank you!!
I don’t brine the chicken and you were right!
The chicken was moist and tender.
Everyone loved it.
I’m actually making some again today for a friend who’s been in the hospital.
Thanks for the recipe!
That’s wonderful, Kim! So glad everyone liked it!