Sesame Chicken Fingers with Spicy Orange Dipping Sauce

I'm on my pediatrics rotation now; these are by far the most adorable patients I've ever seen! During ER, I had a beautiful 8 year old boy as my last patient of the day, and his comments made the 12 hour shift totally worth it. I swear he was a planted actor to convince us med students to go into pediatrics; he totally melted everyone's hearts.
*after being hit by a truck while riding a bike*
ER doctor: Do you have any pain?
Boy: No, my pain is just abrasions!

Boy: I don't want shots, please, please, please no shots! I feel perfectly ok, in fact, I can to go home and rest and take all my medicines like Advil and Tylenol and elevate my leg while doing my homework, so I'll feel better on my own, I promise.

ER doctor: Did you ever lose consciousness?
Boy: Nope, I remember what happened. The man in the blue Ford truck had an orange shirt .... and a silver beard ... and he was bald but had hair on the sides.... see I told you I remember everything! I'm not sick!

ER doctor: Have you ever had any surgery?
Boy: No, I haven't, before, oh no, am I doing to get surgery right now??!
ER doctor: No, I don't think you need any right now.
Boy: Oh thank you so much for not giving me surgery!

*after a quick exam and being deemed stable*
Boy: Does this mean I have to go in the donut and lie still and get scanned now?! I hate the donut!
ER doctor: You've had a CT scan before? No doughnut this time, we're going to take some pictures of your neck and legs with some x-rays, if that's alright.
Boy: Oh that's ok then because I wanna see cool pictures of myself!
Anyway, I've been learning a lot about how to deal with kids (they're mysterious creatures). Before I was a sophisticated grown up starving med student /artist, I was a scrawny kid who ate only chicken nuggets and feeding time was the bane of my parent's existence. No better way to reminisce about my childhood chicken nugget eating days than with sesame chicken fingers with spicy orange dipping sauce.

This orange dipping sauce is key (and way better than ketchup!) - just make sure it's a good high quality orange marmalade. Adapted from Simply Recipes.

Ingredients
CHICKEN
1 1/4 lbs chicken tenders
1/2 cup buttermilk (substitute: 1/2 cup of milk + 1 1/2 teaspoons of vinegar or lemon juice)
1 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 teaspoon soy sauce

BREADING
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

DIPPING SAUCE
1/2 cup sweet orange marmalade
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha hot sauce
2 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar
orange juice, to desired consistency

Directions
Mix marinade ingredients (buttermilk, marmalade, soy sauce) in a medium bowl. Add the chicken tenders to the marinade and stir to coat completely with the marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

For the breading, toast panko and sesame seeds until goldren brown (400F a few minutes in my toaster oven). Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper so crumbs are lightly coated. Spread the breading on a shallow bowl.

Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Line a roasting with aluminum foil and place a baking rack on top.  Dredge the chicken tenders in the bread crumb mixture and place them on the prepared rack on the roasting pan (you can place directly on the pan but the bottom won't be as crispy). Bake chicken tenders at 400°F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

While the chicken tenders are baking, stir together the orange marmalade, soy sauce, sriracha hot sauce, and seasoned rice vinegar in a bowl to make the sauce. Serve sesame chicken fingers with the spicy orange dipping sauce.