Gluten-Free Pretzel Coated Chicken Bites:

The combination of the seemingly endless winter and writing about the complete shit-show that is American politics has given me a serious case of the blues. I figure that one way to combat this is to take a break and share a new recipe. I’m not a gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy tinkering around in the kitchen. This is a recipe that I came up one day when a bit of inspiration struck me.

I know that gluten-free dieters finally have access to things like breaded chicken tenders, but so far I haven’t really found any that I’m crazy about. I came up with this idea when I realized that if you crushed up a bag of gluten free pretzels, they would make a decent batch of bread crumbs. This isn’t really a replacement for the deep fried nuggets that I grew up with, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:

-3 chicken breasts cut into medium sized pieces 
-1 bag of gluten-free pretzels crushed (I used the bowtie variety, but I think that pretzel rods would actually work better. Also the Live-G Free pretzels at ALDI are really reasonably priced, especially compared with other gluten-free bread crumbs or attempting to make them yourself from a loaf of gluten free bread) 
-1 cup of Greek yogurt with honey
-2 TBS of yellow mustard
-2 TPS of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

Crush a bag of gluten-free pretzels (I’ve found that placing them in a freezer bag first works pretty well). Coat cut chicken pieces with mixture of yogurt, mustard, and seasoning salt. Place coated chicken pieces into the freezer bag of crushed pretzels and shake until chicken is covered with pretzel coating. Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Place chicken pieces on cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 425 degrees. I’ve found that the chicken pieces go really well with a honey mustard dipping sauce.

Pretty-Quick Homemade* Gluten-Free Chicken Pot Pie

We are already knee deep in winter’s icy grip, where it’s easy to wonder whether we will ever again see the sun or the grass that we suspect/hope is hiding beneath the thick blanket of cold, white snow and ice. One method I’ve found for combating the melancholy that can come with this time of year is through warm, hearty meals. This chicken pot pie recipe is one of my favorites for achieving that purpose. I tweaked this recipe just a bit, and use beef stock instead of chicken stock, which might sound strange (the first time I did this was out of necessity because I was out of chicken stock and didn’t want to use water), but I encourage you to try it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.



Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. of butter
1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables
3 large chicken breasts cut into cubes
1 14 oz. can of beef stock
1 Tbsp. Lawry’s seasoning salt
1 Tbsp. black pepper
2 Tsp. garlic powder
2 Tsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. Basil
½ Tsp. of thyme
¾ cup of almond milk
3 Tbsp. corn starch

Topping:

1 ½ cups of Live G Free gluten-free baking mix
1 cup almond milk
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. butter (melted)

Directions:

In a large stock pot, cook chicken on medium heat. Add spices and continue to cook until chicken is cooked through. Add bag of mixed vegetables and can of beef stock and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. In a separate bowl mix ¾ cup of almond milk and corn starch until corn starch is mixed into milk well. Add milk/corn starch mixture to chicken and vegetables and bring to a boil. Pour mixture into a deep casserole dish.

In a bowl mix eggs, almond milk, and melted butter with gluten free baking mix. Spoon mixture over chicken and vegetables, and then place into an oven preheated to 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Holiday Traditions

     This is the first Christmas that I’ve ever spent away from The Mitten and consequently away from my family. When you couple that with the thermometer outside reading 57 degrees, I haven’t exactly been feeling the holiday spirit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not feeling Scrooge-like or anything like that, it just hasn’t really felt like Christmas. Well, instead of moping about it, I decided to get to work on a (relatively new) holiday tradition that I can observe this year—Christmas Eve BBQ ribs and gluten-free mac and cheese. After a quick dash to the local ALDI’s (I love living five minutes from such a great store), where I encountered several people that were in the Christmas Spirit, I made it back to the apartment feeling much jollier. Emma (my better half) and I have been doing some version of this for the last three years, and it’s something that we plan on keeping going for as long as we can. I want to take this opportunity to wish anyone reading this a Merry Christmas (or a happy whatever holiday you may or may not be celebrating). I may not be with my entire family this year, but being with Emma is all I really need anyway. With the holiday and a freelance opportunity that came my way, my posts may be a bit less frequent than usual for a few days. Then again, I never really know when the urge to jot something down will overtake me. So feel free to check in, or look back at posts from the previous couple of weeks. Either way, I should definitely be back to my regular posting schedule after the weekend.    

     I realize that ribs can be serious business to some people, so this recipe and technique may be blasphemous to some. Personally, I really like country-style ribs (actually, I love ribs period, but country-style is generally readily available, so that tends to be one of my go-to versions). To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how they’ll turn out because I’m tweaking my own style a bit since I haven’t had a chance to fully restock my spice cabinet. I’ll let you know how they turn out.  

Christmas Eve Ribs

Spice Rub
5 TBSP Black Pepper
3 TBSP Salt
3 TPS garlic powder or salt
3 TPS paprika
1 TPS cumin
1 TPS Thyme
2 TPS Lawry’s Seasoning Salt
2  TBSP White Sugar
1/3 cup Brown Sugar

Mix the spices together in a bowl, and then rub into the meat. Throw the ribs into a zip-lock bag for a few hours (the longer the better). Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with butter or cooking oil and place on medium heat. Place the ribs into the pan until they are seared, and then place them into a baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick spray or coated in oil. Bake the ribs at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove the ribs from the oven and cover them with the BBQ sauce of your choice (I’m using Sweet Baby Rays this year since I didn’t have an opportunity to whip up my own sauce). Place the ribs back into the oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Pull the ribs out of the oven and let them set for about five minutes. Serve and enjoy. 

Sort of Quick Kind of Spicy Chicken

Cooking gluten-free on a budget when you have time constraints, and you want to avoid prepackaged frozen meals, can be a real challenge. If you’re one of those cooks or food connoisseurs that insist on fresh ingredients, I have a feeling that you might consider this post as some type of heresy, but I think it tastes really good, it’s fairly inexpensive, and as a bonus, the recipe can be doubled if you are trying to feed more than just two or three people (or if you want use the leftovers as lunch for a day or two).

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts cubed
1 bell pepper sliced or chopped
½ onion sliced
6 tbsp. olive oil (canola works ok too)
4 tbsp. lemon juice (from concentrate is fine)
1 tbsp. of spicy brown mustard  
spice to taste ( I use 2 tsp. of cumin, and about a tsp. of each of garlic powder, paprika, thyme, black pepper, and Lawry’s, but feel free to play with the proportions )
1 bottle of Herdez Traditional Chipotle Sauce

With this recipe a little bit of prep-work goes a long way. Place the cubed chicken breasts in a storage bag. In a small bowl mix oil, lemon juice, mustard, and spices. Pour the contents of the bowl into the storage bag, seal, and place in the refrigerator (overnight is great, but an hour works just fine too).  In a medium to large sized pot begin to cook the chicken over medium heat. Mix in onion and continue to cook. When the chicken is almost cooked through, mix in chopped bell pepper. After chicken is fully cooked add the entire bottle of Herdez chipotle sauce and bring to a simmer for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with or over a box of Zatarain’s Spanish Rice with some tortilla chips. It may not be glamorous or five-star dining, but I think it’s great. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Gluten Free

     I’m pretty sure that you’ve at least heard about gluten free food. In case you don’t know, gluten is a protein that is found in foods containing wheat and other grains like barley or rye. I won’t get into all of claims and counter claims about the benefits and drawbacks of going gluten free, because I haven’t had to consider that. I was diagnosed as having Celiac Disease about seven years ago, and as a result going gluten free wasn’t a choice, but a medical necessity.

     One of the benefits I have discovered from going gluten-free is that I actually lost a significant amount of weight (about 60 lbs. in about eight months) and have managed to keep it off. Let me be clear on this point, though. I don’t attribute my weight loss to any magic found in gluten free food. It’s more of a matter of being forced to consider carefully everything that I ate. I haven’t eaten at a drive through window since my diagnoses. Don’t get me wrong, you can go gluten free and still eat a terrible diet. For instance, many of the specially marketed prepackaged foods contain more sugar than their gluten filled counterparts. Also, many of these foods are pretty expensive. Since I was a poor college student when I was diagnosed I had to get creative. This basically meant that I had to take the advice of Food Guru (and generally insufferable TV chef) Jamie Oliver. I did most of my shopping along the outside edges of the supermarket selecting fresh, non-processed, or lightly processed foods. I then had to take them home and cook them. This led to some incidents that were frustrating at the time (pro tip: don’t try to make soup from scratch when you have exams the next day) but are pretty humorous in retrospect. As time passed, I learned a few shortcuts and I’m happy to pass them along. So now that you’ve indulged my prattling, let me share a recipe for spicy Thai noodles with you. I stumbled across this online and have tweaked it to fit my needs. I hope you enjoy.

Spicy Thai Noodles:

-1 box of linguine or angel hair pasta (I used brown rice noodles, but feel free to go with what’s convenient)
-1-2 TBSP crushed red pepper (Only go with 2 if you’re really into spicy)
-¼ cup vegetable oil
-½ cup sesame oil
-6 TBSP of honey
-6 TBSP of soy sauce (I went with Tamari soy sauce because many standard soy sauces aren’t gluten free)

These garnish bits are optional but I wouldn’t omit the peanuts:
-½ cup green onions
-2 shredded carrots
-½ cup of cilantro 

-¾ cup of peanuts (I give the peanuts a slight crush, you don’t want them to be dust but whole or half peanuts can be a little cumbersome)

-Sprinkle of sesame seeds to taste

 Directions:
-Boil noodles and strain
- Heat oil and crushed red pepper in a small sauce pan over medium heat ( at the first hint of a boil remove to prevent scorching)
-Strain pepper from oil
-Mix oil, honey and soy sauce and stir until blended
- Toss pasta with oil mixture and refrigerate until cold ( I usually go with overnight, but a few hours should suffice)
- Add garnishes and serve