Honey Spice Chicken Thighs

I remember trying this recipe and liking it.  It got lost in one of my old notebooks.  Here it is now to try it again.

8 boneless chicken thighs
2 tsp. paprika
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. fresh cracked pepper
1 tsp. chili powder

1/2 c. honey
2 t. apple cider vinegar

Combine the spices in a small bowl.  Rub the spice mixture onto the chicken thighs.  Broil on Low for 5-7 min.  Turn the thighs over and broil another 5-7 min.  Mix the honey and vinegar together.  Turn the thighs again and baste with the honey.  Cook until the honey turns to glaze.  Rest 5 min. and serve.

Fusilli with Broccoli Pesto

A recipe I found in January 2015 edition of Women's Day magazine while papa was having his angiograph done.  We should try this one out and get a photo!

12 oz. Fusilli Pasta
12 oz. frozen broccoli florets, about 4 cups
2 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 c. fresh basil leaves
3 T. olive oil
1 T. grated lemon zest
kosher salt
Toasted pumpkin seeds, or sunflower seeds, or sesame seeds- something crunchy instead of the sliced almonds the recipe called for in Women's Day
Grated Daiya Mozzarella or cheddar, in replace of grated parmesan

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, drain the pasta and return it to the pan.

Meanwhile, in a microwave safe bowl, combine the broccoli, garlic, and 1/2 cup of tap water.  Cover and cook on high, stirring once halfway through, until broccoli is tender, 5-6 min.  Transfer the vegetables including the liquid they cooked in to a food processor.  Add basil, oil, zest and 3/4 tsp. salt.  Puree until smooth.  Toss with pasta plus 1/4 cup of the pasta reserved liquid, adding more if pasta seems dry.  Sprinkle with crunchy seeds of your choice and "cheese", if desired.

To make this a main dish salad, add cooked diced chicken.

Stir Fry

You can use chicken or pork in the recipe.

This picture contains crunchy chow mean noodles that are not gluten free.  Hannah eats her Stir Fry without the crunchy noodles.

1 1/2 cups rice

3 cups water.

3 boneless, skinless, chicken breasts, cut into 1" bite sized pieces

2 T. canola or olive oil, twice

1 package frozen stir fry vegetables (be sure it is free of noodles, they contain gluten and/or eggs)

2 T. cornstarch, tapioca flour, potato starch, or arrowrroot (or your choice of thickening agent)

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/4 t. onion powder

2 T. wine vinegar

1/2 t. ground gingerroot

1/4 c. Coconut Aminos

1/4 c. dark corn syrup

1 c. chicken broth

sesame seeds

Combine the rice and 3 cups of water in a large saucepan with a fitted lid.  Place on stove burner set to high heat.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 15 min.  Fluff with a fork.

Place a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add 2 T. canola or olive oil.  Add the chicken and cook and stir until browned and cooked through.  Remove chicken from the pan to a plate.  Add another 2 T. canola or olive.  Add the stir fry vegetables.  Cook and stir until cooked and somewhat tender.  

In the meantime, combine the cornstarch (or other thickening agent), garlic powder, onion powder, wine vinegar, gingerroot, Coconut Aminos, dark corn syrup and chicken broth in lidded container.  Shake well to combine.

When vegetables are tender, add the chicken back into the pan.  Add the stir fry sauce you just shook well.  Cook and stir over Medium heat until the sauce is thickened and bubbly.  Serve with the steamed rice. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. (This is good with crunchy chow mein noodles too, if you can have the gluten in the noodles.)

One Year Ago...and Lemony Chicken!

It was one year ago in March 2013 that I began this recipe blog for Hannah and all our special diet friends who ask about Hannah's recipes.  In this past year, I have posted over 70 recipes I have either created or adapted to be free of the foods that cause Hannah allergic reactions.  In the beginning, I did not add photographs of the food.  I soon learned how to add the photos.  Sometimes I forget to take photographs.  As I continue to work on this recipe blog, I will try to go back and add photographs to the recipes that are missing photographs.  It has also recently come to my attention, that some of my recipe's instructions are not very beginning friendly.  If there is a post with confusing instructions, or that needs more explanation, please just ask.  I would be happy to review the post and edit as needed.

Tonight I present for you:  Lemony Chicken.  I created this one after reading many other Lemon Chicken recipes.  As it turned out, Hannah has not tasted this one.  She went off to a friends house to watch a movie.  I will have to update the post after she tastes it to tell you what she thinks.  I really liked it with the purple rice in the picture below.  If you love strong lemon flavor, use 1 1/2 lemons.  To go for a more mild lemon flavor, use only one lemon and maybe only half the lemon zest.

Lemony Chicken served on Purple Rice

2-3 Boneless Chicken breasts, cut in to 1 inch pieces

(really you could make this with chicken in any form, bone-in, boneless, leg, thigh, or breast.  You will just need to adjust your cooking time longer for larger cuts of chicken.)
1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. olive oil

zest from one lemon* 

the juice from 1 or 1 1/2 lemons, depending on just how lemony you want it.

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. red wine vinegar

1 T. dried oregano

1 tsp. kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

Heat a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add olive oil, heat a moment before you add the diced chicken, onion and garlic.  Cook and stir, turning the chicken pieces until chicken is beginning to brown, and onion and garlic are soft.  (Again you could use whole boneless chicken breasts or larger pieces of chicken.  You may need to hold off on adding the onion and garlic until the last 5 min. of cooking these larger pieces.)

While chicken is cooking, combine the lemon juice, chicken broth, cornstarch and vinegar in a measuring cup or small bowl.  When chicken is nice and browned and cooked through, add the liquid cornstarch mixture, the lemon zest, oregano, salt and pepper.  Cook and stir until sauce is thickened.

Serve Lemony Chicken with rice, pasta or potatoes.  It would go well with broccoli, asparagus or brussels sprouts too.

Lemony Chicken served on white rice

*How to zest a lemon:

You will need multi-sided cheese grater that has a zest side, or an actual citrus zester.  I used a the multi-sided cheese grater.

Wash a whole lemon.  Dry the lemon.  Place the zester on a clean plate.  Hold the zester with one hand and the lemon in the other.  Rub the lemon up and down the zester just until you begin to see the white layer under the yellow rind.  

You do not want to zest so far down you actually get the white layer.  This layer can be bitter.  Turn the lemon and rub up and down against the zester until no more yellow rind remains on the lemon.  You should now have a about 1 to 2 T. of lemon zest on your plate.  This is what you will add to the lemony chicken.

Chicken Fajitas

She liked it!  Sorry I forgot to take pictures.  It sure is delicious.  You will just have to make it to see it!
Makes 6-8 servings

1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
2 T. olive oil
1 tsp. dried minced garlic
1 tsp. dried minced onion
3/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. dried cilantro leaves
1/4 tsp. course ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips*
1 medium green, red, or yellow pepper (or a mix of the them to equal one pepper), cut into thin strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
8-10 corn tortillas
1-2 T. additional oil to heat the tortillas

*still slightly frozen chicken breasts are easiest to slice into thin strips with a sharp knife.
Put chicken in a large resealable bag.
Mix juices, oil, spices and salt in a small bowl.  Reserve 1/4 cup of the marinade for later. Add the remaining marinade to the plastic bag with the chicken.  Lay flat and squeeze out as much air as possible.  Turn to coat well.  Refrigerate 30 min.
This is when I cut the peppers and onions.  And I usually put a pot of rice on to cook to go with the fajitas.
Strain the chicken from the liquid.
Heat a large skillet over med-high heat.  Add chicken and cook and stir about 3 min. or until lightly browned.  Remove from skillet.  Add bell pepper, onion and reserved marinade; cook and stir until tender, about 5 min. Return chicken to skillet.  Cook 2-3 min. or until heated through.

Either remove the chicken mixture from the skillet and keep warm in a warm oven, then wipe the skillet clean and replace to burner and heat, or use a separate skillet and heat.  Add 1-2 T additional oil, heat.  Prepare a plate with a paper towel on top with a pile standing ready to go between each tortillas as it comes out of the pan.  Add one tortilla to the heated oil. The oil should bubble slightly around the edges, if it does not, the oil is not hot enough. Cook the tortilla about 30 seconds, flip carefully so as to not splatter oil.  Cook another 30 seconds.  Remove to the paper towel on the plate.  Cover with a paper towel.  Add the next tortilla to the skillet and continue warming the tortillas, stacking them on the pile, and covering them with paper towels.

Spoon the chicken mixture into the warmed tortillas.  Enjoy!

Chicken Macaroni

This tastes like chicken pot pie in a macaroni casserole.

1 T. potato starch

1/2 cup coconut or rice milk
1/2 cup Pacific Foods Chicken Broth
1 T. dried chopped onion
1/4 tsp. salt
dash pepper
1/4 tsp. dried sage

1 cup gluten free Macaroni, we use Andean Dream Quinoa Pasta, cooked

1 cup cooked diced chicken
1 cup mixed frozen peas and carrots

In a medium saucepan, slowly stir milk into potato starch with a wisk.  Add chicken broth, dried onion, salt, pepper, and sage.  Bring to boil over med-high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is thick creamy about 2 min.  Stir in cooked macaroni, chicken and peas and carrots.  Heat through.  Serve immediately.

This makes about 4 servings.

Catalina Chicken- super easy!

Catalina Chicken

I apologize for the lack of photo.  This was an experiment for dinner tonight.  Didn't think to take a photo until the girls said they loved it!  I'll post a picture the next time I make it.

approx. 1/2 cup Low Fat Catalina dressing
5-6 bone in chicken thighs and legs, skinned

Make sure top rack in oven is in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven broiler 5 min.  Place chicken meaty side up on a broiler pan.  Broil chicken (I shut the oven door for this part) 10 min.  Turn chicken pieces over, broil another 10 min. (again I had the oven door shut).   Turn chicken again, this time, with a basting brush, brush chicken with Catalina dressing.  Return to oven, only this time, leave the door open.  Broil 4-5 min.  Watch it closely for burning.  Turn chicken, baste 2nd side with Catalina Dressing.  Broil 3-4 min. with the door open.  Again, watch closely for burning.  Lower chicken down a rack if burns too quickly.  Again turn so meaty side is up, give it a 2nd coat of Catalina dressing.  Broil 2-3 min.  Turn one last time and brush 2nd side with its 2nd coat.  Broil 2-3 min.  By this last turn, I moved the chicken down a rack as the dressing was getting dark rather quickly.  Then I turned the oven off but left the chicken in it about another 5 min. to be sure it was cooked thoroughly, but no longer burning.

What resulted was juicy perfectly cooked Catalina Chicken.  It was much like BBQ chicken but with a completely different flavor.   Yum!

Alternatively, you could use boneless chicken, broil just 5 min. each side before you add the Catalina dressing.

Corn Flake Oven Fried Chicken

This is one of Hannah's favorite ways to eat bone-in chicken.  She cannot have Kentucky Fried or traditional fried.  Here is one easy way to make a gluten free crunchy "fried" chicken!  It is adapted from the Kellogg's Corn Flakes recipe called Double-Coated Chicken.  I've altered the amounts to coat 3 legs and 3 thighs.  Below you can find the quantities to coat 3 lbs of chicken pieces.

To feed our Family:
4 cups Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
1/2 cup rice milk
3/4 cup gluten-free flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. onion powder
olive oil to drizzle
3 legs and 3 thighs, with or without skin (I usually do without).

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare a large tray with racks to hold the chicken for cooking.  Measure the corn flakes into a large bowl.  Using your hands, grab handfuls of the cereal and and crush it between your fingers and palms until there are no more large flakes, but lots of little ones.  Set aside.

 Measure 1/4 cup oil into a medium to large plastic bag such as a ziploc or bread bag. (a sandwich bag is too small.  I use bread bags from the box, not the actual bread :)   Measure the rice milk into another bag, or small flat container large enough to fit the chicken pieces.  You may need more milk if you use a container.  Measure the gluten free flour into yet another bag or flat container.

Stir the seasonings into the flour mixture.
Line up your bags and containers in this order: oil, flour, milk, cornflakes.

Set prepared chicken next to the oil; and the tray with the rack next to the cornflakes on the other end.  Now, using one hand for wet and the other hand for dry, pick up one piece of chicken with your designated wet hand and place it in the bag of oil.  With your dry hand, closed it up a bit and shake gently to coat the chicken with oil.  With your wet hand, retrieve the chicken from the oil and place it in the flour.  With your dry hand, close up the bag and shake gently, or if using a container, scoop and pat the flour onto the chicken.  Still using your dry hand, remove the chicken from the flour and place it in the milk (keep your hand dry!).  Switch to your wet hand and quickly turn the chicken in the milk to coat.  Quickly remove the chicken with your wet hand before the milk completely washes off the flour.  The goal here is to just wet the flour.  Place the wet floured chicken in the corn flakes.  With your dry hand, scoop and pat the corn flakes onto the sticky wet chicken.  Again with with your dry hand, gently remove the corn flake covered chicken to the prepared rack, placing the piece so the majority of the meat is up and the bonier side is down.  Continue this sequence with remaining pieces of chicken until all chicken pieces are covered with corn flakes and resting on the rack.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil over each piece of chicken.  Place the tray of chicken in the preheated oven.

Bake for 45 min. at 400 degrees.  (The rack helps keep the bottom of each piece to not get too soggy).

Serve and enjoy!   We like to serve mashed potatoes with this chicken.

Amounts to cover 3 lbs of chicken pieces, skin or no skin:
7 cups Kellogg's Corn Flakes cereal
1/3 cup oil
1 cup rice milk
1 cup gluten free flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. onion powder

Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes 1 regular pie, in either a pie pan or a 2 qt casserole dish

Prep time: approx. 2 hours

2 crust pie dough, chilled

2 boneless chicken breasts, diced and cooked or 1 cup diced cooked chicken
1/3 cup chopped onion
olive oil
12 oz mixed frozen vegi's such as peas, carrots, corn

1/3 cup potato flour
1 1/2 tsp. dried sage
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

1 cup chicken broth
1/3 cup rice milk

Step 1.  2 hours prior to serving time, prepare the pie dough recipe. Divide it into two balls.  Place these in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

Step 2.  While pie crust is chilling, dice the chicken breasts and the onion.   I like to use frozen chicken breasts that are still slightly frozen. The chicken is easy to slice into 1/4 in thin strips and then dice the strips.  Heat a deep saucepan over med-high heat.  Add a touch of olive oil. Wait a minute for oil to heat, then add chicken carefully, it may spatter a bit. Add chopped onion now too. Cook and stir chicken and onion about 3 min. to brown and cook through. (If you are using pre-cooked chicken, just brown the onion.)  Add the frozen vegetables.  Cook until frozen vegetables are heated.  Remove skillet from heat and set aside.

Step 3. Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove 1 ball of pie crust dough from refrigerator.  Allow to sit at room temperature for 10 min. to warm slightly.  Lay out one pie of wax paper large enough to cover your pie pan.  Place the pie crust dough ball on this piece of wax paper.  Lay out another piece of wax paper on top of the pie crust dough ball. Use a rolling pin to roll out the ball flat.  Roll it large enough fit your pie pan.  Remove the top sheet of wax paper.  Grease your pie pan.  Carefully flip your pie dough over into your greased pan, dough side down, wax paper side up.  Carefully peel away your wax paper and press and form the pie dough into the pan.  Trim the edges if any pie dough is hanging over the edges.  Poke the pie dough with a fork throughout the bottom of the pan.  Place the pie pan in the oven and bake the crust 10-12 min.  Remove the 2nd pie dough ball from the refrigerator to warm up.

Step 4.  Return the chicken/onion/vegi pan to medium heat.  Sprinkle the potato flour over the mixture.  Add sage, salt and pepper.  Stir this up a bit.  Then add chicken broth and rice milk.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened.  Once thickened, set aside.

Step 5.  When the bottom pie crust is done, remove from heat and set aside.  Reduce oven heat to 425 degrees.

Step 6.  Roll out the 2nd pie dough ball in the same manner as you rolled out the first, between 2 pieces of waxed paper.  Pour the chicken/vegi filling into the pre-baked pie crust in the pan.  Flip the 2nd pie crust onto the chicken pie with the dough side down, wax paper on top.  Carefully remove the waxed paper.  Trim any dough hanging over the edges.  Use a sharp knife to cut 3-4 steam holes in the top crust.

Step 7. Carefully place the pie in the oven.  Bake for 25 min. or until top crust is golden.  Remove pie from oven to a rack.  Allow to cool 15 min. prior to cutting and serving.

For individual pot pies, use individual pie pans.

Chicken Nuggets or Strips

Chicken Nuggets or Strips

Better than Shake-N-Bake

Serves 5-6

2 lbs. boneless chicken, diced into nuggets or sliced into strips

3 cups Enjoy Life Crunchy Flax cereal

1 T. sorghum flour

1 T. tapioca starch

1 T. dried oregano

1 T. dried thyme

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup oil

Heat oven to 400.

Combine ingredients, except for chicken and oil, in blender or food processor and process until well blended.  Pour into a bread bag or ziploc bag.  Pour the oil into another bag.  Put chicken in the bag of oil, twist it closed or zip it close and shake it up, roll it around, coat the chicken in the oil.  Use tongs to remove chicken from oil and drop into breading mixture bag.  If strips are large enough, you may need to move them into bread 1 or 2 at a time.  Close the bag by twisting or zipping and give it a good shake!  Using cleaned, dry tongs, remove the breaded chicken to a large parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake 15 min. for nuggets, 25 min. for strips.  Serve warm with honey, allergy safe BBQ sauce, honey mustard, or even plain ketchup!