GF Breaded Chicken Fingers

Everyone on a special diet has at least one thing they miss from "the old days". For me, pizza is still my number one all time favorite food, though I don't get to eat it very often. Another thing that I miss is fried chicken. In lieu of fried chicken, I'd sometimes order chicken tenders or breaded chicken strips when dining out in my pre GF days. This weekend I found myself craving something from the old days and decided to try my hand at making a homemade version of chicken fingers.


I buy Udi's GF breads on a regular basis. I have found that taking my lunch to work is not only more economical, but my tummy is much happier as well. I buy Udi's brand because I think it has the best taste and texture. It also happens to be the one that doesn't upset my stomach. I've tried other brands and just am not able to tolerate them, so Udi's it is!


GF bread contains "heels" on each end of the loaf, just like any other loaf of bread. Sometimes I toast the ends of my GF bread and treat them like a bagel with the condiment of choice. Recently, though, I began saving them in the freezer with the intent of turning them into some pretty cost effective GF breadcrumbs. My timing was right on with my chicken finger craving since I finally had enough ends to try making my own GF crumbs. The method is really easy and the results superb, very similar to those of a traditional breadcrumbs albeit softer in texture. 


Today, I used the crumbs to bread marinated chicken thighs. Next time, who knows what my inspiration will be. I used Giada de Laurintilas' chicken tenders recipe as a starting point and spring boarded my way to a GF version that was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself. I served them with the GF zucchini fritters from Smitten Kitchen. Note, I found that I should have slipped the fritters into the oven for a bit after browning them in the skillet. I didn't know to do this and found that the fritters, while very tasty, they weren't cooked through. Still, this made for an enjoyable and pretty easy Sunday evening dinner. Let me know if you give it a try at your house.


One final note. I know that 1/4 cup of hot sauce may seem like a lot, but the ratio of hot sauce to buttermilk ensures that you just get good flavor from it and not any heat. You can choose to leave out the hot sauce if you need to. I encourage you to give it a try though, my four year old had two chicken strips and doesn't like anything spicy - even black pepper is too much for her. Maybe this will help you to decide for yourself whether to include the hot sauce or not.


~Enjoy


GF Breaded Chicken Thighs

• 1lb skinless, boneless chicken thighs
• 1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
• 1 tbsp onion powder (not salt)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder (not salt)
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tsp black pepper
• Lowfat Buttermilk

Cut each chicken thigh in half and place in a mixing bowl with tall sides. Add hot sauce, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley and pepper. Pour over enough buttermilk to sufficiently cover all of the chicken. Using a fork or a large spoon, stir the chicken around in the marinade until the color is uniform and all of the seasoning appears to be well distributed. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour and up to a day to allow the meat to absorb the marinade and tenderize.

Meanwhile, fit the large bowl of your food processor with the chopping blade. Break frozen bread heels in half and place halves in the bowl of the processor. Process the bread until it forms a crumbly texture and the crumbs are a consistent size. You can stop the processor and restart it after stirring the crumbs with a fork or spoon to redistribute the large pieces and achieve a more consistent product. 

Put the crumbs in a dish or plate and add 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp finely ground pepper. Mix the crumbs with a fork to distribute the seasoning and set aside.

In another dish (this one with sides) add 1 cup of Just Whites egg product or 3 egg whites mixed with a little (tbsp or two) of water and beat with a fork to combine. You want a loose egg white that will coat your chicken pieces as evenly as possible.


Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Add a few chicken pieces to the egg white and, using only one hand (keep the other for the bread crumbs!), turn them over in the egg to evenly coat. Place each chicken piece in the bread crumb dish after you coat it with the egg. 


Using your other hand, turn the chicken pieces over in the bread crumbs taking care to pat the crumbs into any areas that are missing breading or that need a little extra coating. When finished, place the coated chicken on a baking pan that has been fitted with a silpat or parchment paper.


Place the baking pan in the oven and allow to bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of your chicken pieces. Test for doneness by cutting into the top of one of the chicken pieces. The chicken is done when cooked through and the juices run clear.


Serve with your favorite condiment.

Ain't No Thing but a Chicken Wing!

As we now live 30 miles south of Indianapolis, we find eating out as a way to make it through a hectic week is not working for us. As a result, I'm trying various ways to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour. So far, preparing ingredients ahead and using my crock pot are two methods that seem to work well. Since we're not eating out as much, I've found myself trying to make home versions of those items that we've traditionally treated as something to be enjoyed in a restaurant. Wings are one of these item. 


A few days ago, my darling hubby said that he had a craving for wings. In the past, we would have placed an order with the BW-3's just down the street from our previous house. I have occasionally made wings at home, but have found that the work to separate the wing into three parts (drummie, tip and whatever they call that other piece) to be hard work and to take way too long to allow you to make and serve them the same evening. Wanting to avoid such tedious work this time around, I decided to cook the wings the day before and then try separating them at the joint with my trusty chef's knife. Turns out this was pure genius. It took no time to work my way through enough cooked full wings to make two dozen wing pieces and I had plenty leftover for lunch or the next night's dinner.


In addition to this new method for separating the wing parts, I also wanted to complete all of the prep on Monday night so that we could have them for dinner on Tuesday. At times in the past, I've fried the wings. This is the way traditional wings are made in a restaurant. However, this is a hands on method and takes quite a bit of time as you can only fry so many wing pieces at one time, so you end up frying batches of wing parts. Then, there's the smell that goes along with deep frying. I never like to wake up the next morning and be reminded of what we had for dinner the night before, no matter how tasty it was! Fortunately, I've had great results in the past simply baking the wings and have come to prefer this method in recent years. I like this option as the skin is still crispy and the fat is rendered, so it's a bit healthier (although I'm not going to argue that chicken wings are anything but a food to be enjoyed on occasion). Because the oven method afforded a hands off option, I went with it this time so that I could enjoy dinner and family time while preparing a major part of dinner for the next night.


I have to say that baking the wings whole not only produced the crispy skin we like, but fixed my issue with separating the wing parts. Once the wings were baked and cooled, I simply took out my big chef's knife and easily cut through the joints. I discarded the chicken tips, but they smelled so good that I considered tossing them into a baggie for the freezer for a day when I wanted to make homemade chicken stock. 


The final piece to making terrific chicken wings at home is the sauce. You can buy a variety of sauces in the average grocery store. I've seen traditional wing sauce, teriyaki sauce and, of course, there's always BBQ sauce. Use your favorite or making the one below for a traditional "Buffalo" style wing. Whatever you decide, give this "recipe" a try sometime when you either want a special treat or are having friends over. 


~Enjoy!


Good as Restaurant Chicken Wings

• 1 large package of chicken wings (2 lbs or so)
• 2 good size baking sheets (mine are half sheet pans and it took both)
• Sauce (my recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange oven racks so that two of the racks are in the middle to upper middle third of the oven. 

Remove chicken wings from package and place them in a strainer. Rinse the wings under cool running water until the water runs clear. Drain the wings thoroughly and place them on strips of (multiple layers) paper towels. Lay the wings in one layer, do not stack them. Using more layers of paper towel, dry the wings thoroughly.

Arrange the dried wings on a baking sheet. I found that there's a certain way that the wings fit together so that you can maximize the number you can get on a sheet. The wings can touch a bit, but you want one even layer, not stacked layers. Also, it's better to arrange fewer wings on a sheet than to over populate the baking sheet and have them steam rather than bake. If they steam you'll have rubbery wings that likely haven't rendered their fat properly, so you won't achieve that wonderful crispy skin.

Sprinkle the wings with salt and pepper to taste. This is also the time to add unique seasonings to your wings. Stick to ground spices though as fresh spices, like chopped garlic, will burn in the oven given the amount of time the wings need to cook. Good ground spice candidates include:  garlic powder (not salt), onion powder (not salt), smoked paprika or, if you're going for the sweet and spicy approach, cardamom, cinnamon or Five Spice powder. 

Place the wings in the oven, one baking sheet per oven rack, and allow to cook until wings are cooked through and the skin is crispy. The specific amount of time depends on your oven. In my oven, this took 90 minutes. 


Remove the baking sheets from the oven and allow the wings to cool. If you are preparing the chicken for use on another night, place the cooled wings in a container and refrigerate until you're ready to use them. If you plan to use them on the same day you bake them, follow the steps below once the wings are cool enough to handle.


Working with one full wing at a time and using a stable cutting board and a sharp knife, remove the wing tip and discard. Next, turn the wing up so that the joint that connects the two wing pieces is on the board and the two ends are in the air - looks like you're holding a V. Use your chef's knife to cut down through the middle of the joint (middle of the V) and apply a little pressure to separate the two parts. Place the parts in a baking dish. Cover the baking dish with foil. Place wings in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until they are hot and steam is rising from the dish. Add the sauce and stir to evenly distribute it. Place the foil back over the baking dish for 5-10 minutes to allow the sauce to come to temperature and the wings and sauce to marry a bit. Serve your wings with traditional condiments like blue cheese and celery or try something different like sweet potato fries.




Traditional Buffalo Sauce
Most traditional wing sauces have two components - hot sauce and butter. My specific combo is below. Feel free to adjust the heat to your liking.

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup Frank's hot sauce
• pinch of salt and pepper

Place butter in a 2 cup Pyrex glass measuring cup and melt in the microwave on defrost. When the butter is fully melted, remove it from the oven and stir to ensure an even distribution of fat and water and to make sure it's evenly melted. Add hot sauce to the Pyrex along with the salt and pepper. Whisk to combine and taste for seasoning. Adjust as necessary. Pour the sauce over the wings and proceed according to directions above. If you like hotter sauce, add more hot sauce. If you like your wings on the mild side, as I do, add the hot sauce a little at a time until you determine the right ratio for your taste.