Jessica’s Chicken

Chef Jessica designed this dish while shopping for groceries this afternoon.

It was good : )  and Gluten free. And yummy.  Would have been good with rice too, but maybe next time.

Chicken and beans

step one:

1 can pinto beans

1 C pasta sauce (we used Classico tomato and basil)

Warmed through in a saucepan. Served along side the baked chicken.

Step two:

2 organic, free-range chicken breasts.

Put the chicken in a well oiled baking dish. Spray the chicken with an oil spritzer so that the spice mix sticks.

Mix in a small dish, the following spices:

• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp basil
• pinch of ginger
• pinch of lemon pepper
• pinch of salt
• pinch of dill weed
• 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
• another pinch of salt

Sprinkle the spice mix on both sides of the chicken. Add a chopped onion over the top of the chicken in the baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of  chicken broth.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until baked through.

Happy Chicken Soup with Rice!

Chicken Soup with Rice … one of my favorite books!!

Go here to watch the Video.

It’s raining. It gets dark in early afternoon this time of year. Soup weather is here.

Chicken Soup With Rice

Step one:

Cover three chicken leg (thigh and leg) parts with water. Boil, then simmer 1 hour. Let cool. Strain liquid through strainer into bowl, refrigerate overnight. Take meat off the bones, discard skin and bones. Chop and refrigerate cooked meat.

Chop carrots, zucchini and onion. Cover and refrigerate.

Step two (the next morning):

Plug in the crockpot. (Don’t ask me how I know this part)  Add veggies and cover with stock. Heat for two hours.

Add:

chopped meat.

2 C cooked rice

One package of spinach leaves- chopped.

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp italian seasoning

1 stock cube (if desired)

Optional: thicken the broth slightly with 4 T “GF flour blend”  mixed with a little broth, blend into soup in the crockpot.

Set crockpot to high, continue cooking until you are ready to eat. I like a good biscuit with this soup too. Go for it.

 

Soup Soup Soup

This is great for a rainy cold weekend lunch. Guess what we are having today? It’s great over a bowl of rice, too. (SOME!!!)people at my house insist on meat in their diets… I could care less and don’t really eat meat. So this is good either way. Sometimes I just get out two giant pots on the stove and make both versions at the same time.

Freezes great.

Veggie Veggie Soup

• 1 lb chicken thighs – cut into bite sized pieces (optional)
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 box of Pacific chicken stock
• 3 peeled and chopped carrots
• 2 peeled and chopped potatoes
• 1 C frozen chopped spinach
• 1 1/2 C frozen chopped broccoli
• 1 can cut green beans
• 1 peeled and chopped zucchini salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 T oregano
• 1 T Italian seasoning

Cover chicken bits with a little water- 2 cups?maybe. simmer until cooked through. Add all the veggies and chicken stock. Add seasonings. Simmer an hour, or until the carrots are cookedto your liking.

Wicked Curry Spinach.. and Chicken

This isn’t a new recipe by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the most popular one on Cabbage Nets.

So here are some additional things and modifications to the original Wicked Chicken recipe. It’s good, and has more veggies in it for more nutritional value. Play around with other veggies you may have around, they all work. Your mileage may vary:

Note: Original recipe (ADDED STUFF FOR VARIATION)

Curry Chicken and potatoes

• 1 package of boneless chicken thighs
• 1 can of coconut milk (not the “lite” version)
• 3 red potatoes ( TWO RUSSET POTATOES – CUBED)
• 2 T unsweetened coconut flakes  (DELETED)
• 1 onion
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 C organic vegetable stock
• 1 tsp of some sort of Korean hot sauce I had in my fridge. (DELETED)
• ADDITIONS:  (1 CAN OF BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE)
• (1 TSP RED CURRY PASTE)
• (1 TSP POULTRY SEASONING)
• (1 CAN CUT GREEN BEANS)
• (1 C CUT SPINACH, FROZEN)
• (3 C CHOPPED BOK CHOY LEAVES)

1. Cut chicken into large chunks, bigger than bitty and smaller than big. You know – chunks.
2. Brown the said chunk sized chicken pieces in 1 Tablespoon of safflower oil in a fry pan on the stove top. (this is the only “work” to this recipe… I promise)
3. Slice and cut up the onion. I used 2 smaller sized ones- we like onion.
4. Peel and cube the red potatoes
5. PLUG IN the crockpot (this is sort of important-don’t ask me how I know this)
6. Layer the red potatoes and onion into the crockpot
7. Add the cooked and browned chicken on top of that.
8. Mix the curry powder, salt, pepper,  into the coconut milk and pour over the potato/onion/chicken bits.
9. Set the crockpot on LOW and walk away for 6-8 hours. ( OR HIGH, for 4 hours)
10. Serve on noodles. (Gluten-free spaghetti noodles,  even better)….. or rice, that’s good too.

Chicken And Rice

Chicken and Rice.

It’s the most requested hotdish that I make. So either, they like it, or it’s good. Or both. I don’t know.

I used to make the “Uncle Ben’s Rice” recipe that used to be printed on the box way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. … you do know that dinosaur tastes like chicken, right? …… but now the seasoning packet is out.  So, I just took the idea and switched it to what we can do.

The original recipe had three parts to it.

• 1. chunks of chicken
• 2. cooked -wild rice and plain rice mixed together
• 3. A nice creamy onion gravy to mix and bind parts 1 and 2 together.

Bake.

It’s not that hard to recreate it for gluten free, thank goodness.

So here’s what I do. The first thing to note is that it is double the orginal recipe so that there is a lot of it to go into the freezer for us. You may need to ratchet down the amounts.

Step one:  Cook the rice.

• 3/4 C wild rice
• 1 1/2 C white rice
• 5 C water

Step two: Bake the chicken

I used a pound and a half of skinless/boneless chicken thighs – baked at 425 for 40 minutes. Then I shredded the meat.

Step three: While the rice is cooking and the chicken is baking.. make the onion gravy.

• 2 T safflower oil
• 1 large onion – sliced and chopped
• 1/2 – 3/4 C mixed gluten free flours – I used millet, white rice flour and potato starch
• 1 vegan soup broth cube, thinned out in 1/4 C of broth.
• 1 C coconut milk
• Chicken broth – I didn’t measure it… but it was at least 5 C, probably more, by the time it was “gravy”
• salt, pepper, poultry seasoning to taste.

Then I layered into a lasagna pan (it’s bigger than a 9×13) a layer of rice, cooked shredded chicken and covered it with about 1/2 the gravy. Stirred and mixed all of that. Then added in the rest of the rice, and gravy. Smooth out the top of the hotdish and bake it at 400 for about 40 minutes. Or until it’s all bubbly and golden brown on top.

Let it cool completely. Freeze portions for later.

Tiny Crockpot Stew

**Update** I now call this recipe ” BOK Chicken “  **

I got a small crockpot for Christmas and none of my usual recipes fit into it, and I am really not sure what to do with it, because I am so used to making gigantic amounts of soup at a time so that we have leftovers to go into the freezer, or whatever.

So I had to think small in order to use the tiny crockpot today. I made up a recipe that seems “so far- so good”. I took ideas from several other recipes and combined them. Oh all right, I had a bunch of weird leftovers, and dumped them in. There, are you happy now? HAHAHA

What’s in there so far:

• 2 chicken thighs, browned in 1 T safflower oil
• 2 C chicken stock
• 1 C coconut milk
• 1 vegan bullion soup cube
• 1/2 small onion chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, smashed and mined
• 5 baby bok choy
• 1 zucchini, peeled and cubed
• 2 tsp italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp red curry paste
• 1/2 large carrot – peeled and grated

…the plan at this point is to let it sit there on the counter, set on high for 4 hours and then thicken the soup with potato starch and serve it over rice. Depending on how much the chicken breaks down, I may shred that up a little too.

So, it’s not “soup” and not really “stew” either.. ..I am not sure yet what to call it. I just hope it’s good. It smells good. So that must be a good sign.

And at this point I added a cup of thick potato soup leftover from the other night.

I think it still might need some salt.

Fried Chicken

Making gluten-free fried chicken isn’t any harder than making it with wheat flour. Really.

I also make mine egg free, so here’s how to do that.

• Cut chicken into pieces. (I make mine “nugget” sized. And I use the boneless and skinless thighs in handy 1 pound packets that I find at Costco.)
• Rinse chicken, drain.
• Combine two eggs with 1/2 C water, 1/2 tsp salt (I used flax eggs)
• Mix 1 cup gf flour mix (1/2 potato starch, 1/2 brown rice flour) , 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp white pepper, 1/2 tsp xanthan gum and 1/2 tsp soda
• dip chicken in egg mixture and then the flour mixture and then place in frying pan.
• cook until golden and crispy.
• Place fried chicken pieces in a 9 x 13 baking pan, lined with paper towels, for 20 minutes to finish cooking the chicken and to crisp it up.

We served ours with raspberry jam biscuits, green beans and peaches.  Yum.

The leftovers will go nicely into a bento box lunch tomorrow. Hooray!

Baked beans – Rice – Chicken

It’s weird, but good. Who knew that what is left in the pantry is actually something I can combine into a recognizable dinner dish. *poof*

 

Baked beans – Rice – Chicken

• 2 T sunflower oil
• 6 boneless skinless chicken–cut into strips
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 C uncooked rice
• 1 chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic-chopped
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2½ C vegetable broth
• 1 16 oz. can of baked beans

 

Heat the oil. Add the chicken, stir and cook until browned. Add rice, onions and garlic. Cook 2 minutes.

Combine all in 9 x 13 pan. Cover with foil. Bake 50 minutes at 350, or until rice is cooked.

 

This is tasty as a filler for tortillas, with chopped cabbage and cilantro on top.

 

 

Chicken done right!.. and all gluten free.. ha ha ha

I don’t know exactly how this whole retro night thing got started.. oh wait, yes I do, but the story is too long to tell. Anyway, tonight was “retro night” here at Mom’s diner.

We served our famous blue plate special- (…mostly because we happen to have blue plates in the cupboard)

- Chicken fricassee on mashed potatoes, including a side salad with your choice of dressings. There were ice cream sundaes for dessert. Chocolate sauce, sprinkles – oh yes, the whole deal.

It was really good. I will definately make this again.

Chicken Fricassee

• 2 pounds of boneless chicken- cut into smaller portions.

Saute’ the chicken in 3 tablespoons of coconut oil and palm shortening (or just use butter if you can have the butter) until the pieces are slightly golden brown, but just ..not overly “BROWNED”

Remove the chicken to a plate or pie pan or something, and add

• 1 or 2 sliced onions

to the remaining oil in the pan. Stir them on medium heat until just browned, and cooked through. Add the chicken pieces back into the pan.

Pour in

• 1 + 1/2 C chicken broth

 Cover the pan, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove as much of the chicken and onion that you can, add

• 3/4 C coconut milk (I used the thick part on the top of the can)  and
• 1/4 C chicken broth

to the pan. If it needs to be thickened up, make a paste of potato starch and a little bit of broth and add that in slowly, stirring with a whisk to incorporate it in. Add more chicken broth to thin it back down if you added too much potato starch. I also added a little salt and white pepper to make it perfect. I sprinkled in some paprika for color and just a small bit of poultry seasoning for some unknown bit of whimsey. Creative chef-ery sometimes works out just fine. But, you know, it was really -really tasty.

Serve on hot mashed potatoes. MMMMMMMM comfort food on a rainy day.

Wicked Chicken – Curry Chicken – Crockpot Style

I usually make this, or something exactly like it- sort of, on the stovetop, takes about a half an hour…. it’s good. But yesterday this recipe came to my attention and I even had all the ingredients in the house. What? that never happens, so *poof* it’s Sunday dinner. Yay. The best part is that it’s already a gluten-free recipe, so that I didn’t have to substitute every ingredient to make it edible this time. Love the regular recipes that are already delicious and safe. Bring it on.

And it’s good. And good for you. Eat it.

Curry Chicken and potatoes

• 1 package of boneless chicken thighs (I buy these in bulk at Costco and freeze them)
• 1 can of coconut milk (not the “lite” version)
• 3 red potatoes
• 2 T unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 onion
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1 C organic vegetable stock
• 1 tsp of some sort of Korean hot sauce I had in my fridge.

1. Cut chicken into large chunks, bigger than bitty and smaller than big. You know – chunks.
2. Brown the said chunk sized chicken pieces in 1 Tablespoon of safflower oil in a fry pan on the stove top. (this is the only “work” to this recipe… I promise)
3. Slice and cut up the onion. I used 2 smaller sized ones- we like onion.
4. Peel and cube the red potatoes
5. PLUG IN the crockpot (this is sort of important-don’t ask me how I know this)
6. Layer the red potatoes and onion into the crockpot
7. Add the cooked and browned chicken on top of that.
8. Mix the curry powder, salt, pepper, coconut flakes into the coconut milk and pour over the potato/onion/chicken bits.
9. Set the crockpot on LOW and walk away for 6-8 hours.
10. Serve on noodles. (Gluten-free spaghetti noodles,  even better)

Seriously. It’s not hard. And it’s so delicious you won’t want to eat anything else for days. I did however add another ingredient about 3 hours into the process… I peeled a sweet potato and cubed it, boiled it into submission in some water and then added it to the crockpot to cook along for another two hours or so. The original recipe said to add green peas the last half hour of cooking, but first of all… no one here would touch a green pea if it paid them to eat it.. and so of course I didn’t have any in the freezer anyway.. so whatever.

As far as I can tell… everyone here liked it. We are calling it from this day forward… wicked chicken.  I don’t know why.  Well, I do know why, but I am not telling.