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Recipe: Gluten-Free Chicken Parmesan

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 1 Comment

Before our house was gluten-free, we never made Chicken Parmesan because we could order it when dining out. Truly authentic Chicken Parmesan would surely take a lot of time to prepare – homemade sauce, the finest Italian cheese and all that. However, we’re neither Italian or quite that persnickety about cooking.

For the last four years the only times I’ve had Chicken Parmesan was when I’ve made it at home. I’ve found that a very tasty version of this dish can be made fairly easily and quickly without a lot of muss and fuss. Each time I’ve made this classic dish, my husband raves about it. Though I agree that it’s delicious, there isn’t much work involved in making it so.

Gluten-Free Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients:

  • Boneless chicken breasts (one per person)
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Italian red sauce (we use Newman’s Own Tomato & Basil sauce with a little Italian Blend spice)
  • Gluten-free flour blend (we use Jules flour now but Gluten-Free Pantry works fine too)
  • Eggs (optional, not needed with Jules flour)

Instructions:

  • Coat chicken breasts with flour (use egg wash if your flour does not coat well without it – with Jules flour, the egg step can be skipped if desired).
  • Put a little olive oil in saute pan over medium heat and saute coated chicken until brown on each side. Remove from heat.
  • Spray baking dish with cooking spray and place chicken breasts in the dish. Top with Italian style red sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese.
  • Bake in 375 degree pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

We serve the chicken over gluten-free pasta mixed with a little red sauce. By adding some green veggies and a nice green salad, you have a hearty tasty meal that’s deliciously gluten-free. Last week when I made this, I used Tagliatelle pasta from Schar but any gluten-free pasta will work. Schar pasta is made in Italy and is an exceptional gluten-free pasta. It’s available in some stores and from the Gluten-Free Trading Company.

Most gluten-free flours will work well as a coating for chicken, crab cakes, onions and other savory things. When baking gluten-free foods the type of flour is very important but for coating foods, the choice of flour is not that important. You want to avoid flours with strong flours that might take away from your dish but simple flours like rice, tapioca, and cornstarch all work fine for coating purposes. Using flours with a lot of xanthan gum for fried foods might result in a gummy texture. If you use a flour blend with xanthan gum in it, don’t add any extra when cooking in hot oil.

To save money, buy less expensive flours for coating needs and save the high end mixes for gluten-free baking. Gluten-free baked goods are much less forgiving than foods that have just a little flour in them – a sauce or quiche for instance. It’s hard to get away with penny pinching on flour for pie crusts, breads and treats. Thought there might not be many, there are a few ways to save money when cooking gluten-free without sacrificing great taste. This delicious Chicken Parmesan proves that point.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Bagels

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There are many things that I have found reasonable replacements for since going gluten-free, but the toughest one has been bagels. There are many good gluten-free bagels on the market, but none I have found are the really great New York style bagel that I have been craving. My idea of gluten-free heaven is a bagel like the ones I remember from my pre-gluten-free days. Like the ones you get from Panera Bread…the harder outside “skin” and soft, chewy inside. I think the closest bagel I have found to a gluten-filled New York Style bagel is Joan’s Gluten-free Great Bakes. Tiffany wrote about them here.

One day as I was making my Pamela’s Gluten-free Bread Mix, I noticed a bagel recipe on the side of the package. I decided to give it a try, as it seemed simple enough. I made a few modifications, added brushed egg white to the tops of the bagels after boiling and before baking and I sprinkled sea salt on a few after the egg whites. I was hoping for a hot soft pretzel effect. I can’t even begin to tell you how fantastic these turned out. My bagel was like a big, round hot soft pretzel bagel. I had tears in my eyes. BAGELS!!!!! This is what has been missing since I went gluten-free. The taste, the texture. Wow! I can’t believe that I only ate one. I let the rest cool and then I froze them so that all of their yumminess would be preserved. Now, the dough is a little sticky, so I had to oil my hands to shape the dough, but a few minutes of messy hands is worth it for the end result.

They don’t look like the prettiest bagels you have ever seen, but I assure you, looks are not what matters here. Here they are before baking:

After baking:

Now, made into a sandwich:

Bagels*Recipe courtesy of Pamela’s Wheat-Free Bread Mix Bag

  • 1 bag Pamela’s Bread Mix
  • 1 yeast packet (enclosed)
  • 1 1/3 cups warm water
  • 1/4 cup oil

Yield: Approximately 7 bagels

  1. Combine dry mix, yeast packet, oil & water. (no eggs are used).
  2. Mix on medium for 3 minutes.
  3. Use 1/2 cup dough for each bagel. Oil hands and place on a greased baking sheet in the form of a bagel (don’t worry about the hole now, we will get to that later).
  4. Let dough rise for 1 hour, then poke hole in the center of each bagel. (I took a wooden spoon and sprayed the handle with Pam and then used that to poke my holes).
  5. In boiling water, boil bagels for 25 seconds.
  6. Remove with slotted spoon and place on greased baking sheet. Brush with egg whites and top with sea salt, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc if you choose.
  7. Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 20 -25 minutes. (I baked for 23 minutes).

ENJOY!!!! Truly, gluten-free heaven.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Crab Bisque

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We were snowed in over the weekend in Atlanta and it was freezing cold. With the wind chill it felt like it was zero outside, which is not normal here to say the least. To stay as warm as possible we stayed in and enjoyed some great gluten-free meals. I made one of our favorite soups, Crab Bisque, which calls for flour. We used Jules gluten-free flour which works well in most any gluten recipe. The company sent me a bag of their excellent flour. The bisque made with Jules gluten-free flour was one of the best I’ve made. The flour created a perfect rue, just as if I’d used wheat flour in the pan.

Since we finally found the Blue Horizon Organic gluten-free appetizers at Super Target, we had the Fish & Chip Bites with our soup instead of corn muffins. To include something healthy, we had a nice green salad as well. The Fish & Chip Bites were excellent and we’ll be trying the Crab Cake Bites soon. Each of the four options are $4.99 at Target in Atlanta. They are in the health food freezer which is not with the other frozen food. Please note if you find one of these products with malt listed in the ingredients, the malt is made from corn. The products are tested by a third party to ensure they are gluten-free. So many consumers were concerned over the term malt on the label that the company switched from corn malt vinegar to apple cider vinegar in August 2009.

Gluten-Free Crab Bisque

Ingredients: 

  • 2 tablespoons gluten-free flour blend (plain rice or bean flours will work here)
  • 2 tablespoons butter (I use unsalted)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (or to taste)
  • 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder (low sodium version is best)
  • 6 tablespoons minced green onions
  • 1 cup half-and-half
  • 1/2 cup skim milk (use 1 cup for thinner bisque)
  • 1 pound fresh crab meat (or two cans of crab meat – use one can for budget friendly dish)
  • 1/2 cup cooking Sherry

Directions:

  • In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt butter and stir in flour, white pepper, salt, chicken bouillon powder and 4 tablespoons of the minced onions.
  • Turn heat up to medium and stir occasionally until soup thickens.
  • Add remainder of combined milks and the crab.
  • When soup reaches desired thickness, add Sherry and stir, cook one minute and remove from heat.
  • Garnish with remaining minced onions.
  • Serve with green salad and Pamela’s corn muffins.

This isn’t the healthiest soup in the world but it is one of the best we make at home. Since gluten-free soup is fairly difficult to find when dining out, we have a lot of soup in the winter at home. For the best ready-made frozen soups, check out Kettle Cuisine. All ten flavors are gluten-free and several are dairy free as well.

Progresso has several gluten-free options now and they are finally labeled as such. Check the listings on the new Live gluten-freely website. Please note that there are a couple of soups missing from the list on that site. The Chicken Rice with Vegetables soup (not to be confused with Chicken with Wild Rice) is clearly labeled gluten-free.

Recipe: Gluten-Free Spinach Ball

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This recipe originally called for seasoned bread crumbs and it was through many trial and error experiments that I finally figured out how to make them deliciously gluten-free. I tried about every cracker on the market before deciding that Ener-G Onion Crackers work superbly in this recipe. If you use another cracker, these might not come out right. The plain Ener-G crackers don’t work as well as the crunchier Onion Crackers, though they run a close second to the onion flavored version. Gluten-free breadcrumbs – ready-made or home made don’t work well in this recipe either. At least at our house, none of those options made an excellent product in terms of both taste and texture.

Because the only store that carried the Onion Crackers here stopped, I have to order them from Amazon.com but with free shipping, it’s no bother at all. I serve the crackers (only the onion version) to gluten eaters often and they always comment about how great the crackers are. The only negative thing about them is that when you want to use them with spreads or cheese, they are too large. They really require breaking up or cutting into smaller pieces. I have found using a butter knife to cut the crackers into four parts works fairly well. It at least works better than randomly breaking them up with your hands.

I took these spinach balls to a Super Bowl party last year, where the guests raved about them, as always. One person there suggested I add bacon to them. The next batch I made included turkey bacon and the one after that had regular bacon in them. Bacon might not be good for us but it does make everything better! These days I rarely make these delicious spinach balls without bacon of some kind, but they are perfectly delicious without meat. We ate them that way for many years. Someone told me that this recipe can not be converted well to be dairy free due to the cheese and butter needed. Substitutions don’t seem to work well here.

Gluten-free Spinach Ball Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 packages of frozen chopped spinach
  • 1 stick of butter, softened
  • 3/4  cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 small onion – finely chopped
  • 2 cups Ener-G Onion Cracker crumbs (add ½ tsp. of Italian blend spices – we use Alchemy Spice brand)
  • 1/2 tsp. of salt and pepper (use less if these are in your spice blend)
  • 4 eggs
  • *optional 1/2 cup of minced cooked bacon or turkey bacon

Instructions:

  • Thaw and drain spinach.
  • Mix all ingredients well and place mixture in freezer for 30 minutes.
  • Remove mixture from freezer and spray hands with non-stick cooking spray.
  • Form tablespoon sized balls from chilled mixture.
  • Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. *Can be frozen and baked later as needed.
  • When baking from frozen, remove from freezer approximately 10 minutes before baking.

These are best when served warm. When baking them at someone else’s house, I line the baking sheet with parchment paper for easy clean up. This trick also keeps the spinach balls from browning too much if an oven is not calibrated correctly. This recipe makes approximately 72 spinach balls and can easily be halved. Because these are such a wonderful appetizer any time of the year, I always make a big batch and freeze 8 or so in baggies to pull out as needed. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Jamie for the bacon idea!

Recipe: Easy Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

Last Updated on by the Celiac-Disease.com Staff 4 Comments

I am not a great cook, or baker, and certainly not that adventurous in the kitchen, as my blog readers know! But when I find a good recipe, an easy recipe, I will use it over and over again, and share it with everyone that will listen! These peanut butter cookies are so easy it is crazy, and they are so delicious! I make them for the Annual Boulder County Celiacs cookie exchange because we bring several dozen cookies each, and these are nice and easy to make.

The ingredients are very easy to remember, so much so that they are dubbed “cuppa cuppa egg” by many people. You need:

  • 1 Cup of Peanut butter
  • 1 Cup of Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • (1 Hershey Kiss per cookie)

I usually make these in big batches. Three cups of peanut butter, three cups of sugar, and three eggs, makes enough batter for about 4 dozen cookies (2 cookies sheets of 24 cookies).

They don’t run when you bake them, so you can place the cookies pretty close to each other and get a lot of them on one cookie sheet. You have to get your hands dirty here, but luckily when you mix the ingredients well (using just a spoon is fine) it won’t stick to your hands too badly. Roll the dough in to balls about 1 inch in diameter or the size of a small ping-pong ball, and place them on the lightly greased cookie sheet (I use spray Pam). If you have a Silpat that would would great, and if you don’t know what that is check it out! I only have one, and I make two cookie sheets at a time, so I don’t use it for these cookies.

Next place a thumb print in to the top of the cookie, which is where the Hershey’s Kiss will later go. Since the cookies don’t spread out as they bake, be aware of the shape the outside of the dough makes as you make the thumbprint. If the dough cracks, then the cookie will be cracked, and will be more likely to fall apart when it cools. It is best to make these slightly smaller, and make the thumbprint more shallow, so as not to crack the dough and cause the cookie to later fall apart.  Bake cookies for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, pull them out, top each cookie with a Hershey’s Kiss, and put back in the oven for another 5 minutes (this will not melt the Hershey’s Kiss, but will set them to the cookie). Allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes for trying to move them to cooling rack. If you want to try something different, top the cookies with a pecan, some other candy, or wait for the cookies to cool and with jelly!

I have no idea who came up with this recipe first, so I don’t know who to credit with the information. I know I have heard this recipe from coworkers and friends, people who aren’t gluten-free and just like how easy it is. I have seen a lot of versions of this cookie, gluten-free versions, that call for gluten-free flour and other stuff. Why do all of that extra work? These are easy and taste great! They are super sweet and rich, so you can’t eat too many! Enjoy!