Rice Flour Fried Chicken by Laura D. Field

Well, tonight's dinner was another experiment while making another gluten free dinner my husband would enjoy.  I originally was going to make a dish with spaghetti squash, but I got caught up working on the new kitchen curtains I am making that I lost track of time...oops :-)  But, make no mistake, there is no time for oops when your goal is to share with your husband that eating gluten and milk free isn't all that "tasteless".  Now with just the two of us at home, it makes my life much easier when I only have to plan one meal, versus trying to incorporate his and her likes.  So far, the mission has been successful.

This evening, since I had already defrosted the chicken to go along with the spaghetti squash, I decided to try something new with the chicken.  Again, creating a new recipe from what I thought might taste good, yet also be less boring than coating the chicken with BBQ sauce or Italian dressing and baking, I decided to make a rice flour coating to cover the chicken so that I could fry in the pan.  Don't worry, the frying aspect is still healthy as I used coconut oil, and wanted to try something other than olive oil.  So, here's my experiment:

Rice Flour Fried Chicken
2 serving size pieces of skinless chicken, best if organically raised (tender and tasty)
1/4 c of Rice Flour
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbls Italian seasoning
2 tsp Granulated Garlic (I would also recommend ground garlic, but I was lazy this evening)
2 tsp Chia seeds
2 Tbls coconut oil

1.  Combine rice flour, paprika, black pepper, Italian seasoning and granulated garlic in bowl

2.  Wash chicken, cut small slits into chicken so that it cooks through, then dip in flour mixture.

3.  Melt Coconut oil in pan until completely melted.

4.  Once oil is melted, place the coated chicken into the hot oil and top with 1/2 the chia seeds.

5.  Turn when the first side is brown from cooking in the oil.  Once turned, sprinkle the remaining chia seeds on the second side while cooking.

6.  Once the second side is browned, turn to the other side to cook a little more, yet cutting slightly in the  middle to check to be sure the chicken is being cooked through.

7.  Turn one last time, so that both sides are evening cooked.

8.  Remove from pan and place on dish with a side of rice and a vegetable.

The rice I added Earth Balance butter substitute for flavoring.  Since I had plenty of greens at lunch, I had thinly sliced tomatoes from the garden as my vegetable.  David chose to have peas as his vegetable.  Mind you, I'm not a connoisseur of peas, so it has never been a first option for a vegetable, but it is David's favorite.  So, that is the area in which some of our meals we will have different vegetables on our plates.  But, knowing that green vegetables are a must in everyone's diet, I do fill up on plenty of spinach, lettuce and other green vegetables throughout the week.  I don't think my body missed that little vegetable on my plate this evening.

Enjoy!!