Chicken Parmesan Gluten Free

I have been making this chicken for years. It is my Dad's favorite food I make. He calls it "thin crispy chicken" Revamping it for my daughter not allergic was so easy with the gluten free better batter seasoned flour. You can use this same coating for veggies too. I always make my alfredo sauce with it and serve over pasta. But tonight I am serving it over Gnocchi. Yum.

I used:
2 cups better batter seasoned flour
2 cups parmesan cheese
1 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp poultry seasoning
5 eggs
2 lbs chicken
Canola oil for frying

For Alfredo:
1 stick butter
1 tsp minced garlic
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 TB Better Batter Gluten-free flour
1 cup parmesan cheese

Start off by cutting chicken to portion size and pounding it as thin as you can get it without it breaking.

 Set up your assembly line. Flour, Beaten Eggs and parmesan mixture (parmesan, italian seasoning, poultry seasoning).

Dip the chicken in the better batter seasoned flour and dredge thoroughly.

Dip in egg and then in the parmesan, italian seasoning, poultry seasoning mixture.

I am loving this better batter seasoned flour!

  Prior to frying your chicken it should be thoroughly dredged in all 3 flour, eggs, parmesan.

Heat oil to 375 and fry chicken on each side until browned.

In the meantime melt the butter. Add garlic, Then add flour to make a roux. Add cream. Bring to a boil and then add parmesan stirring constantly. Lower heat...sauce is ready!

Dinner is served!

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Gluten-Free Empanadas

This is not a low calorie meal. But it is just as good, if not better than my Empanadas I have been making for years. But guess what? They are Gluten-Free Empanadas! Each day I seek to make Taylor's favorite recipes from before the diagnosis. Oh the days when I didn't realize I was killing her on accident. The girl lived on bread, noodles... all things deadly. Sometimes I can't help but laugh. Ignorance is bliss until you have the knowledge. So I am making things right. The fruits of my labor are paying off.
Happy daughter = Happy Mommy.
Thanks again to the wonderful better batter gluten free products. I have another order on the way right now. They converted me. My once 20 tiny plastic bags of numerous flours and gums is now replaced with 6 cute nice boxes. Look for their product in a whole foods near you, or ask for it in your grocery. You can also buy direct from them.

Any way, On to the Empanadas. I doubled the recipe to Serve 8 because it is never just the 4 of us. Plus everyone here loves leftovers. These are scrumptious! Enjoy!

Filling:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1.5 sweet onion, minced
1 red pepper, minced
1 tomatoe chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 lbs chicken
1 can rinsed black beans
1 minced Jalepeno
6 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup cottage cheese, or farmer's cheese, or cream cheese,or ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (about 6 ounces)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the empanada dough:

4  cups Better Batter all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoon sugar
8 tablespoons crisco
8 tablespoons butter (keep cold)
2 egg yolk
1 cup ice water
2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar


To finish:
oil for frying

When working with gluten free dough, it is important to fix the filling FIRST prior to preparing dough. It takes some getting used to, because all the regular flour recipes say to chill for an hour. Not this with gluten-free flours. So start with the filling first.

For the filling:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Add the olive oil to a skillet over low heat. Add the onions, stirring occasionally, for as long as possible, until the mixture is fragrant and translucent. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook for 2 minuted then add the black beans and tomato stirring until combined.

Pour veggies in a large bowl while cooking chicken in the pan of juices.
Add 2 more TB olive oil to pan. Add the chicken, season, brown on both sides Seasoning with salt and pepper, do not cook all the way through. Just brown lightly on each side..

Put chicken in baking pan and bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Shred the chicken using 2 forks. Mix shredded chicken in bowl with cooked veggies/beans.

 Add the cilantro, . Set aside letting cool while preparing empanada dough.
For the empanada dough:

Combine the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a Kitchenaid equipped with the paddle attachment. Cut the lard and butter into chunks and scatter them over the flour mixture. Mix on low to medium speed until the butter and lard are fully incorporated and the mixture looks like coarse meal.

Add the egg yolk, water, and rice wine vinegar and keep mixing until the dough forms. immediately roll out the dough to 1/8 inch thickness(you can do by hand or use a pasta attachment on the kitchenaid)

 and cut out as many as possible 3 1/2 inch circles.

This takes time, but be patient, it is worth it!

To finish:

Fill the dough rounds with about 1 tablespoon of the filling.

 Brush some water around the edges and seal it to make half-moons.

Bake at 375′F until golden 20- 25 minutes. If you want an extra treat, you can fry them. But that is really really fattening. So I am sticking with baking. They are so good! Enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Chocolate Cupcakes - Gluten-Free

Today is my friends son's 19th birthday. I have been feeling a little under the weather with this sore throat that has been going around. Leave it to me to catch everything. Have you ever had one of those days where all you want to do is cook, but your body says all you have to do is stay in bed? But I will not let this day go by without cooking something sweet for Justin. I am happy that I have the gluten free chocolate cake baking mix. It is going to make my life easier today.

When I was in elementary school I remember my sister wanting chocolate chip cake. She bought a cake mix, but messed it up somehow... for the better. We used to call it accident cake. She was supposed to put the chocolate chips on top of the cake, but instead stirred them into the batter at the last minute. The cake ended up being so much better! I am using that theory today while cooking these cupcakes for Justin. This is a simple recipe you can use with any cake mix when you are crunched for time and don't have time to make the cake from scratch. I am scrubbing in, so that no germs are given to anyone, even though I think the contagious part is over with.

Ingredients:
1 box better batter chocolate cake mix
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 tub chocolate frosting or your own chocolate buttercream.


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line the muffin tins with cupcake liners.
Blend cake mix, water, oil and eggs in a large bowl at low speed until moistened and then raise to high speed for 2 minutes.

Fold in 1.5 cups semisweet chocolate chips. (save the other 1/2 cup for topping)

Pour batter into pans and bake immediately.

Bake for 15-20 minutes

Cool completely before frosting. Usually I mix up my own butter cream but since I am on the mend I am going back to using a pre-made frosting tub.
Top each cupcake with frosting and remaining chocolate chips.

The texture of this cupcake is the same if not better than the best betty crocker cake mix. It is definately going to be a staple in my kitchen from now on.

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Potato Skins - The perfect card game appetizer

I went out with the ladies last night. We were celebrating my birthday and my friend Janet's birthday. I was out of town for my birthday, so that's why we did it late. Look what one of my friends got me!

I just love the little chef bear with my name on it! They gave me lots of nice things and they shouldn't have! I just wanted to share the chef bear with you because you all know my days are filled with cooking. =)

Anyhow...It is card game Friday for us. I always look forward to it! We all bring a dish or two and play cards, listen to music, laugh... just good times. Everything we bring is Tapas style, So decided to go with potato skins.
Pierce 4 large potatoes with a fork.
Bake at 350 degrees until tender, about 1 hour.

Let cool, then cut in half lengthwise and scoop out3/4 of the flesh (I save the flesh for another dish, gonna make Gnocchi), leaving the shell.

 Brush both sides with melted butter and season with salt and pepper.

 Bake, skin-side up, at 450 degrees until crisp, about 15 minutes.

Flip the baked shells over before topping. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese add your favorite toppings

and bake an extra 5 minutes. I top mine with cheese and baco's. Then serve my garlic aoli in the middle for people to dip. I have posted the recipe for the Aioli before, but here it is:

Garlic Aioli Dip

1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup yogurt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 head of garlic roasted ( I have a garlic roaster that is easy peasy)
pinch of salt

First roast your garlic. The reason I love my garlic roaster is because it is a little olive oil, salt and Garlic. then push a button and 15 minutes later look what you get:

Combine all of the ingredients into the blender
Blend until smooth.
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Red Velvet Cake Balls

I like to switch things up. Try new things. In the regular Gluten world, I am always seeing people making Cake pops, Cake balls etc... But I never make them because I know it isn't fair to Taylor. Well, things have changed for me thanks to better batter. We have cards tonight at my friends house. We all bring food. So I attempted these... Guess what?!?! I love better batter!

To make these you first make the red velvet cake, But I made a small version because I did not want to end up with 36 cake pops.
Here is what I did:

1/4 cup room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 1 oz. bottle red food coloring
1 cup Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tbsp. white vinegar

I like to gather my ingredients prior to starting:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a small 11x 7cake pan.
Beat butter and sugar in a bowl on high for 3 minutes.

Next add eggs and vanilla and whip until incorporated.

Next add 1 cup better batter flour and whip until incorporated.
In a seperate bowl stir together buttermilk, food coloring and vinegar.

In another bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa and salt.
Turn mixer speed to low. Alternate between the buttermilk and flour mixture, about a third at a time, until just combined.
Pour into greased pan:

Bake 30-35 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Let cake cook completely. While cooling make the frosting:

1 stick butter
1/2 (4oz) package of cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Whip all together to make cream cheese frosting.
Break up cake into large chucks,

place in food processor and process until fine crumbs.

Place cake crumbs in a large bowl. . Add cream cheese frosting to cake crumbs and mix together. Roll cake into quarter size balls and place on a baking sheet.

Refrigerate cake balls for several hours or place in freezer to speed up the cooling process. You want them very cold for easier handling before dipping in white chocolate.

Melt white chocolate over a double broiler or in microwave at 50% power level stirring frequently until smooth. Using a spoon and fork, gently roll each ball in the melted chocolate to cover, spooning more chocolate over the ball as needed. Place ball on baking sheet or parchment paper until chocolate has hardened.

For extra affect, you can color a little bit of the white frosting red and drizzle on top. Melt white chocolate over a water bath or in microwave. Load into a small zip lock bag, cut off the corner tip of zip lock bag making a tiny hole. Drizzle over covered balls and let set.  You can also add lollipop sticks to make cake pops.

Gluten-Free Roasted Chicken Pot Pie

I wanted to try out better batter's gluten-free biscuit mix, but I wanted to make something besides plain ole biscuits. Lucky for me the grocery had whole chickens on sale this week for $0.67 a pound. Why not roast a chicken and then make a pot pie with the biscuit mix and all the fresh veggies I have. What I love about pot pie is that you can put whatever veggies you like inside. My husband loves Mushrooms. Us not so much. So I can put mushrooms in his and potatoes, carrots and onions in ours.
First I had to roast the chicken. Roasing a whole chicken is very cost effective, especially when the chicken is on sale. When I roast it, I usually get 2 full meals from it. Tonight I will do pot pies, Tomorrow I will make tetrazzini with the rest of the leftovers. I always steer back to the basic way to roast chicken adapted from an ancient Julia Childs recipe. But you can make pot pie with any leftover chicken. Here is how I roast mine, I have changed so much that you can't call it Julia's anymore, but she was my inspiration:

Ingredients

1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound) chicken
1 small yellow onion, quartered
1 lemon, thinly sliced
1/2 cup celery leaves
1/4 cup cold butter cubed
butter (for rubbing outside of chicken)
Salt and black pepper
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 cups chicken broth

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Wash the chicken and dry thoroughly. Drying the chicken is really the key to getting perfect browning. Season the cavity with salt and black pepper. Pull up the skin of the chicken and slide the onion and lemon underneath. I love this technique because it holds the flavor against the bird while it roasts. stuff with cold cubes of butter and celery leaves. Rub the chicken lightly with softened butter and season all over with salt and pepper. Tie the drumsticks ends together and set the chicken, breast side up, in an  oiled roasting pan in the oven.

Roast for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees, baste the chicken, and roast for 15 minutes. Add the chopped onion and carrot to the pan, basting them and the chicken.

Continue roasting the chicken for another 45 minutes until the juices run clear.

Turn the oven up to 375 degrees for baking pies.

Remove the chicken and spoon the fat out of the roasting pan and discard. Into the pan, stir in the thyme and the 2 cups of chicken broth and, stirring constantly, boil for several minutes on the stovetop to concentrate the flavor. Correct the seasoning and strain the sauce... you will be using this sauce inside the pot pies, see below as "warm sauce".

Carve the chicken and pull apart with 2 forks to create shredded chicken. This chicken will be good to eat for 3 days if stored in an airtight container.

In a large saucepan add:
1stick butter
2 cups medium-diced potatoes.
Brown on one side and turn over, then add:


2 cups yellow onions, chopped (2 onions) Cook for 5 minutes on medium high heat. Then add:
2 cups medium-diced carrots, for 2 minutes, Then add:
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 cup better batter gluten free all-purpose flour

1/4 cup heavy cream
warm sauce from the roasted chicken
Add 4 cups shredded roasted chicken

Divide the filling equally among 4 ovenproof bowls.

For the dough I used better batter pancake and bisuit mix. I really feel like crying right now. I am one that makes everything from scratch. I sift my own flour, do all the mixing... it takes hours. The ingredients of this batter is all natural, it is what I would do, minus the hours of doing it, and I hate to admit it, but it is even better than the flour I hand sift. For the first time since Taylors diagnosis I have hope for her! Any of you that are gluten intollerant or have Celiac ... I strongly urge you to try their mixes and flours. You can buy them here: http://www.betterbatter.org/
Any way... To make the dough I used
2 1/4 cups of the gluten-free biscuit mix
1 cup buttermilk
egg wash( 1 egg whipped to brush on top of dough)
Combine mix and buttermilk to make a soft sitcky dough.

Divide the dough into quarters and roll each piece into an 8-inch circle ( I find this easiest by using 2 pieces of saran wrap. Place one piece of saran wrap and then dough and then the other piece of saran wrap... roll into the circle).

Brush the outside edges of each bowl with the egg wash, then place the dough on top. Trim the circle to 1/2-inch larger than the top of the bowl. Crimp the dough to fold over the side, pressing it to make it stick. Brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top. Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.
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