Has your family gone gluten free because your child was diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance? Going gluten free is hard enough as an adult but for a child it can seem almost devastating.
No more macaroni and cheese, or Dairy Queen. What about chicken nuggets? While it’s true that you won’t be able to run through a MacDonalds drive thru and grab some chicken nuggets for the kids, I have a recipe for you today that creates some pretty good ones. On top of that they are made in the oven so they’re healthy and good enough for non gluten free company as well.
I hope you enjoy this recipe.
Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets
- 2 large whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/2 Cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour*
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 Cups Gluten Free corn flake crumbs**
- 1 Jelly Roll Baking Sheet
- 1 oven-proof Wire Cooling Rack
Place cooling rack inside of the jelly roll baking sheet and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Rinse chicken and pat dry. Cut chicken into bite-sized, about 1 1/2 inch, pieces. Combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a flat pan. In a second pan, beat eggs and water together, and in a third pan place the 2 cups of corn flake crumbs.
Toss the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip them into the egg mixture, (be sure they are well covered in egg), then into the corn flake crumbs. Arrange chicken pieces on the cooling rack baking sheet. Being sure that they don’t touch each other. Bake at 350 degrees, for 30 to 45 minutes until juices run clear and coating is crispy.
The key to these being crispy is baking them on the wire cooling rack. It allows the heat and air to circulate all around the chicken and the juices to drip into the pan instead of the chicken getting soggy in the juices.
This recipe can also be used on a whole broiler/fryer chicken for the whole family.
*Instead of Bob’s Red Mill Flour, you can substitute the generic All Purpose Baking Flour recipe that follows.
**Corn Chex cereal can be used as a more economical substitution for the gluten free corn flake crumbs. Just make them into crumbs in a food processor or blender.
All Purpose Baking Flour
- 1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
- 1/4 Cup tapioca flour/starch
- 1/4 Cup cornstarch or potato starch
Sift well together and store unused portion in an airtight container in the freezer.
You can make as much of this as needed, just keep the proportions the same.
Mary Blackburn has been gluten free since 1988 and is the owner of http://www.easyglutenfreeliving.com. She invites you to visit her site for more gluten free living tips and recipes. While you’re there, take a moment to sign up for The Gluten Free Gazette, her bi-weekly newsletter filled with articles and answers to your questions about gluten, gluten free living and celiac disease.
Thank you for this! My daughter’s diagnosis (celiac disease) threw our food budget for a loop as we refocused on meals that didn’t involve pasta, breadcrumbs, biscuits, crusts, etc. We can’t afford the fancy gluten free products, but a 4 year old (and her family) can’t live on rice and beans forever! Thanks again!
Jen,
Stay tuned, as they used to say,
I will be adding more kid friendly foods on the cheap.
Also, it sounds like your daughter had a medical diagnosis. If that’s the case, keep all your gluten free food receipts. I’ve just found out that you can claim on your income tax the difference between the cost of regular foods and the same gluten free foods. ie: A loaf of whole wheat bread and gluten free brown rice bread. But I have a recipe for a very good brown rice bread, that is nutritous and tastes a whole lot better than that cardboard bread.
Can you share the brown rice bread recipe.
I’m sorry Joel, I just saw your request for the bread recipe. You can find it on my website here: http://easyglutenfreeliving.com/2010/06/gluten-free-sandwich-bread/
Hope you find it helpful.
Mary
I have 2 daughters and my son who cannot have dairy or gluten. It is more expensive for certain to have GF kids in the house. I know oats are controversial but we use a lot of oatmeal. I make oatmeal pancakes, use blended oats in place of flour. We make banana pancakes, chicken pancakes (www.pecanbread.com for some recipes that are GF) chex cereals, corn tortillas, peanut butter, fruit, eggs. Popcorn…I make nut/fruit ice creams and use coconut. I try to be creative and try to create a lot of things I my own. So many of the recipes out there are not things my children would eat. My local grocerystore has an extensive GF list of regular non specialty foods, which has really helped. I call companies and just ask.
Thank you, Thank you for such great recipes!!
I am gluten intolerant and have a large family who is not. It’s hard to make 2 different meals when you’re cooking for a family of nine. Many gluten free recipes are geared toward adults and my kids don’t like them. Chicken nuggets are something we all can enjoy.
I have also spent many hours researching non-specialty foods to see which are gluten free. My doctor keeps reminding me to call companies every few months to make sure that the foods I like continue to remain gluten free.
Thank you so much for this! We have been gluten free since 2004. I can make almost all of your $45 emergency menu using a cup for cup flour blend. Your website has really saved us a lot of money.
For Jen, I found Namaste’s Perfect Flour Blend to be one of the better priced GF flours and it works great. I like it best of about 5 GF flours I have tried. Potatoes can also be a carb substitute. We use corn tortillas for recipes that call for flour ones, taco bake, enchiladas etc. I tried one new thing or recipe a week, like making your own cream of mushroom soup, or enchilada sauce etc. To get started on making GF breads, make cornbread with GF flour and bake it a loaf pan. It’s an easy quick bread to start with, it slices well, and makes great PB sandwiches. I cook for 8 with only one child GF, and have slowly adapted most recipes with only occasionally having to fix something separate.
Nicole,
The recommendation for oats is only 1/2 cup per day for celiacs. An alternative for the oats might be 100% Buckwheat pancakes or waffles. They taste really good and are a great substitute for regular flour pancakes.
We’ve found that corn starch can be substituted for flour when the recipe calls for 1 cup or less. we have good success
i just found that the asian stores have the same rice flour that is in the health food stores but for MUCH cheaper($5.00 at health store.$.88 at asian store) I have one child just put on the gf df diet. and he is three.there are 4 other children and two adults.also at the asian grocery stores are rice noodles for things like spaguetti, stirfry and homemade ramen.most real asian stuff is not made with wheat or dairy so chinese food is still an option.actually so is mexican food most of thier food is corn based(most of the wheat products have been “americanized” so the gives you corn tortillas for all kinds of stuff.my son doesnt have oats or barley or wheat or any dairy.I hope that this helps someone
We’ve recently gone gluten free and I’m amazed at how many foods we can still eat- we make pizza using a potato crust (like large hash-browns, homemade), grind beans to make bean flour, grind nuts to make nut flour, etc. And we may try to grind rice to make rice flour sometime, but we’re keeping my youngest off all grains for now. However, my toddlers are not picky at all and will eat anything, and we have a large amount of tubers here in the Dominican Republic and a cracker type thing called Casabe made out of yuca root. I don’t know if that’s something you can find in the States (I hope so, as we’re moving back there soon)!
That potato pizza crust is such a good idea! There are good gluten-free pizza crust recipes, but sometimes you just want pizza and you don’t have time for mixing up a dough, letting it rise, etc etc. I will definitely have to try that one!