Roxxy's Gluten-Free Oven Fried Chicken

My grandmother has Celiac, and really enjoyed this when I made it for her. Since my mother can't have garlic, I left the garlic out this time. Since a lot of my favorite ingredients, like bacon salt, and soy-sauce are not gluten free, I added in ingredients like five spice powder to give the chicken really interesting flavors and fragrance. The ginger and mustard give the dish a nice kick. I'd add some chili powder and/or Cayenne pepper to this, but I couldn't this time because mom also can't have hot pepper.

4 Pounds of boneless, skinless chicken

Brine:
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
¼ cup sea salt
4 bags of black or Oolong tea (not green! Green gets too bitter!)
2 tablespoons brown mustard

Breading:
2 packages of plain rice crackers, blended/crushed into “bread crumbs”
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons dried parsley
2 tablespoons “Italian seasoning”
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder.

Chicken Coating:
1/2 cup of brown mustard
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
¼ cup Bolthouse Farms honey mustard dressing (it is a creamy, yogurt based dressing)


Place the chicken in a large bowl. Add the salt, mustard and vinegar. Add cold water to cover and float the tea bags in the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours. Remove the chicken from the brine. Rinse lightly and pat dry.

In a 1-gallon ziplock bag, combine the ingredients for the chicken coating. Seal the bag, and shmush the wet ingredients around to mix. If it looks like the chicken isn't getting as thick a coating as you'd like, you can add an extra 1/4 cup of mustard or the mustard dressing to the mix. Add the chicken to the bag, and smush it all around again to evenly coat the chicken. I found that this is a really easy way to do it, and to get the coating nice and even on all the pieces.

Preheat oven to 375°. Mix the dry ingredients together for the breading and dredge the chicken into the breading, taking care to cover the chicken completely. Place the chicken on a cookie sheet that has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. The chicken will take about 30 minutes in the oven at 375°.

ENJOY!

Tea Eggs

I love tea eggs. I can't quite explain it, but they are addictive. The general flavor of eggs pairs perfectly with the salt of the soy sauce, and the aromatics of the spices and tea. I like to eat mine with a dab of hot sauce.

A pretty simple recipe and nice photos can be found at:
http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2009/01/17/chinese-tea-eggs-recipe#comment-75844



My personal recipe is similar:
12 eggs
water to cover
6 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons teriyaki or dumpling sauce
4 bags of black and/or oolong tea - green tea gets too bitter
2 tablespoons chinese 5-spice

Boil the eggs until they are barely hard boiled. At this point, remove them from the water (don't throw the water away) and run them under some cold water. The eggs will be HOT and they will stay hot for a while. Carefully crack the shells with the back of a spoon. The more cracks and the more pieces of shell missing, the darker the egg will be.

Return the eggs to the water and add the flavorings. Bring this mixture to a boil. Let the pot boil for half an hour, then turn the heat down to low. You can then continue to let the eggs stew in the hot water for a few hours (2 or 3), or you can remove from the heat altogether and place the eggs (in the liquid) in the refrigerator overnight. Peel and eat when the mood strikes.