Chicken recipes

As many of my friends know, my husband's Celiac creates challenges in cooking. Baking a gluten-free loaf of bread nearly every week is only one of those challenges. Recently, I ordered a second cookbook/diet book written by George Stella of Food Network fame. Stella and his wife and two teenage sons lost 560 pounds total in about two years by tweaking the Atkins program and designing wonderful recipes using soy flour or almond flour instead of wheat.

Now, I'm trying to lose weight on this plan, and am able to fix meals for Dick without using wheat in any form. One recent discovery from Stella's book was his "Southern Fried Chicken" which I changed a bit, coming up with a type of chicken nugget instead of using a whole chicken, frying it, then oven-baking it. (Too much work!).

Wheat-free Chicken Nuggets

One package boneless, skinless chicken breasts, rinsed and cut into nugget size

1.5 cups soy flour

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp poultry seasoning

Salt & Pepper

2 large eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream (or water if desired)

Enough vegetable oil to reach about an inch in a large, heavy fry pan

While oil is heating up, whisk eggs and cream in a pie plate or similar dish. Pour soy flour into another pie plate, adding garlic powder, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces first into soy flour, then into egg wash, then back into soy flour. (Yes,your fingers get gooey, but it is worth it!) Fry the chicken pieces, keeping a close eye on them as soy flour browns up very quickly. Oil should not be above 350 degrees F.

Thanks so much to George Stella for this recipe. When my husband was finally able to have fried chicken after four years without, he was SO happy. This recipe is modified from the first book, George Stella's Livin' Low Carb. His second cookbook relies more on almond flour. Both books contain wonderful recipes for muffins. His website is: http://www.stellastyle.com/

Another recipe, my own:

Easy Chicken Soup

2 tbs EVOO

Handful of tiny carrots

2-3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped

1/2 a sweet onion, sliced

1 package chicken breast strips, cut up

Salt and pepper

1.5 boxes low-sodium chicken broth

Egg noodles if desired, two handfuls

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot, then saute' carrots, celery and onion until carrots become soft and sweet. Push the veggies to the sides and brown the chicken bits, adding salt and pepper to taste. Pour on the chicken broth, adding more broth or water if necessary. Bring to a boil, and add the egg noodles (I use gluten-free, which take about 9 minutes to cook). When noodles are done, soup is ready. Enjoy!

Serve with toasted cheese sandwiches for a nice winter's meal.