Chicken in cashew sauce over noodle

Instead of using a peanut sauce which is more traditional I had to modify these recipes due to my wife's allergies to peanuts.   So I use Cashew as an alternative and thankfully she's not allergic.   Also I had leftover roasted chicken that needed to be used up.  Note that this recipe can be made with any leftover white meat or bird.

Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken breast (roughly 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons cashew butter
• 1 cup cashew milk
• My Sazon Blend http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/sazon-blend-i-like.html)
• Korean Chili threads
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil

Instructions:

• Warm up the coconut oil until the oil is hot enough to 'fry' the chicken when added.  Add the chicken and liberally sprinkle with the sazon
• Start browning the chicken.
• Mix the cashew butter and milk to create a viscous liquid
• Add in the chili threads and the cashew milk and butter mix
• Cook at a low simmer for roughly 10 minutes until the liquid thickens.
• Serve over Kelp noodles (my favorite noodles) and Enjoy.

Simple chicken noodle soup

Had a carcass leftover from a rooster I made this past weekend, so that and some chicken thighs from a local farmer are the basis for this soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 carcass bones
• 4 chicken drumsticks
• Handful of 4 corner peppercorns
• 1 large carrot
• 3 stalks celery
• Celery salt to taste
• 1 serving gluten free noodles of choice

Instructions:

• Combine all ingredients in all ingredients except noodles and low boil 2 hours
• Remove meat, peppercorns, carrots, celery from stock and bring to roiling boil
• Verify taste of stock and adjust as needed with salt or other herbs
• Add noodles cook for desired time to bring to aldente.  
• While noodles are cooking strip meat from bones and mince and when noodles cooked add meat back in.
• Serve and enjoy

Slow Cooker Stewing Hen or Rooster

I personally prefer the flavor to the Stewing Hens or Roosters.  For many people this is a tougher cut of meat but if you know what you are doing with this bird the flavor is phenomenal.  Also these birds are much harder to find in an average grocery store and may require you to look at local farmers markets and get to know the farmers that sell eggs and chickens.   A stewing Hen is a hen that essentially has been around laying eggs for several years and has reached the end of the laying cycle.

Typically these birds are much leaner as well and their body will not be as rounded making a stew much better way to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 1 Rooster or Stewing Hen (I had a 4lb bird for this recipe)
• 1 cup water
• Sazon (http://drummingupabettermeal.blogspot.com/2015/08/sazon-blend-i-like.html)

Instructions:

• Place 1-2 cups water in slow cooker.
• Remove the chickens legs at the body joint to get a leg+thigh combo, and then remove the wings again at the body joint.
• Sprinkle well with Sazon and place these pieces outer skin down in the slow cooker.
• If you were lucky enough to get the neck with your bird sprinkle well with sazon and add to bottom of slow cooker with the legs and wings.
• Take the remainder of the bird, sprinkle well with sazon inside and out and place on top of the above ingredients.
• Cook at low on the slow cooker for 6 hours.   By hour 4/5 depending on your slow cooker the meat will start falling off the bone, I prefer mine just a little more rendered. 
• Serve and Enjoy
• This should feed 5 portions of meat.  You will need sides.
• Save the liquid as a base to make a chicken broth soup later, This should be very concentrated chicken broth capable of serving a soup for 5.

Alternate ingredients:

• Typically I love to add Celery, Carrots, and Onions to the broth.  I did not have any in the house when I made this one so went without.

Recommended Sides:

• Rice if you are not grain free.  If you make rice try and get a couple tablespoons of the chicken broth per cup water for a flavored rice.
• Potatoes or sweet potatoes.  I typically prefer a quick stove fry, but mashed and oven roasted work as well
• Any Vegetable.  I typically stick with an oldie but goody like peas and carrots, but there is no limit here. 

Peruvian flavored Chicken Thighs with brussel sprouts

Originally posted by me in MyWholeFoodsLife Facebook group on February 6, 2015

Rocoto, coriander and basil paste encrusted chicken thighs with maple syrup and telichery black pepper roasted Brussel sprouts.
Aji rocoto, basil paste and coriander paste are all available at most Latin food stores.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 tablespoon each basil and coriander paste
• 2 tablespoons aji rocoto
• 3 tablespoons coconut milk
• Whole chicken thighs with skin and bones
• Bag of Brussel sprouts
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• Tellicherry black pepper salt (see salt page)

Instructions:

• Mix the basil and coriander paste, aji rocoto paste, and coconut milk together
• Marinate the chicken thighs in the resulting paste for an hour.
• Cook thighs in oven for 1 hour at 400.
• While chicken cooking:
• Clean Brussel sprouts and half them.
• With roughly 15 minutes left on the chicken:
• Heat up 1 tablespoon coconut oil in pan and drop in Brussel sprouts.
• Sprinkle lightly with tellicherry black pepper salt to taste
• Cook 5 minutes
• add in two tablespoons pure maple syrup
• cook on high for 2 minutes.  Continuously stirring.
• The Brussel sprouts should soak the syrup up completely. 

Lettuce wrapped chicken with quick BBQ Rub

Originally posted by me in MyWholeFoodsLife Facebook group on Feb 26, 2015

 

If you have 5 minutes and a cheap coffee/spice grinder make your own BBQ Rub. I like making new blends all the time so as not to get bored with the flavors.

 

 Ingredients for BBQ Rub: 

• Grains of paradise
• Ancho
• Gaujillo
• Brown mustard
• Urfa
• Aji Amarillo
• Aleppo
• Honey powder
• Himalyan sea Salt
• For spicier mix add a touch of ghost or habanero to mix.

Ingredients for Meal:

• 5 diced small boneless/skinless chicken thighs
• Lettuce to be used as lettuce cups/wraps
• BBQ Rub for the chicken

Instructions:

• Using a Spice/Coffee Grinder mix up the seeds and berry's and other whole dried spices for 30 seconds or until powder
• Add powdered spices and pulse a couple times to mix thoroughly
• Coat the diced chicken with the rub.   Any leftover rub bottle for a future meal.
• Put a tablespoon of coconut oil and bring to heat
• Drop in the chicken into the oil should be sizzling and cook on high continuously moving the chicken around ensuring the chicken is browned on all sides.  This should be roughly 5 minutes at high heat.
• Deglaze pan for one minute with a splash of lime juice.
• Put in a bowl to add to wraps as a finger food as you go.

Recommended sides to cool down the spice:

• Homemade Gaucomole.
• Homemade Mayo

Salad with Mustard crusted chicken thighs

Originally posted by me in MyWholeFoodsLife Facebook group on March 13, 2015

 

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless/skinless thighs diced roughly
• 1 green/Granny Smith apple
• 1/2 small/medium head lettuce
• 3 scallions/winter onions
• 1 teaspoon each yellow and hot oriental mustard seeds and birds of paradise seeds
• 4-5 pieces mace (Penzeys)
• 1 teaspoon each organic peruvian ginger and yellow curry

Instructions:

• With spice grinder mix the seeds and mace for 20 seconds or until powdered.
• Mix with ginger and curry then coat the diced chicken thighs
• Heat up metal pan with tablespoon or so coconut oil
• Once hot toss in the chicken and brown almost until chicharon (until the mustard based coating goes crispy but not blackened).
• Stir occasional to fry all sides
• While chicken cooking:
• Dice up the onions, apples, and lettuce and mix with a light coating of red wine vinegar and Avocado oil.
• Once chicken crispy remove from heat and cool then mix into salad and salt to taste and serve
• You can add a grated cheese for additional flavor. I use an aged sheep's milk cheese I like.

Simple oriental chicken and bok Choy soup

Originally posted by me in MyWholeFoodsLife Facebook group on March 31, 2015

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs deboned and de-skinned. Chop roughly
• Roughly 2 quarts stock (made from bones and skin of the thighs or supplemented from a stock made from a prior carcass.)
• Szechuan salt (see salt blends post)
• powdered Ginger (or use fresh)
• 2-3 bokchoy heads sliced lengthwise to thickness preferred. 

Creating the Stock:

• Place the bones and skin from the chicken thighs in roughly 3 cups water.
• You can add a fresh piece of ginger for this stock to provide that ginger flavor.  If you do skip adding powdered ginger later
• Low boil roughly an hour
• Filter liquid.

Instructions:

• Using a tablespoon coconut oil in a very hot pot brown up the chicken.
• Add the stock to de glaze the pot and the spices and bring back up to slow boil 5-10 minutes ensuring that if the chicken wasn't cook in the sear that it will be now.
• Add the bok Choy for 5-10 minutes at summer, just long enough to get some tenderness but not until they are mush.
• Serve with soy sauce to your taste. I use a splash and I use either GF tamari or soy.

Egg Drop soup

Originally posted by me in GlutenFreeRecipes Facebook group on September 23, 2014

Had a want for egg drop soup and not trusting the local restaurants on GlutenFree preparations decide to make a simple home version.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chicken broth (made from bones and carcass of chicken dinners)
• 4 chicken thighs skin and bones ...
• 4-6 cups water (enough to cover)
• 1 red onion
• 4 eggs
• GF soy sauce
• Toasted sesame oil
• 3 small Bok Choy

Instructions:

• Cut up the red onion to chunks and place in pot with the bones and skins from the chicken thighs and enough water to cover. Roiling boil for 1 hour.
• Filter out the thighs and onions leaving the broth and if needed add the extra broth from a previous chicken broth and bring back to boil for 10 min to reduce a little.
• While waiting for the broth to boil:
• Separate the yolks and whites of 4 eggs
• Mince the meat of the chicken.
• Add the add sesame oil, Bok Choy and minced chicken meat to the broth and reduce heat to low boil for 5 minutes.
• Add in the egg whites stirring softly 3 min.
• Add in yolks and stir softly another 2.
• Add soy sauce to taste and enjoy.

Ghost curry chicken thighs with roasted garlic and turmeric naan:

Originally posted by me in GlutenFreeFoodandRecipes Facebook group on July 26, 2014

 

 

I posted my basic paleo style naan recipe. So take that basic almond, tapioca starch and coconut recipe and add powdered roasted garlic and turmeric spices mix well. 

Ingredients:

• 1 boneless/skinless chicken thigh
• 2 small shallots
• Ghost curry spice mix
• Turmeric
• Charnushka
• 2 teaspoons of cashew meal
• Roughly 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil

 
Instructions:

• Chop chicken thigh meat in small cubes and mix with curry, turmeric and charnushka until the cubes are coated and dry
• Chop the shallots loosely and toss into a pan with coconut oil at med to med high for roughly 2 minutes until they start getting soft.
• Add in coated chicken cook roughly 5 min.
• Add coconut milk and cook another 2-3 minutes.
• Add the cashew meal and cook until the sauce gets thickened.

Serve in bowl and eat with pieces of naan.
Could add a cup of rice to turn into a two person meal. If for two double the chicken and naan.

Dirty rice

Originally posted by me in GlutenFreeFoodandRecipes Facebook group on July 24, 2014

Ingredients:

• 3 leeks diced
• 1small fennel diced
• 1 leftover cooked chicken breast diced
• Ghost curry and salt to taste
• Roughly 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1 cup leftover rice
• 1/2 cup frozen corn

instructions:

• Place leeks and fennel in pan with 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• Season with ghost curry and salt
• Cook until leeks and fennel start getting translucent. Roughly 5 minutes.
• Add in diced chicken, rice and corn.
• Cook 1 additional minute.
• Add the coconut milk and cook until it's all absorbed

Substitutions:

• Make vegetarian by removing any meat products
• Any left over meat, and any veggie that you liked cooked can be subbed in to add variety to this simple meal.