Gluten-Free Crumby Chicken

Gluten-Free Crumbs

Don't ever let bread crumbs come between you and your favorite dishes.

Gluten-free bread crumbs are easy.

You probably have something that will work right now. You don't need to run to a specialty store and hunt around and find the shelf empty of gluten-free bread crumbs. 

All you need is some form of gluten-free bread, crackers or chips.

For instance, I had some Udi's Gluten-Free Hamburger Buns in the freezer. I used these to make Hurricane Hamburgers last year. Not these actual buns. This brand. And don't worry, this is a newer pack of them.

Anyways, I defrosted one bun.

And then I just chopped the bun halves up in our little nut chopper/mini food processor. These made just over one cup of gluten-free bread crumbs.

And now you are ready for this.

Gluten-Free Crumby Chicken

Say it together, "Crumby". Not crumbly. Crumby Chicken. It sounds like "Crummy Chicken".

The second best part of this recipe is being able to say "Crumby Chicken" to the kids and have them cheer and hoot and holler for it. It's funny, because it sounds like it should be really awful and still they cheer for it.

Not laughing, huh? Guess you had to be there. Never mind.

To the ground up, gluten-free bread crumbs above, I added:

1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (or Romano) cheese
1 tsp garlic salt (or ground garlic and salt, to taste)
some fresh ground pepper

and I stirred them together. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to taste, but remember that the added cheese is rather salty, so factor that in.

Now, you are ready to coat. Coat your chicken pieces, that is. No knitting involved, honest.

I had bone-in chicken thighs with the skin on hand. I decided to pull off the skin and discard it. I knew I would be adding plenty of my own fat and flavor, so out with the skin!

I melted about a cup of margarine in a bowl. Then I dipped each piece of chicken, sans skin, in the melted margarine, and then coated each piece with the seasoned and cheesed gluten-free bread crumb mixture.

Make sure you pat those crumby crumbs all over each piece. That is the source of your seasoning and flavor for these chicken pieces.

Remember I said the second best part of this recipe was saying the name? It's right up there. Go check. I'll wait.

Okay, now that you are back, the best part of this recipe is the flavor. We all love it. Don't skimp on those crumby crumbs otherwise you won't be making chicken worthy of its fabulous name.

I heated a skillet with a tablespoon of olive oil. If you have more time than I had, you could bake these in a 350º oven for 30-35 minutes. The skillet was the choice of the evening for these, since time was limited.

Get that pan medium hot, slip those crumby pieces into it, and then turn down the heat to medium-low and partially cover with a lid. Don't completely cover the pan, otherwise the steam will make those crumby crumbs soggy. Not desirable. We want crispy, brown crumby crumbs.

There is absolutely nothing crummy about this Gluten-Free Crumby Chicken!

After 10 or 15 minutes, check and see if the edges are brown and red juices are starting to come out of the pieces. If so, you are ready to flip these babies over.

Careful, now. This is critical.

Be sure you have a thin, stiff spatula. The right tool is essential here. You want to be sure to push down on that spatula as you scrape under all of that brown crumby crumbiness, getting the whole thing off the pan, brown crumbs staying on the chicken. Then lift and flip.

Get all your pieces flipped and continue to cook them, partially covered for about another 10 minutes. Check again when the bottom edges are getting brown.

Again, carefully scrape under the fantastic crumbiness and serve.

The Parmesan and garlic salt are fabulous additions to the chicken. This is one of the kids' favorite dishes.

It's gluten-free and fabulous. You too can have your crumbs and eat them too!

Enjoy!