Muffins and GF Breadcrumbed Chicken

I just made another batch of Carrot Cake Muffins, but added to the recipe a tablespoon of maple syrup and two tablespoons of orange juice, from the fresh orange you zest for the recipe anyway. They have come out much juicier and squishy, I think that Dove's Farm flour needs a lot of moisture. I have also cut the bicarb down to 1 and a 1/2 teaspoons, so no soapy taste this time! If you don't like maple syrup then use golden syrup instead.

While watching Saturday Kitchen this morning, and seeing Rick Stein breading fish, I really fancied some breaded chicken. My 'Sainsburys To You' doesn't do the gluten free ones to order online, so we popped out to get some and I picked up 6 boxes to stock up on them. The Sainsburys GF ones are lovely and are made from gram flour, lovely and crispy rather like panko breadcrumbs from japan.

So I'm going to mix a box of crumbs with quarter of a tub of Cajun spice mix and bread up loads of stuff. Breading is easy, just dip your thing in seasoned flour (GF of course) then beaten egg and finally the breadcrumbs, pressing them on nice. You can even repeat this for a thicker coating if you like! If you need to flour lots of little things like chicken nuggets or vegetables you can just shake them up on a plastic bag with the flour. We breadcrumb chicken breasts, courgette slices and whole mushrooms. Once breaded the chicken takes about 30 mins in a nice hot oven (if a whole breast), and the vegetables about 15-20 mins, depending on how thick your slices are, drizzle your baking tray and breaded things with oil to ensure they all crisp up nice.

We make up loads of Jalapeño Poppers too, to make these cut the stalk off a large red or green chili pepper, then slice in half length ways. Fill with cream cheese, rounded up to make the half look like a whole chili again, then bread the whole thing. Don't worry about turning these in the oven or they will fall apart, just put them on the tray chili pepper side down. These take about 15 mins in a fan oven at 200.

Tomorrow the weather should be nice so I am making a load of my Chicken Tikka Kebabs to charcoal up nice on the barbecue! Some raita, salad and pitta breads will be nice with the kebabs and keep things nice and simple.

I love food!

UPDATE: You can no longer get gluten free breadcrumbs in sainburys. So instead blend a couple of gluten free muffins into crumbs, toast them a bit to dry them out under the grill. Mix these with a couple of tablespoons of dry quick-cook polenta (merchant gourmet is good), and a dessert spoon of spice mix. The polenta ensures a nice crunch and a nachos type corn flavour.