Gluten Free Kid Foods

Has your family gone gluten free because your child was diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten intolerance?  Going gluten free is hard enough as an adult but for a child it can seem almost devastating.

No more macaroni and cheese, or Dairy Queen.  What about chicken nuggets?  While it’s true that you won’t be able to run through a MacDonalds drive thru and grab some chicken nuggets for the kids, I have a recipe for you today that creates some pretty good ones.  On top of that they are made in the oven so they’re healthy and good enough for non gluten free company as well.

I hope you enjoy this recipe.

                                                       Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets

• 2 large whole boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 Cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour*
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 Cups Gluten Free corn flake crumbs**
• 1 Jelly Roll Baking Sheet
• 1 oven-proof  Wire Cooling Rack

Place cooling rack inside of the jelly roll baking sheet and set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Rinse chicken and pat dry.  Cut chicken into bite-sized, about 1 1/2 inch, pieces.  Combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper in a flat pan.  In a second pan, beat eggs and water together, and in a third pan place the 2 cups of corn flake crumbs.

Toss the chicken pieces in the flour, then dip them into the egg mixture, (be sure they are well covered in egg), then into the corn flake crumbs.  Arrange chicken pieces on the cooling rack baking sheet.  Being sure that they don’t touch each other.  Bake at 350 degrees, for 30 to 45 minutes until juices run clear and coating is crispy.

The key to these being crispy is baking them on the wire cooling rack.  It allows the heat and air to circulate all around the chicken and the juices to drip into the pan instead of the chicken getting soggy in the juices.

This recipe can also be used on a whole broiler/fryer chicken for the whole family.

*Instead of Bob’s Red Mill Flour, you can substitute the generic All Purpose  Baking Flour recipe that follows.

**Corn Chex cereal can be used as a more economical substitution for the gluten free corn flake crumbs.  Just make them into crumbs in a food processor or blender.

                                                     All Purpose Baking Flour

• 1/2 Cup White Rice Flour
• 1/4 Cup tapioca flour/starch
• 1/4 Cup cornstarch or potato starch

Sift well together and store unused portion in an airtight container in the freezer.

You can make as much of this as needed, just keep the proportions the same.

Mary Blackburn has been gluten free since 1988 and is the owner of http://www.easyglutenfreeliving.com.  She invites you to visit her site for more gluten free living tips and recipes.  While you’re there, take a moment to sign up for The Gluten Free Gazette, her bi-weekly newsletter filled with articles and answers to your questions about gluten, gluten free living and celiac disease.