Reader Question: How do I make GF breaded chicken?

Hot dog - I've got a friend who wants this question answered. We were texting back and forth, and she didn't tell me what kind of chicken she wanted to bread. My mind went a little crazy with it, and so I started thinking about all the different ways to make a GF chicken breading, and I thought I'd share with you!

Southern Fried Chicken or Chicken Fingers. Near the beginning of our foray into gluten free foods, I found a great roadmap for a chicken fingers recipe on Mrs. G.F.'s My Gluten Free Cookbook blog. The breading ingredients? A combination of crushed corn tortilla chips and unsweetened shredded coconut. I looove this combination, it's crunchy and has some dimension to it. The boy turned out to not be a fan of the added coconut, but I found it to be delightful, just a little different than chicken fingers from Denny's or something. Coconut is also perfect on baked tilapia with apricot dipping sauce. If you're making some Southern Fried Chicken, a nice gritty cornmeal would be great on the outside. My favorite is Arrowhead Mills cornmeal, nice and tender.


Chinese Chicken. I love a good crunchy Chinese chicken, coated in a sauce that's thick and sweet. Hello - doesn't every Celiac love a good visit to Pei Wei or P.F. Changs? I sure do. I'm always pleased to find a Chinese restaurant that has gluten free breaded chicken, and most often it's made from potato starch (P.F. Changs) or cornstarch (Joy Luck Chinese restaurant in Sandy). Either one of these coatings is perfect if you throw the chopped chicken into a resealable bag with the starch and shake around before you throw it into the oil. A light, crisp breading, perfect every time. I've done the same thing with my Panda Orange Chicken recipe.

Via

Chicken Parmesan or Italian style. There are several great gluten free breadcrumb brands out there, or you can take a slice of old GF bread and whiz it in your food processor or blender. Sometimes I'll do this and throw it into the freezer afterward, so that I have breadcrumbs any time I want to make Chicken Parmigiana or some gluten free Crab Cakes. This is the old three step method to breading something: beginning with a layer of gluten free flour, then a dip in egg wash, and then a dip in gluten free bread crumbs. The egg wash holds on the bread crumbs, while the inner layer of flour is the perfect place for some seasoning (salt and pepper, or any other spice like cayenne is great in that first layer of flour). Also, I just wanted to throw out there that it's really easy to season your own bread crumbs after spinning up your own crumbs in the food processor. Just throw in some Italian herbs and some black pepper and you've got another layer of flavor in your food.

Light all-purpose breading. I've found a really elegant solution to some meals that involve chicken and veggies is a really light breading on the outside, and then a saute in a pan to cook the flour and cook the chicken through. My favorite flour for this is millet flour, which I buy in bulk on Amazon.com. It's very similar to corn flour, with a slight corny undertone to it. I've made a few times a recipe of lightly breaded chicken stuffed with roasted red peppers and sheepsmilk feta (the feta is just for the boy) with some fresh herbs in there too. Just a small plate of millet flour with a little salt and pepper in it is perfect breading for this chicken. You could try this with any stuffed chicken dish.

How do you bread your GF chicken recipes?