Gluten-free Chicken Potpie

The littlest chill in the breeze signals fall. I want to abandon all the gobs of fresh fruits of hot summer and trade them in for comfort foods. A quick trip the farmers market this week got me fabulous fresh ingredients for soups, stews, and YES... chicken potpie.


Gluten-free Chicken Potpie

2-3 three large carrots, peeled and diced
3-5 celery stalks, washed and diced
1/3 cup diced onion
1/3 cup butter
1/3 gluten-free all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
3 cups cooked, shredded chicken (boiled or steamed)
2 GF pie crusts (top/bottom)

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 425F. Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in flour, onions, sea salt, and ground pepper. Stir constantly until mixture is bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in chicken broth and milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir until the rue thickens (1-3 minutes). Add chicken, carrots, and celery. Remove from heat.

Using a double crusted pie crust recipe, add filling to pie pan. Bake at 425F for 10-15 minutes, and lower heat to 350F for another 15-20 minutes. Remove, cool, and serve.

Gluten-free Pie Crust: The Last Pie Crust Recipe You'll Ever Need

I will admit that I have been keeping this pie crust recipe a secret for quite awhile now. My apologies. You see, it's one of those recipes that's a family recipe, which comes from hubby's very French grandfather. He's an amazing cook, and he cares for his recipes like they are his children. He gave me permission to post it, so I am.

I promise that you will never need another pie crust recipe again. You can throw all your others out and make this your fail-safe stand by. Gluten-free and non-GF alike. The differences between GF and regular are pretty minor.

Never a more light, flaky, and buttery pie crust have you eaten. I swear it on it on my mother's eventual grave (hopefully many, many years from now). It's good for fruit pies, meat pies (i.e. chicken or pork), and for custard pies. Behold, I give you Pépère's pie crust.


Pépère's Pie Crust

4 cups GF all-purpose flour (you can easily substitute in regular flour if you prefer)
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP sugar
2 cups Butter Crisco
1 egg, plus enough water to fill 1 cup
1 TBSP lemon juice

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Directions:
Sift and/or mix dry ingredients. With a pastry blender, work Butter Crisco into the flour. Mix until it resembles course corn meal. Make a well in the center. Pour in the remaining ingredients. Mix and fold with a fork/pastry blender until the mixtures leaves the sides of the bowl to form a ball (you may have to sprinkle in more flour to get the right consistency). Scrape the bowl and make a ball. Cover and chill for two hours.

GF-Rolling Instructions:
Cut ball into four quarters. Re-refrigerate the unused dough. Shape smaller dough into ball (do not over handle). Place between two sheets of plastic wrap. Squash into a thick circle with your hands. Roll with rolling pin to a thin 8-10 inch circle. Gently peel away top plastic wrap layer and set aside. Place the pie crust into a pie pan, plastic wrap side up, and secure to shape of pan. Gently peel away second plastic wrap. Pour in pie filling for double crusted pies, or bake at 425F for 12-15 minutes for single crusted pies.

Repeat rolling process for double-crusted pie tops. Gently press the two dough together to seal filling into the pie. Use a pastry brush to coat top with an egg wash (do not skip this step). Poke holes in the top with a fork/knife. Bake pie for 45 minutes at 350F.

Regular Rolling Instructions:
Cut ball into thirds. Re-refrigerate the unused dough. Shape smaller dough into ball (do not over handle). Sprinkle flour onto rolling mat/counter and rolling pin. Squash dough into a thick circle with your hands. Roll with rolling pin to a thin 8-10 inch circle. Place the pie crust into a pie pan and secure to shape of pan. Pour in pie filling for double crusted pies, or bake at 425F for 12-15 minutes for single crusted pies.

Repeat rolling process for double-crusted pie tops. Gently press the two dough together to seal filling into the pie. Use a pastry brush to coat top with an egg wash (do not skip this step). Poke holes in the top with a fork/knife. Bake pie for 45 minutes at 350F.

*Yields four GF crusts or three regular crusts
**Dough and finished un-baked pies can be frozen for up to six months

Where Does the Garbage Go? Biodegradable Trash Bags

Rarely does a childhood book define your future quite like, "Where Does the Garbage Go?" did for me. I loved this book. I wrote my name in. My sister mischievously took it with her to college and didn't return it until she moved down the street from me a few years ago. It came from one of those mail-order educational series that my mom signed me up for. Most of the books were about dinosaurs, the universe, and other scientific topics that held my attention for at least one full read. WDGG, on the other hand, hooked me and I read it until the cover started coming apart.

At one point in the book, they covered urban high-rise living and wouldn't you know it, I moved into an apartment on the 11th story in my mid-twenties and walked down the hall to drop my bag into the garbage shoot to the dumpster 11 floors below. Genius.

Now that I have my book back, I continue to use it as my main point of reference for all things garbage. I read it to my niece just yesterday. As it turns out, even in the early 1980s, recycling was a topic of WDGG. Since this book still informs my life as far as all things garbage go, I was inspired and I finally did it. I've been meaning to do it for months. I ordered myself biodegradable trash bags online.

I found some tall 13-gallon bags for $.21 a bag with free shipping at this company. They sell the bags in bulk of 500 bags per box. I feel little better about that quantity, since getting it here will use less resources long-term and I won't have to think about it again for at least a year and a half.

I realize there are drawbacks to using sustainable resources from agriculture. Large-scale farming is not super great for the earth, but it's soooooo much better than making and wasting petroleum-based products. I can reduce the guilt about my waste. Here is what I am currently doing to make my household a little greener:

• I recycle all cardboard and junk mail that does not have food on it (including toilet paper rolls) -- I remove all plastic windows from boxes and envelopes
  
• I recycle ALL plastic bags and packaging at my local grocery store bag recycling (free of food particles of course)
  
• I bought myself reusable bags and refuse plastic bags for all my purchases when out shopping (except for raw chicken)
• I'm re-using bread bags and other plastic bags from unavoidable packaging to scoop the cat box
• I'm not using as many sandwich bags and plastic wrap
  
• I'm starting to unplug electronics not being used (Hubby is better about this than me)

Why go to all this trouble, you ask? Sadly, I learned from Jacques Cousteau's grandson, that in addition to our plastic garbage going into landfills, a great deal of it is getting into our water system and winding up in rivers, lakes, and oceans -- harming and killing copious amounts of wildlife, which is both irresponsible to the wildlife and ourselves. Especially since those plastic toxins wind up getting back into our food supply.

And on another health front, I heard this story on NPR, that the plastic drink bottles and other packaging and containers are breaking down enough that the chemicals are getting into our bodies and food supplies, which is putting endocrine disruptors into our systems, which can lead to issues with infertility, and fetal and child development. So not only do we need to worry about the hormones in our food supply, we also need to worry about the disruption of the hormones we naturally produce. They especially warned not heat food in plastics, so use glass or ceramic instead.

As George Bailey said on It's a Wonderful Life, "Now you listen to me! I don't want any plastics!" So I guess what I'm really saying is, that my number one green priority for the last six months or so is to reduce my use of plastics as much as possible. Plastics have a huge negative impact on our environment, so give it some thought. I've previously concentrated so much on the recycle aspect of reduce-reuse-recycle, that I really didn't think about the reduce and reuse part. Thankfully, I can look to "Where Does the Garbage Go?" to remind me of such things.

Colonel Who? Gluten-Free Fried Chicken

The great tragedy of developing food allergies and intolerances in your adulthood is that you know exactly what you are missing every time you drive by all your old favorite fast food joints. I've heard it a million times, from all sorts of people, how lucky I am to be forced to avoid all those trans fats, calories, and general junk foods. While I'm sure my arteries appreciate it, my hormonal cravings do not!

Ladies, you know of what I speak. At any random time, day or night, a hormone surges and a craving for something really terrible and exquisitely delicious hits. You must have it. Right now. Whoever said intense cravings only hit the pregnant ladies, hasn't spent a lot of time living with women. Add to the hormone surge cravings a denial of all things wheat, and my tragedy deepens.

For me, it is super bad when I get a craving for KFC, especially now that I live in the South. It's intense, and it's almost made me cheat countless times. I have to talk myself down from the proverbial ledge, in great detail, with all the reasons why the Colonel is now my enemy. I've threatened hubby numerous times if he ever cheats on me with the Colonel. I can't have it my house, or my car. I can't watch someone else eat it. And I especially can't drive by one without my Pavlovian reflexes torturing me with mouth watering memories of that original recipe; fatty, delicious, greasy, wonderful fried chicken. It haunts me.

The torture of living without Colonel Sanders has caused a two-year quest to figure out how to duplicate that chicken. Ladies and gentleman, I think I've got it! It's not exact, but it's so very, very close that you will enjoy this chicken almost as thoroughly as the Colonel's chicken. Even my gluten-free scaredy-cat husband, gave it two thumbs up. Repeatedly. You too, can eat this wonderful, glorious, tasty, crispy, fried chicken.

And here's how...

Ingredients
1 pint buttermilk
1 heaping tsp. Better Than Bouillon chicken base
1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce
3 large boneless chicken breasts, or various pieces of boned chicken

1 cup gluten-free all-purpose flour
1 TBSP Hungarian Paprika
1-2 tsp. Italian herbs (I use Penzeys)
2 tsp. dried chervil (do not skip this herb)
1 tsp. ground sea salt
1 tsp. tarragon
1/2 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. ground pepper

3 cups vegetable oil

Directions
If using boneless chicken breast, cut each breast into 3-5 generous chicken strips and beat with meat hammer or fists to tenderize. In a small container, mix a little bit of buttermilk, chicken bouillon, and hot sauce. In a large casserole dish or pan, whisk the remaining buttermilk with the hot sauce and bouillon mixture. Coat each piece of chicken well, and leave in the dish to marinate. Cover and put in the fridge for 1-24 hours.

Pre-heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or deep fryer to 350F (med-high heat). In a separate bowl, combine all the remaining dry ingredients and whisk until well mixed. Pour seasoning mixture into a large Ziploc or paper bag. Place the marinated chicken into the bag, close, and shake thoroughly until each piece is completely coated in the seasoning mixture. Fry chicken in hot oil for 4-5 minutes (it is advisable to test one piece of chicken first to ensure it is thoroughly cooked to the center without burning the outside; please note that chicken with bones cooks faster). Use tongs to remove chicken and place on a large platter covered in paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Serve hot immediately, and save the leftovers for cold chicken out of the fridge (if any lasts that long).

Highlights From My Super Productive Vacation From Blogging

While I was "out", I had an overwhelmingly huge amount of projects going on, not the least of which was a biography of my grandmother's life for her 80th Birthday (as seen below).


The book was mainly written by my sister and mother, but was edited many long hours by my sister, a coerced Cousin Liz, and myself. It was a project that took months, the last few weeks of which were late nights and a trip to the printers just in the nick of time. I did all the desktop publishing and artwork, which was MASSIVE. I am not sure that I will undertake a project of this magnitude a second time around. I don't think my sister will either.

I'm including the cover art and the first three pages for you to enjoy (just click on the small image to get the big image). My grandmother and her parents were first generation Finnish immigrants, so the story is as much America's story, as it is my own.



Cover Art: Depicts images from Finland, New England (1929-1960), and Pennsylvania (1960+) including my grandmother, her parents and sister, her husband and children, and the places that she lived.






Page 1 of her story








Page 2 of her story










Page three of her story







...

In addition to all the hard work of my grandmother's party and biography, my last sister had another baby boy. My first sister, her daughter, and I traveled west for a week to help out and I took my shifts at night. I took several pictures of the kids, including some for the birth announcement and Mother's Day gift for my mother, both of which I shot and designed.



...

And as if that weren't enough, I also made tutus for both of my one-yr-old nieces. They both seem like twirly girls, and I would have killed for a tutu like these as a kid.


...

I have been cooking in between. I experimented with a GF peach cobbler made from fresh peaches, which was delicious. The dough did not rise correctly though, so I am considering it a semi-failed project. Back to the drawing board on that one.

I also experimented with a KFC knock-off recipe that I altered to be GF. I have some changes I want to make to the recipe still, but expect to see really great GF fried chicken in your near future. It is first on my list of recipes to go up soon.

I think I am finally ready to get back to blogging again. I still have other projects going on, but I can work them around my bloggy life a little better than the last three months. Thanks for hanging in with me. I hope not to disappoint.

Ciao!
Ali Kat