The Best Gluten Free Fried Chicken
I started making this out of my frustration for how expensive pre-made Gluten free fried chicken in the freezer section at the grocery store is. It’s also really hard to find a restaurant that will make this. I make this in huge batches when I get together with all my extended family or just at home with my kids. It will satisfy your craving and no one will notice it’s Gluten Free - I promise!
Thanks to my family along with all my nieces, nephews, sisters, in-laws, parents and cousins that tried my chicken. I love making it for you whenever we are together.
Ingredients:
2 cups Rice Chex Cereal
1 ½ cups Cornstarch
3 Tbsp Paprika
2 Tbsp Kosher Salt
¼ tsp Black Pepper
2 Eggs
3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Canola oil (enough to fill a deep dish frying pan 1-inch deep)
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 F. Get a deep dish frying pan and fill it with canola oil about 1-inch deep. Heat your oil slightly higher than medium heat on your stovetop. (i.e. If your medium heat dial is a 5, heat your oil on 6).
Loosely crush your Rice Chex cereal in a large zip bag using a rolling pin. Do not crush to a powder, you want crunchy bits. Pour into a large bowl.
Add cornstarch, paprika, Kosher salt, and black pepper to the crushed rice chex cereal and lightly mix together. This will be your crunchy crumb coating for the chicken.
Crack two eggs into a shallow bowl/dish and whisk them together until completely scrambled. Add 3 Tbsp of water to the eggs. This will be your egg wash.
Slice the chicken breast at an angle to make long thick strips of chicken. Depending on your chicken breast size you should get anywhere from 4 to 6 strips per chicken breast.
Cover a cookie sheet in tin foil and set aside. Set up your prep station beside your frying pan - your cut chicken, egg wash, and crumb coat.
Have one hand with tongs and one hand for coating. Take a chicken strip and coat it in your crumb coat. Then coat the entire strip and dip it in your egg wash. Then take the strip and completely coat it in the crumb mixture again.
Once your chicken is coated, lay it down in your heated oil. Repat step 7 with three more strips. (Depending on your pan size you could do more but you run the risk of having a soggy coating on your chicken.)
Once the sides of the chicken strips feel firm and have a golden brown color you can flip the chicken over using tongs to cook the other side. I lay my chicken strips around the outside edge of the pan in a clockwise pattern. This way you know what chicken strips I put in first and the order I need to flip them at.
Once the chicken is fried to a golden brown color on both sides, remove from the pan and place on your covered cookie sheet. Repeat steps 7-9 with all the chicken strips.
Lightly salt chicken again and place into the oven to bake for about 20 minutes at 400 F.
Notes:
I like to fry all the chicken first and then finish it off in the oven. It makes for a crispy coating and moist chicken inside.
This recipe amount would feed about six people. I make this amount for my family of four so we have leftovers the next day.
I love paprika and it’s especially great in this recipe because it makes the delicious color of the crispy coating when you fry it.
This recipe works well to make ahead of time and then freeze for later in freezer zip bags. Simply reheat by baking in the oven for roughly 20 minutes at 425 F.
My kids love eating this chicken with a yummy honey mustard sauce, barbecue sauce, or ranch dressing.