Oven-Fried Coconut Chicken

I grew up in south Georgia. I practically cut my teeth on a corn cob, and by the time I was five I slurped “bolled greeens” cheerfully (that would be “boiled greens” to anyone whose ear is not tuned to the Southern Hick dialect).

When I was in 7th grade my school started serving pizza for lunch. This was, apparently, a big deal in our small town, and the local television station turned out to give some coverage. I was pulled into the line of students whom they wanted to interview.

I can still see the slick, clean-smelling, skinny man, all teeth, smiling at me and saying, “And what’s your favorite thing to eat?” I knew what he wanted me to say. I knew I was expected to grin like a goofy adolescent and say, “Pizza!” But I was a very honest girl. So, camera pointed at me, microphone dangling in my face, I smiled politely and said, “Friyd cheekin” (translation: “Fried chicken”). I do love me some fried chicken.

This recipe is not the southern fried chicken I grew up on. There is still a piece of my heart that belongs to that chicken, that no allergen-free recipe can really fill. But this recipe is still good. Really good. So good that I make a big batch all for myself, and then eat it out of the fridge for a week. I write on the container “Mom’s chicken” so that no one else will eat it. It comes highly recommended from this southern girl.

Corn is on my “do not consume” list and I have been unable to find gluten-free bread crumbs without corn. I thought it would be an easy thing to just toast some gluten-free bread and then whizz it to crumbs in the food processor. But finding a gluten-free bread without eggs was a challenge. In the end I found Ener-G White Rice loaves to be a passable bread for toasting purposes. So I save the end pieces of my loaves and dry them out to make bread crumbs. If you can have corn (or, for that matter, if you can have gluten) lucky you! Just use whatever bread crumbs are in your cupboard.

If you want to do it up right, serve your chicken with some gluten-free “corrrn breyad” and “bolled greeens”.

This recipe is being shared over at Cybele Pascal’s blog. Click on over for lots more yummy, allergen-friendly recipes.