Gluten Free Fried Chicken

My friend Joe taught me how to make some meals that are allergen-free so my family can eat them. The best one he taught me is how to make fried chicken so my kids can still enjoy chicken fingers. I’m embarrassed to say I’m a southern-raised woman and I never fried chicken before Joe taught me (my mom wasn’t known for her fried chicken and she never taught me many kitchen skills). But I learned anyway, and late is better than never.

Here are the steps for making the best fried chicken!

You’ll need 1 egg, Rice Chex, coconut oil, chicken tenders, a hand chopper, and sea salt (if you prefer).

1. Take the Rice Chex and chop it up. I put it in a hand mixer, but you can also put it in a Ziploc baggie and smash the crap out of it too. By the way, you can also use Rice Krispies (the gluten free kind), or even smashed potato chips. When Joe originally taught this recipe to me, he smashed Lentil Chips for his coating. Those are great too! Put your coating on a plate.
2. Take one egg and put it in a bowl and scramble it with a fork.
3. Put generous heapings of coconut oil in your frying pan. Sometimes I use a wok, and sometimes I use a skillet. Whatever you want to use will work fine. Put enough oil in so that when it’s melted, it’s about a quarter or a half inch deep. You’ll turn your stove burner to about medium (or medium-high) heat to melt the oil.
4. While the coconut oil melts, dip your chicken in the egg bowl and then roll it in the smashed Rice Chex. I believe “real” chefs call this method “dredging,” but I call that word hoity toity. Just roll it around, people!
5. Drop that coated chicken tender into the oil. I like to have a bunch of tenders already coated so I can drop them in the oil at once, and get the frying underway while I coat the next batch.
6. Let the tenders fry for a bit, maybe about 3-4 minutes. Flip them over and fry the other side. When they look golden and crispy, pull them out and place them on a paper grocery sack (that’s how my mom used to degrease bacon when it was done). Cut a few open to make sure they cooked all the way through.
7. Sprinkle some sea salt on the tenders to give them some flavor.

That’s it! It’s really easy and really yummy. Make enough for leftovers during the week, and everyone will be happy!