Thursday, December 13, 2012

"Open Sesame Chicken"

This evening I had planned to season and grill some chicken cutlets for dinner when I got home.  Unfortunately, I was not able to light our gas grill for some reason.  I tried about 10 times -- even resorting to tossing in a lit match with the gas on and running...LOL.   After all my attempts...still "no can do".   When I came back inside I just sort of stood and stared blankly into my pantry, cabinets, and fridge trying to figure out what to do with these cutlets.  Then, out of the corner of my eye...I spotted some sesame seeds just sitting there on the shelf looking all cute and crunchy.  Well, that little light bulb went off in my head again...and the words "Open Sesame Chicken" began swirling around.  I decided to create the recipe as I went along (which sometimes can be a slightly scary journey not knowing what your destination is ahead of time).   ;-)   I wanted the coating to taste like sesame and have a bit of crunch to it...but I also wanted to give it some other layers of flavor as well.  I even added a very lightly sweet undertone by adding a couple teaspoons of Swerve sweetener to the coating mixture (to sort of simulate a honey-type of flavor).  I served the chicken with roasted fresh asparagus as well as buttermilk biscuits that I made a half batch of this evening.  The chicken turned out great and hubby really liked it too.  Below is a picture as well as the recipe.  Enjoy!





Open Sesame Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken breast cutlets
1/2 cup blanched almond flour
1/4 cup sesame seeds 
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Few good dashes of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 teaspoons Swerve granular sweetener (optional)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon Tamari sauce
Few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
Extra virgin coconut oil (to saute chicken cutlets)

Directions:

In a shallow bowl, combine almond flour, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cayenne and Swerve; mix well and set aside.  In another small bowl, make egg wash by beating together eggs, tamari sauce, pepper and dash of cayenne.  Dip cutlets into egg wash one at a time, letting the excess drip off; roll into flour/sesame mixture, coating both sides well.  In a large non-stick skillet, place a couple tablespoons of coconut oil and heat on medium-high until oil is hot.  Place coated chcken cutlets in the pan and saute several minutes on each side until golden brown and cooked through.  Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

2 comments:

Aubree said...

Hi! I recently found your blog and I love it! I am also dairy-free (just cow, still do goat and sheep dairy) so I am trying to adapt more of your recipes. But I tried this one first and LOVED it! I used quinoa flour instead of almond because I recently discovered that quinoa is a seed and not a grain. It was delicious! Thanks for posting so many cool recipes!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Thanks, Aubree -- I'm glad you enjoy the blog and hope you are able to adapt more recipes for you to enjoy dairy free! :-)