Fish sticks and chicken strips are Friday night fun food in Slow-Cookin'-Mama's household, but wait...how fun is that for me to have to make a big mess when I'm tired on Fridays, and just want a nice, quiet movie night?
Ahhh...enter: freezer fishsticks and chicken strips. Store-bought fish sticks and Chicken Strips are totally out of the question around here, for the obvious reason that they contain gluten.
However, other questions remain about store-bought fish sticks and chicken strips, such as: Source...did the chicken come from a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, A.K.A, Factory Farm)? (Yes, it did.) Or in the case of fish sticks, was the fish wild-caught in the waters of Alaska, or was it farmed, or perhaps caught in less-than-pristine waters? And the next question to arise is that of: other ingredients...such as: sodium tripolyphosphate, TBHQ, and other additives and preservatives.
No thanks. Not when it is SO ridiculously simple to make my own and freeze them. When I'm ready to serve them I simply pull them out of the freezer and bake. No thawing; just freezer to oven. Like...well...frozen fish sticks and chicken strips you'd buy from the store!
There was a good deal on wild-caught cod today; so even though I was busy until mid-afternoon I bought 7 lbs and made them into fish sticks for tonight's dinner, and two other nights in the future when I won't have to dirty a single dish, or spend a single minute in preparation...MWAAA HAHAHAHAHA! (Evil laugh...) That's two Friday nights off for Slow Cookin' Mama. I guess that will make me NO-Cookin'-Mama. I like the sounds of it.
So, I very, VERY loosely base my procedure here on Jamie Oliver's Crunchy Garlic Chicken recipe. When I say very loosely, I mean, not really at all. I started with that recipe, but here's what it has morphed into: I fill my food processor with rice chex, about 2 T melted butter, about 1-2 tsp Italian Seasoning, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 tsp paprika. Pulse it until it gets to be the consistency of sand.
Then I prepare three bowls: 1 with several eggs, well beaten. 1 with the ground chex mixture, and 1 with Pamela's GF baking mix.
1. Wash, dry and cut fish or chicken into strips, or squares.
2. Shake fish or chicken pieces in the bowl (covered!) with Pamela's to coat.
3. Dip pieces in beaten egg.
4. Coat pieces with chex mixture.
Then just lay the pieces on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze. I usually put foil on top. just to keep them from touching other things in the freezer.
This works equally well for chicken or fish. Jamie Oliver says to bake at 475 degrees, but I like to bake on a stoneware baking sheet, and that's too hot for stoneware, so I usually lower it. (*UPDATE: I should clarify, I use stoneware when I make these FRESH...but coming out of the freezer I use a regular metal cookie sheet. The temp difference between frozen fish and a 425 degree oven is too radical for stoneware. It could crack.)
I bake my fish at 425 for, I dunno...15-20 minutes? Depending on size of the fish pieces. Just until it's done--should be opaque (not translucent like it is when it's raw) and it should flake easily. The chicken, I prefer to take the heat way down to 350 and bake them for 35 minutes, flipping halfway through the cooking time. Chicken should be cooked through, and any juices you see should run clear. Just to be sure I pop a meat thermometer in it to check temp. (Some chefs would say a lower temp than I use, but I'm not a chef, just a mom, and a total food safety freak, so I like to always take it up to the FDA recommended safe temp for chicken; 165 degrees.)
Now let's discuss breading options: Jamie Oliver's recipe recommends crackers, other people use Panko, or GF Panko, or whatever breadcrumbs you like or have on hand. I started using Rice Chex when a gluten free friend recommended it to me several years ago...oh man I do love it. It's nice and crispy and tasty, however I'm not usually a big fan of processed cereal flakes of any kind. I've read that "puffed" grains, or grains that have been extruded into flakes or shapes, (like all commercial cereals) are not very healthy to consume (see Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions for further details...). We don't really ever eat boxed cereals here, so I kinda look the other way in the case of using Chex to coat my fish sticks and chicken strips. Eh. Life's short. I'm going to go out on a limb and use a little rice chex every now and then. I'm just crazy like that.
Have a happy finger-food Friday this week, from my house to yours.
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