I will admit that I love food. Most of us do. One of my favorite dishes is sweet and sour chicken. The first time we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, it hit me that I was in trouble. I had to change my way of eating since I went gluten free. While, yes, Chinese food can be considered clean eating, it definitely wasn’t gluten free. And, on top of that, I had to watch my soy intake since that also inflames the thyroid (yeah, all the little things you discover when you fall down a research rabbit hole).
The knowledge that I couldn’t have my favorites hurt. So, one night I got creative and made my own. I had some gluten free flour and thawed chicken and a Normandy vegetable blend in the freezer. I was excited. I had found a sweet and sour sauce that was gluten free at the store so I pulled that out and gathered the rest of my items. I cheated and used instant rice, mainly so I could concentrate on the chicken.
I cut the chicken in chunks, sizes varied. I ended up using two chicken breasts. I did not season the flour mainly because I knew I would have some left over and could use it for something else. I preheated my pan with a bit of olive oil. I coated the chicken in flour, then a mixture of egg and milk and then back into the flour. Then the chicken went into the pan.
When the chicken was close to being done, I steamed my Normandy mix of veggies (which has broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash) and got my rice going. I grabbed a plate and started dishing it up how I wanted. I wasn’t sure how some of the veggies would be with the sweet and sour sauce but I was going to find out. I was making do with what I had in the freezer, but you can use what you want. Once I things how I wanted it, I drizzled the sweet and sour sauce on it. I did it this way so that my chicken would remain crisp. But if you want to mix it all up and then put it on the rice, that’s up to you.
I was in gluten free heaven with this meal. And surprisingly, the veggies weren’t too bad with the sauce on them. I only wish I had some pineapple to add to it. I was great as it was and I will definitely be making this again. But for those of you who love Chinese like I do, you don’t have to miss out. Make it at home, it’ll be so worth it!