I will admit that living a gluten free lifestyle is so much easier today than it was in 2003. In 2003 I discovered that I was allergic to gluten and completely cut it out of my diet. Back then in what I call the "dark days" (total Hunger Games reference, because let's face it I was so very hungry!), if you wanted any kind of gluten free baked good, you had to mix your own flours bake it yourself. That involved things like xantham gum and guar gum. Which I still don't understand what they really are. If you were lucky enough to find a mix of any kind your end result was usually inedible. I can't tell you how many dollars were wasted on mixes that yielded baked rocks that tasted so awful that they were immediately spit into the trash. Today those are nightmares of the past. Today we are lucky that there are hundreds of mixes available on the market to meet all our gluten free cravings, and some of our favorite standbys like Bisquick or Betty Crocker have joined in to help make gluten free baking easier on all of us.
Side note: the mixes from Betty Crocker and Bisquick are not organic or GMO free or any of those kind of buzzy jazz words that are used today. In my house we can barely follow gluten free guidelines when we bake. If we happen upon organic or GMO free mixes, lovely. If not, we are going to eat it anyway.
A few weeks back, Caitlin asked for gluten free chicken pot pies. This request sent me in a mini panic because of all the things I do bake, pie crust is not one of them. Pie crust is scary. Pie crust and gluten free baking rarely mix, unless you are a pastry chef or are really good at recipes. I'm not so good at recipes, especially when they have like seventeen steps. I went directly to my resource when I have questions about life... Pinterest. Of course she delivered about a million recipes, many of them calling for scratch crust or biscuits. Thankfully Pinterest now has an easy button and that yielded two recipes. One using regular can biscuits (because sometimes Pinterest is confused and forgets about your gluten free request), and one using Gluten Free Bisquick. I looked at both and came up with my own solution.
For this recipe I used Gluten Free Bisquick and Gluten Free Cafe Cream of Mushroom soup. I was able to find both at Walmart for a very reasonable price. You can also buy these items on Amazon. I also used a muffin pan for those giant over sized muffins. My pan yields six muffins, or six pot pies if you will. If you'd like, you can make this is a 9x13 Pyrex as the original recipe suggest. For me and my family, the muffin pan was the best choice. It was easy to portion control and easy to store in the refrigerator covered in foil.
Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pies
1.5 cups of cooked chicken
2 cups mixed vegetables (whatever your family likes)
1 can Gluten Free Cafe Cream of Mushroom soup
1/4 cup milk
For the Topping
3/4 cup Gluten Free Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
2 Tbl melted butter
In one bowl combine first four ingredients and mix well (here you can add any spices if you'd like. I'm not a chef, so I don't spice it up, because that means I will probably eff it up). In a second bowl combine all your topping ingredients and mix until combined. The batter will seem too sticky, it's not, I promise. If you are using a Pyrex pour the chicken and veg mix into the bottom, otherwise spoon it evenly in your muffin pan. Then using an ice cream scoop or whatever you have, I have a cookie scoop, scoop your toppings over the chicken and veg mix. For my muffin pan I did about 1.5 scoops per muffin well. Then use a spoon or your fingers to evenly spread the dough over the top. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.
That's it, it really is that easy. I promise they are good. Like picky eight year old daughter good. Also the non GFree-ers in the family (The Hubbs, My mom) said they were delicious and asked for seconds. Second side note: My mom had these two days after as leftovers and said they were delicious! Awesome right?
Years ago, when I was a real blogger that did things like crafts and cooking, I had a series called "GD it's GFree", hence the title of today's post. In an effort to get back into blogging, I'm bringing it back. The GD could stand for "Gosh Darn", but if you know me at all... Anyway, I'm hoping to share more of the gluten free shortcuts I've learned since Caitlin went gluten free over a year ago. Stay tuned.
A 2016 goal of mine is to link up more.
Because that will make me blog more.
So this post is going to party over at The Foley Fam
and Kristine's Sunday Funday Link Party.
Stop By!
