Dairy Free Gluten Free Chicken Parmesan
Growing up Italian with both parents from Italy makes for the best eats around!! Going gluten free, dairy free and egg free can be quite the challenge but with a full heart, lots of patience and taste bud memory, anything can be done.... I am super excited about this recipe. The mozzarella is made from cashews and can be used for anything, pizza, lasagna, egg plant parmesan and so on. I am not one to measure anything so check back as I may adjust this recipe sightly here and there!
Homemade Breadcrumbs
Gluten Free Rice Crispy Cereal
Italian Seasoning
Salt
Blend rice crispy cereal in blender add salt and Italian seasoning to taste. Store bought gluten free breadcrumbs should work too!
Homemade Mozzarella
1/3 cup cashews (soaked in water/salt for 3 hours/drained)
1 cup warm water
4 Tbsp Tapioca Flour
1 tsp Lemon juice
3/4 or 1 Garlic Clove (dependent on size and preferred taste)
3/4 tsp salt
Breaded Chicken
2-3 Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (cut into cutlets)
Tapioca Flour
Rice Milk (or other diary free milk)
Salt
Breadcrumbs
Tomato Sauce
Follow our Homemade Tomato Sauce here or buy already made jarred pasta sauce.
Directions
Soak 1/3 cup of cashews in 1 1/2 cup filtered or bottled water and add 1-2 tsp of sea salt for 3 hours. Cover in a glass jar or bowel and set aside on the counter-top. I generally time this recipe so that everything is made fresh. So if I am making this recipe for lunch at 12 pm, I will remember to soak my cashews at 9 am that morning. Once the cashews are soaked for 3 hours you can begin!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. If your boneless, skinless chicken breasts are whole, slice horizontally to make thin chicken cutlets. To bread the chicken cutlets first lay the chicken in the tapioca flour and fully coat both sides, then fully dip the chicken in the dairy free milk and then lay the chicken in the breadcrumbs and fully coat both sides. Place the breaded chicken cutlets in a baking pan and drizzly with olive oil. Place in the oven and bake on 400 degrees for approximately 40 minutes.
The cashew mozzarella takes about 15-20 minutes to make from start to finish. Therefore it's best to start making it about 15 minutes after you place the chicken in the oven to cook. First, use a strainer to drain the soaked cashews and rinse with water. Warm some water on the stove. Place the drained cashews into 1 cup of fresh warmed water in a blender and add the lemon juice, tapioca flour, garlic and salt. Blend until smooth.
This picture is using 1/3 cup of cashews and done ready to put on-top of the cooked chicken.
On the stove-top, place a cooking pan, with a bit of olive oil to coat the pan (1 tbsp), on medium heat for the cashew mix. In a separate medium pot, heat your tomato sauce (bring to boil and lower to a simmer for at least 10 minutes). If you are making homemade tomato sauce, this will take extra time so plan accordingly.
The next time I made this recipe, I doubled it to have left-overs because it was soooo GOOD!! This is a picture using 1/2 cup of cashews to make the cashew mozzarella!
Pour the liquid cashew mix into the cooking pan. I like to cook the cashew mozzarella mix very slowly and will continuously mix using a silicon spatula. You will not necessarily even see this mixture simmer and if it does lower it a bit to medium-low heat. Slowly it should start to thicken and begin to look like mozzarella (see picture). If it does not, raise the temperature back to medium heat to barely see a simmer.
After approximately 40 minutes, your chicken in the oven should be done. Check the internal temperature with a thermometer to ensure it is cooked and heated to the proper temperature for chicken. Once cooked, take out of the oven and layer with sauce, cashew mozzarella and then more sauce. Place back in the oven for approximately 5-10 minutes until done! YUMMY!
Enjoy!!!
Sandra
Dairy Free Gluten Free Chicken Parmesan
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