Tag: Dairy Free (except butter)

Hamburger Soup

On a crisp Fall evening, nothing beats the smell of simmering hamburger soup and freshly baked blueberry muffins. Hamburger soup is comforting and tastes even better the next day.

If you’re making this gluten free, make sure to use the substitute for condensed tomato soup since there’s wheat in tomato soup. You can also use Pacific Foods Tomato Soup and an extra container filled with water.

Make it a meal with:

  • Muffins or French Bread
  • Fresh Fruit

Hamburger Soup

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: easy-medium
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A comforting soup, even better the next day.

Ingredients

  • 2 lb. Hamburger
  • 1 Onion, chopped
  • 3 to 5 Potatoes, chopped
  • 2-3 large Carrots (about), chopped
  • 2 small cans Tomato Soup
    • For gluten free, use:
    • 16 oz. Tomato Sauce
    • 1 Tbsp. Sugar
    • 2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
    • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 4 cans Water (about 44 oz. or 5 1/2 c. water)
  • 1 tsp. Salt (about)
  • 1 heaping Tbsp. Brown Sugar
  • 2 Cloves
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1 c. Frozen Corn (optional)

Directions

Brown hamburger, then add onion to cook. Add rest of ingredients and bring to boil. Cook till carrots are done (about 30-45 minutes simmering). Add corn at end to warm through. Before serving, remove cloves and bay leaf if you can find them. Haha, or warn people to keep an eye out for them.


Mom’s Fried Chicken

Mom would make this fried chicken when we were growing up. It’s pretty simple and doesn’t have lots of herbs, but it’s still delicious.

If you’re making this gluten free, of course just use gluten free flour.

Make it a meal with:

  • French Bread
  • Green Salad
  • Corn
  • Fresh Fruit

Fried Chicken

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: medium
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Simple but tasty.

Ingredients

  • About 10 Chicken Thighs
  • ½ c. Butter
  • ½ c. Vegetable Oil
  • 1 c. Flour (or gluten free flour)
  • 1 tsp. Salt

Directions

(Salt chicken before coating with flour.)  Combine flour and salt in gallon bag. Place chicken in bag and shake to coat. Fry chicken in butter and oil, skin side down for 15 minutes till golden. Turn over. Turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes.


Orange Chicken (Panda Express)

This is adapted from the Original Orange Chicken by Panda Express recipe on Tasty. It’s very delicious. But in typical Tasty fashion, there were things wrong with the recipe that they don’t show in the video. Like the fact that you have to double the liquid for the batter or you’ll basically have biscuit dough. But it’s a really great recipe that I’ve made many times, gluten free and regular. I’ve even made the chicken and just served it with sweet and sour sauce for a sweet and sour chicken. And frankly the chicken is so good and salty that we have a hard time not eating it all like popcorn chicken as it comes out. I usually make a huge batch and freeze one gallon bag of leftovers because it takes quite a while to make.

If you’re making it gluten free, of course use gluten free flour and gluten free soy sauce or tamari. Luckily it fries up and tastes the same if it’s gluten free or regular.

Make it a meal with:

  • Rice
  • Broccoli
  • Egg Rolls
  • Fortune Cookies

Orange Chicken (Panda Express)

  • Servings: 10
  • Difficulty: medium-hard
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Wonderful, but it takes lots of time.

Ingredients

  • 4 lb. chicken breasts, cubed into 1″ x 1″
  • 1 Tbsp. Salt
  • 1 tsp. Pepper
  • 1 c. Cornstarch
  • 3 c. Flour (or gluten free flour with xanthan gum)
  • 1 Egg
  • 3+ c. Water
  • 2 Tbsp. Oil
  • 6 c. Oil for frying (or however much to fill the electric skillet appropriately)

Orange Sauce

  • 3 Tbsp. Oil
  • 1/2 tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
  • 3 Tbsp. Minced Garlic
  • Pinch of ginger (optional)
  • 3/4 c. Sugar
  • 3/4 c. Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 c. Orange Juice
  • 3/4 c. White Vinegar
  • 6 Tbsp. Soy Sauce (or gluten free soy sauce/tamari)
  • 1/4 c. Water
  • 1/4 c. Cornstarch

Directions

In large bowl, mix salt, pepper, cornstarch, flour. Add egg, water, and oil until it reaches consistency of pancake batter (may need to add more water). Add chicken to batter and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil to 375° in electric skillet. (You  may want to go below the max fill line because it takes longer to heat the oil and doesn’t hold the heat as well if it’s fuller, I’ve found.) Add chicken and cook 5-6 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove chicken from pan with a slotted metal spoon or tongs and transfer to a paper towel lined cookie sheet.

For sauce, heat heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat and add oil. Once the oil shimmers, add red pepper flakes, ginger, and garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Careful, the garlic turns dark quickly. Add sugars and stir to combine. Add orange juice and allow sugars to dissolve, stirring occasionally. Add vinegar and soy sauce and stir to combine. In a small bowl, add cornstarch to water, and whisk to combine. Add to pan with sauce and stir (if it thickens too much, add more water). Continue to cook sauce until it’s thick like maple syrup. Spoon a little sauce over the chicken and see how strong the sauce tastes on the chicken, adding more as desired.

To freeze leftovers, keep chicken and sauce separate. Freeze the chicken in a gallon bag and the sauce in a quart bag. You can also freeze a quart bag of cooked rice and put all the bags together in a grocery bag in the freezer.

To reheat from frozen, I find that the chicken holds up the best and retains its breading best when you microwave for 2 minutes, then heat on the stove. Heat some oil in a pan and warm up the chicken. Try not to stir a lot because the breading does tend to fall off if there’s a lot of movement. Place the sealed bag of sauce in water to thaw. You may need to add some water to the chicken pan and cover with a lid to steam. Once the chicken is hot, add the desired amount of sauce and heat through. To reheat frozen rice, poke some holes in the bag with a fork and microwave for 5 minutes at a time until hot.


Chicken Noodle Soup

This soup tastes so wonderfully of childhood, I make it even in the summer. I love how the whole house fills with the warm aroma of cooking chicken and a light oniony broth. Haha, when I worked at Harmons, we had a meeting every week and started off by saying the best thing we ate the last week–I said so often that my favorite thing was homemade chicken noodle soup, that my coworkers started to request that I bring it in one day, since it was apparently so delicious. I never actually did, though. I did make it for a district meeting on my mission once, though. Haha, except it sat on the stove the whole meeting and the bottom burned, and the noodles turned to mush. It still tasted pretty good, though.

In all fairness, I don’t know that it’s such an amazingly stellar recipe so much as it reminds me of warm, comforting days with my mom. Of sneaking pieces of chicken, and one time being bold enough to ask my mom if I could eat one of the wings. She kindly obliged, smiled, put some salt on the wing, and handed it to me, letting me enjoy the whole thing.

I also remember my mom, at my request, teaching us for a Young Women’s activity about how to make a meal when our mom was sick. So she taught us how to make chicken noodle soup and blueberry muffins. Some girls didn’t want to get their hands goopy in breaking down the chicken, but I never minded. Plus, you get to sneak lots of pieces of chicken yourself. I’ve made this soup so many times in my life, and I look forward to making it with my girls.

If you’re making this gluten free, make sure to use Members Mark Chicken Base from Sam’s Club or Better Than Bouillon instead of bouillon cubes. And I generally cook the noodles separately and add them in after because gluten free noodles tend to fall apart in soup. So the smallest amount of time the noodles can be in the soup, the better.

Make it a meal with:

  • Muffins or Rolls
  • Fresh Fruit

Chicken Noodle Soup

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: medium
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Warm and comforting, but it takes tons of time to make.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole Chicken, washed and cleaned out
  • Water to cover chicken
  • 4-5 Chicken Bouillon Cubes (or 4-5 tsp. Members Mark Chicken Base)
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 2 Carrots
  • 1 Onion, chopped
  • Optional: 2 whole stalks Celery
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • ½ bag Egg Noodles (or 1/2 box gluten free rotini)
  • ~½ c. frozen Peas
  • ~½ c. frozen Corn

Directions

In large pot, cover chicken with water. Place bouillon cubes, bay leaves, carrots, and onion in water. Optional: Add 2 whole stalks of celery for flavor. Boil for 1 hour, occasionally skimming off foam on top. Remove bay leaves and celery, then remove celery stalks and chicken from water and let cool in a pan for about 20 minutes. (Cools faster if you use a spoon to separate off large chunks while hot.) Once cool, pull chicken off bone and place bite-size chunks in broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Soup always needs lots of salt and sometimes another bouillon cube or two for flavor. Add egg noodles and boil for 8 minutes, then remove from heat and add peas and corn–or cook the gluten free noodles separately and add them to each person’s bowl individually before adding broth.


Chicken Grape Cashew Salad

If you’re making a salad that will be eaten in one sitting, you can mix the mayo right in with everything. But generally we can’t finish the whole salad in one meal and need to make containers of leftovers, so I almost always leave out the mayo and mix it separately per serving. If you mix the mayo with the whole salad and then make leftovers after, it does tend to get slimy fairly quickly, FYI.

If you’re making this gluten free, it’s naturally gluten free as long as you use a new jar of mayo or one that’s dedicated gluten free (so you don’t get crumbs from previous sandwich making).

Make it a meal with:

Chicken Grape Cashew Salad

  • Servings: 6?
  • Difficulty: easy
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Light and easy, but it does take a little time to cut and assemble everything.

Ingredients

  • 3 lb. Chicken Breasts, cubed and cooked (or 1 rotisserie chicken, pulled)
  • 1 bag Salad or Spinach
  • 1 bunch washed Grapes
  • 1-2 c. Cashews
  • 1-2 stalks fine-cut Celery
  • 2 sliced Green Onions
  • Mayonnaise (or new jar/dedicated gluten free jar)
  • Salt to taste

Directions

Cook cubed chicken, adding salt and pepper to taste. Combine rest of ingredients except mayonnaise in a bowl, generally keeping everything on top of the lettuce because everything will fall to the bottom otherwise. Add mayo separately per portion and mix in, to keep leftovers from getting slimy.


Pot Roast

Since pot roast and beef soup have basically the same ingredients, you can make a soup out of this if you just cut up the beef and vegetables beforehand. Also, for pot roast, I love to make gravy with the tons of leftover juice. It’s wonderful to freeze the gravy and use later for Hamburger Gravy, Beef Pot Pies, or Beef and Gravy served over noodles.

If you’re making it gluten free, make sure to use Members Mark Beef Base or Better Than Bouillon (or gluten free bouillon cubes if you can find any), and make the gravy with cornstarch.

Make it a meal with:

Pot Roast or Beef Soup

  • Servings: 8?
  • Difficulty: easy
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It’s basically the same ingredients for beef soup or pot roast.

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lbs. Beef (chuck roast or brisket for pot roast)
  • 4-6 Potatoes, chopped large
  • 3-4 Carrots, chopped large or 4 c. Baby Carrots
  • 1 Onion, chopped large
  • About 4-6 c. Water (to cover)
  • 4-6 Beef Bouillon Cubes (or 4-6 tsp. Members Mark Beef Base)
  • 1 Bay Leaf
  • 1+ tsp. Salt to taste
  • Pepper to taste
  • Optional: Flour (or cornstarch) for gravy (such as 1 c. cornstarch, 1 c. water, depending on how much broth you have)

Directions

For pot roast, place beef in slow cooker and cover with water. Chop all the vegetables large so they don’t get mushy after the long cook time. Add the remaining ingredients except the flour. For the soup, you can use any of several kinds of beef, including rump roast or sirloin–it just needs to cook a long time to get tender. Cook for 4-5 hours on high or 8-10 hours on low until the meat is tender enough. If using a big pot rather than a slow cooker, cook soup for 1 hour (beef may be tougher with this method). Remove bay leaf before serving.

For pot roast gravy: Remove everything from the juice, then pour the juice through a strainer into a pot. Bring to a boil. In a bowl, whisk together flour or cornstarch and water until no lumps remain, then add to the juice, whisking constantly. If the gravy is too runny after it comes to a boil, add more whisked flour and water. Salt and pepper to taste.


BBQ Country Ribs

These originally started as a Dutch oven recipe, but we’ve just been making it in the oven for the last several years. It’s fun for a big gathering–it does tend to be messier and greasier, FYI. Also, it’s pretty flavorful, so you may want a mild side dish with it, like white rice or rolls. And we usually serve it in a bowl so you get plenty of sauce.

As long as you get gluten free BBQ sauce (which basically all are), this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

BBQ Country Ribs

  • Servings: 6-8?
  • Difficulty: medium
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The secret to the sauce is Dr. Pepper, of course.

Ingredients

  • About 5 lbs. Pork Country Ribs, cut in pieces
  • Canadian Steak Seasoning
  • 1 large bottle Honey BBQ Sauce
  • 1 jar Orange Marmalade
  • 1 can Dr. Pepper
  • 1 Onion, chopped large

Directions

Place ribs in foil and sprinkle with steak seasoning. Seal up ribs in foil packet and bake in pan at 325° for 2 hours. Then combine remaining ingredients in pot and place ribs in sauce. Simmer (or replace in oven) for 1 hour. If you’re in a hurry, it doesn’t have to simmer for a whole hour.


BBQ Chicken

For juicier chicken, you may want to use chicken with bones. Plus, they’re cheaper than boneless skinless chicken breasts anyway. We usually have BBQ drumsticks every New Year’s Eve, and it makes the house smell amazing.

As long as you get a gluten free sauce (which most are), this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

  • Baked Potatoes, Potato Salad, or Rice
  • Green Beans or Corn
  • Fresh Fruit

BBQ Chicken

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: easy
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Easy weeknight dinner or New Year’s Eve party food.

Ingredients

  • Chicken (breasts, legs, quarters, etc.)
  • Garlic Powder
  • Onion Powder
  • Italian Seasoning
  • BBQ Sauce (or gluten free sauce)

Directions

On a greased cookie sheet covered in foil, sprinkle chicken with garlic powder, onion powder, and then Italian seasoning. If boneless, cook for 30 minutes at 375°. For chicken with bones, cook for at least 45 minutes. With 15 minutes of cook time remaining, remove from oven, brush with BBQ sauce, and bake the remaining 15 minutes.


Baked Chicken

We used to have baked chicken all the time because it was very simple and only required Italian dressing.

And this one is naturally gluten free.

Make it a meal with:

Baked Chicken

  • Servings: varies
  • Difficulty: easy
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An exceptionally easy chicken dish that’s quick to throw in the oven.

Ingredients

  • Chicken Breasts
  • Italian Dressing

Directions

(For more flavorful chicken, marinate in Italian dressing for at least half an hour.) On a greased cookie sheet, cover each chicken with Italian dressing. If boneless, cook for 30 minutes at 375° or until temperature reaches 160°. For chicken with bones, cook for at least 45 minutes.


Apricot Chicken

When I was living with my grandpa in my mid-twenties and his doctor told him to go on a low-sodium diet, I was looking for main dishes that my grandpa might enjoy. I knew he liked Olive Garden’s Apricot Chicken, and I found a recipe that was supposed to be a copycat. Over the years I’ve updated and improved it so the chicken has more flavor and the sauce isn’t as runny.

If you’re making this gluten free, this is naturally gluten free–just make sure to use a new jar of jam or one dedicated gluten free so there aren’t any crumbs from previous sandwiches.

Make it a meal with:

Apricot Chicken

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
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In a real hurry, skip the sauce and just spread jam over the chicken, letting it melt slightly.

Ingredients

  • 4 Chicken Breasts
  • Onion Powder
  • Garlic Powder
  • Italian Seasoning
  • 1 tsp. Members Mark Chicken Base
  • ½ c. Pineapple Apricot Jam
  • Salt to taste

Directions

Sprinkle chicken with onion powder and garlic powder, then Italian seasoning on top and bake for 30 minutes at 375° or until the chicken’s internal temperature reaches 165°. In a pan on medium heat on the stove, heat the chicken base mixed in the jam. Boil until sauce thickens. Salt to taste. Spoon over baked chicken.