I love fried chicken.

Crispy fried chicken.

Now, there’s two ways to go about making fried chicken, three if you count batter dipped, but that’s not as common.

The two most-popular fried chicken methods are flouring and breading. And they’re both extremely popular.

But what if you’re on a gluten-free diet?

No fried chicken?

Thankfully, there are lots of options (some you might like even better than the wheat gluten ones!).

First, begin by brining your chicken pieces in a mixture of 1 cup water with 2 TBSP kosher (or sea) salt and 2 TBSP sugar. My other suggestion would be buttermilk. Soak for about 4 to 6 hours; then remove and pat dry.

The next step is the initial flouring. Instead of wheat flour, you’ll use one of the following:

1. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Bread Flour Mix
2. Rice Flour
3. Potato Flour

And to help make it nice and crispy, add 2 TBSP cornstarch for every cup of flour you use. And how about some salt and pepper? That’s important too.
Dredge your chicken pieces in the above flour/s. Then, make an egg wash of 2 beaten eggs and 1 cup of milk. If the yolks bother you, you can use 3 egg whites and 1 cup of milk.

Dunk your floured chicken in the wash mixture, and then, for the second time, dredge it–this time in a crumb mixture.

Now here’s where you have some interesting choices. You can re-flour once again in your initial flour mixture and fry. Or you can dredge in one of the following, all of which are wonderful in their own right. (When it comes to making the cereals or pork rinds into crumbs, try a zip-lock bag and a rolling pin.)

• Crushed Corn Flakes
• Crushed Rice Chex
• Crushed Crispy Pork Rinds (also called Chicharrones)
• Gluten-Free Panko Bread Crumbs
• ½ Shredded Coconut and ½ Gluten Free Panko Crumbs
• Crushed Peanuts
• Cornmeal
• Rolled Quick Oats

In addition to the crumbs, you can add some grated Parmesan cheese or dry herbs into your mix.

To every 2 cups of your gluten-free flour mix, add the following 11 herbs and spices. (Don’t cheat now!)

1.  4 tsp Ground Peppercorns (3 tsp Tellicherry,1 tsp white)
2. 1 ½ tsp Poultry Seasoning
3. 1 tsp Ground Jamaican Ginger
4. 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
5. ½ tsp Ground Allspice
6. ½ tsp Ground Fine Herbs
7. ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
8. ½ tsp Ground Winter Savory
9. ½ tsp Ground Vanilla Bean
10. ¼ tsp Ground Cardamom
11. ¼ tsp Ground Star Anise

*For full disclosure, I left off the 1 tsp of Accent® (MSG) that was added to both the brine and the flour mixture.

Okay, we have breaded chicken, and now it’s on to frying. Here are my tips:

• Use canola or peanut oil.
• Fill your pan or skillet with only enough oil to submerge your chicken about ½ to 2/3rds of the way.
• Cook slowly. Heat your oil to 325 F and not much higher. This will allow the chicken to cook longer and get crispy.
• Drain well on absorbent paper.

Expect it to take about 20 minutes to cook your chicken until crispy.

Making great fried chicken on a gluten-free diet gives you a whole new range of possibilities most people don’t even consider trying (to their detriment, I think).