Cheese Cracker Chicken
Well, after last night’s winning dinner, I had to falter a bit. I knew that one girl child would probably not eat it though. You see, she is really a changeling child who doesn’t eat Cheese Nips (or any other cheese cracker or cheese dusted snack food). Ok, she isn’t a changeling but it is one of the few foods she really dislikes. I had hope though. After all, she loves my meatloaf made with Cheese Nip crumbs. This didn’t make her cut but the other two children were fighting over their sister’s piece (even though it had cooties from being on her plate-and the fact that her fork had TOUCHED it where she took an experimental bite-you know how those can prevent people from generally sharing their siblings untouched food) and the pieces left in the kitchen. My mother probably would have had another piece as well. Denise was off at the store-so no idea on her feedback yet-but I did manage to save her a piece. The kids let me know that should she not be interested in it-they would like it.
This recipe comes courtesy of the Bland but Grand cookbook by Edith M Peltz. It is a retro cookbook (this edition 1969) for people with gastrointestinal disorders like Celiac (note: there is a code that tells you whether a recipe is ok for which diet and the following not a gluten free friendly one but there are others that are), Crohn’s, Ulcers, colitis of various sort. The sorts of diseases that call for a bland diet or did “back in the day.”
I do not own this cookbook. It was borrowed from the library–inter-library loan actually-from Northbrook, IL where the author resided. How did we happen to get this cookbook? Denise recently read G.I. Joe which is about a GI doctor. In it he mentions this cookbook (He wrote a preface to this book and the book itself was the Women’s Auxiliary’s project). She was fascinated.
When the book came in we were both fascinated. Men don’t eat casseroles, but should, is one of the more interesting assertions. Also, no seasoning but salt is used in any recipe. (unless you count Ac’cent)
In any case, last night she was flipping through the recipes and mentioned this one for “Simply Baked Chicken.” Hmmm…I could do that.
So, for dinner tonight I did.
Simply Baked Chicken
(is the title in the book where a plainer version is called Golden Chicken American just above it-maybe a mix up because this is very golden)
1 package (6 oz) cheese crackers, crushed fine (We used half of a 12 oz box)-far fewer crumbs would do
2 teaspoons salt (we left this out)
1/2 cup salad oil
2 broiler-fryers (about 3 pounds each) cut in pieces (We used ~ 3lbs boneless tenderloins)
Preheat oven to 375. Pour cracker crumbs in pie plate. Pour salad oil in another pie plate. Dip chicken pieces first in the oil. Then in the crumbs. Place in a single layer in shallow pan. Bake in moderate oven for 1 hour or until tender and golden brown. May be served cold or warm. Note-since I used boneless tenderloins-bake time was about half.
