Switch up your dinner menu with this allergy friendly, crunchy on the outside, juicy on the inside baked pretzel chicken!
📔 Recipe inspiration
This recipe was adapted from a recipe idea from Linda Sue, a reader who has a granddaughter with multiple food allergies. Like many grandmas, she wanted to be able to make an allergy friendly meal that her granddaughter would love.
She writes:
This is sooooo delicious. My grand-daughter, Ryleigh, has many allergies. It is so hard to find things for her. One day we were fooling around in the kitchen and came up with this. Ryleigh calls it Grammy's Pretzel Chicken. I make it whenever I visit and it has been a hit.
🔪 The ingredients
To make this dish free of the top 8 allergens, a few special ingredients are needed.
Pretzels
For this recipe, I used Snyder's of Hanover gluten free mini pretzel twists. I also like the Life GFree brand from Aldi and Trader Joe's has gluten free pretzel twists that are really good (those are my son's favorite).
To prepare the pretzels for the coating, I put them in my Magic Bullet and pulsed it several times until the pretzels were finely chopped.
Flour
You can use any gluten free all-purpose flour that you like and that works for your allergies. I used to like to mix my own but now tend to use one from Bob's Red Mill. For this recipe, it isn't the gluten that we need to mimic but more the starch in the flour so even rice flour alone would work.
Milk
You can use any type of dairy free milk that works for you. I used plain soy milk which works well for us but if you're allergic to soy, you can use rice milk, pea milk, oat milk, etc.
Chicken
No allergy-friendly substitutes to make here! I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cut them into strips but you could save time and just buy chicken tenders. I just happen to always have chicken breasts on hand.
📝 Recipe Tips
I start with boneless, skinless chicken breasts which are usually pretty thick. To make sure these bake evenly, I pound them with a mallet so they are all an even thickness. To do this, I put them in a plastic bag or between two pieces of Saran Wrap. I actually use my rolling pin most of the time because it seems to work the best!
The pieces of chicken are dipped/dredged in three different ingredients: first flour, then milk, then the pretzels. Set up the ingredients like an assembly line with your baking sheet nearby to minimize the mess and make the process quick.
Be sure to turn the chicken at the halfway point of baking (about 8 minutes). This helps the coating to get evenly crisp. Serve immediately with your favorite sauces.
Enjoy!
📋 Recipe
Allergy Friendly Pretzel Chicken
Ingredients
- "Safe" cooking spray
- 1-1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1 inch strips
- salt
- pepper
- 1/2 cup "safe" milk I used soy milk
- 1/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour
- 2-1/2 cup gluten free mini pretzel twists
Instructions
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Salt and pepper the chicken and set aside.
- Place the pretzels in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. If you don't have a food processor, you may put the pretzels in a sealable plastic bag and use a rolling pin to crush. Set aside in a shallow dish/plate. Place the milk in a shallow dish and the flour in another dish or plate.
- Toss each chicken strip in the flour to coat, then dip in the milk, then toss in the pretzels. Transfer to a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Continue this process until all of the chicken pieces are coated with pretzels.
- Bake at 400° F for 15-20 minutes, turning halfway through. The chicken is done when it is no longer pink inside. Remove from the oven and serve with a dipping sauce of your choice. (We like barbeque and honey mustard).
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