It’s a Tuesday night and the usual is happening. Kids are in bed, we’re previewing our DVR to see what we have to look forward to and getting ready to chow the hell down. Tonight it’s a homemade chicken masala with rice (hold the naan). I did decide to bake up some Brazi bites to go with our dinner, hoping it would make the naan-less Indian food somehow better. It did! For me. O.M.G. I love Brazi bites.
I would actually not know about whether or not my husband felt satisfied with the gluten-free version, because dude rarely complains about the diet that most of the household maintains. Also, I cook a heck of a lot more so naturally I’m not making gluten up in here. That’s just silly. But just last week my husband did actually have an issue, and it was 100% my fault. Or maybe 90%, 10% genetics. Or perhaps 60% me, 20% genetics, 10% processed wheat. Or maybe it was 90% processed wheat and 10% me. Oh, who am I kidding. It was totally me.
After three years of living with gluten-free me, my husband can’t really digest the gluten so well. We were out of town last week and dining it up and sure, he availed himself of the bread basket whenevs. No judgment from me. Hey, it’s not my kitchen and I say load up and party when you can, my friend. Then we got back to the hotel, and . . . not so much.
So yeah, I feel pretty bad. Not as bad as I do for me who really, really, really can’t ever gluten, but still BAD. If this man had not been enjoying the gluten-free life (or pretending to, because, come on) he would most likely still be munching away on breadsticks happy as a clam. Well, not a clam, because he’s kind of got a shellfish thing.
What I’m trying to say is, WEIRD. I know that I react much strongly now if I get cross-contaminated than I did before I cut gluten out of my diet and ate it every damn day. I mean, it’s brutal if I get gluten’d now and when I was shoving it up in my mouth I might have at least one day where I wasn’t on the pot 18 out of the 24 hours. I’m more sensitive now to gluten, it seems, and so is he. Bummer.
I owe that guy. I owe him.
Has this ever happened to you?
Oh, and here’s how to make that yummy winter dish!
Gluten-Free Chicken Masala’ish
adapted from Bon Appetit
Prep time: 30 minutes Cook time: 2.5 hours
Ingredients:
3 lbs. boneless chicken thighs
3 Tablespoons butter (or ghee)
Salt
Pepper
1 white onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons peeled ginger, grated
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons channa masala
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
8 cups gluten-free chicken broth
3/4 cup can tomato sauce
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 lb small Yukon Gold poatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick, or fingerling potatoes
Directions:
1. Heat butter or ghee in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Working in batches, cook chicken, skin side down until brown for about 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
2. Add onion, garlic, and ginger to pot and cook until onions are soft, about 8 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste, masala, cumin, turmeric, coriander, cayenne and cardamom and mix until fully blended. Cook until tomato paste is beginning to darken, about 4 minutes.
4. Add chicken back into the pot, add broth, tomato sauce and cream. Season with more salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered until chicken is falling apart and liquid is slightly thickened, about 1 1/2-2 hours.
5. Add potatoes to the pot and cook until potatoes are tender and liquid is thick enough to coat a spoon, about 40 minutes. While stew is cooking, prepare your rice according to package directions.
6. Remove stew from heat and serve over rice.
Makes: 12 servings
Gluten is my Bitch 
You know it, lady. Now when I indulge in the late night slice I break out into a gorgeous hivey rash two days later. It’s terrible!!
Man, that SUCKS.
Interesting… I always say that I’m going to have my (theoretical) kids eat gluten outside of the house. Then, hopefully, if they don’t have celiac, they’ll still be able to consume it as they grow up. We’ll see how it turns out though!
OH MAN, my man will be super upset if this happens to him..and lets face it, it probably will since we dont eat out much anymore and I do all the (gluten free) cooking.
Hasn’t happened to my husband, yet, but I do all of the (GF) cooking, so it’s possible. He did cut out alcohol when I did (I can’t seem to tolerate that, either) and now one martini makes him feel sick. I kinda feel bad about that, but then again, I want to scratch his eyes out when he’s enjoying a tasty alcoholic beverage after a long week of work and I’m drinking…water. Without ice, thank you, because that seems to bother my stomach, too.
And, yes, I suffer much more now when I get glutened than I did when I was eating it all the time. I haven’t been diagnosed with celiac, but I get really sick and totally relate to the hours spent on the toilet (and the one time when I didn’t make it off the freeway quick enough and pooped my pants). I am there with you, sister!
I had strongly suspected this was the case with removing things from your diet! I have voluntarily eliminated a number of foods from my diet. I’m don’t have Celiacs but I do believe I have NCGS -of which I can’t get tested for because my doctor doesn’t beleive in it and the tests from the one lab that does it have to be paid out of pocket…and yikes, that ain’t happening. But I digress. Now when I do have my little cheats here and there, I def notice that a drop of dairy and my nose starts running like a faucet, gluten and I immediately feel a brain fog hit me and sometimes I start itching. There’s a laundry list of weird reactions that I won’t bore you with. But yeah, I totally get it and ps. let’s not let my hubs read this because he’s kinda in the same boat. I’m the chef, I say what’s what! 😉 P.S. – The masala looks incredible!
Oh no! To be fair, it COULD be a coincidence. Ya never know…Also, mmm, Brazi Bites sound like a perfect oddball (literally?) replacement for naan.
Super super easy to make your own Brazi Bites! Here’s the link for a recipe my friend Elizabeth gave to me. Tapioca is sticky flour so hard to work with to get that perfect round shape, so I just did mine misshapen. Still super tasty!
And the link! http://www.beatinglimitations.com/blog/post/brazilian_cheese_bread_-_guest_post_from_elizabeth
interesting…..my BF still eats G outside the house too and inside the house he still drinks beer BUT he says that in general when he eats carbs he doesnt feel as good and for me going GF meant going a bit lower carb since i dont do well with tons of rice flour/sugar. is it mean that a tiny tiny piece of me wouldn’t be that upset if my BF had to give up gluten ? i mean….i had to and its been almost 2 years so he’s got 2 extra years on me of trying all kinds of new things, being able to eat out, not worrying he’s going to get sick at every holiday, party, event, etc ? maybe i’m just a bit mean. like maybe i wish he had to give it up like 3 days a week or something : )
Hahahahaha!
Don’t feel too badly, it may be that he was sensitive all along and the symptoms were so minor he explained it away to himself? I was that way for years. Joint pains, chronic sinus infections, discomfort after eating… hair falling out, fatigue… I became an expert at justifying everything. Until I noticed my mom was also suffering, then I really started researching. xoxo
My parents have started having this problem with soy (I found out about my soy allergy first) recently. I’ve been soy-free for about 6 years and gluten-free for almost 2 years. (and off and on for a year before that while I was in denial.) They eat gluten at least once a week and show all the classic signs of celiacs but refuse to admit that anything could be wrong… I know it’s horrible to wish this but I keep waiting for something like this to happen to them so they will final admit they have problems and go get tested! Thanks for letting me rant!
Oh boy. Yeah, it is easy to ignore something that you wish didn’t exist. Until it’s not easy because you’re too sick!! I hope they get tested, and please, rant away.
Mmmm..That looks delish! And I was also going to comment about how the brazi bites (also known as pao bread) are super easy to make! We eat them alllll the time. I am newly in a relationship with someone with celiac and so I am getting as much info as I can about this whole GF thing. My mom found your book at the library and we both loved it! I was of course delighted to discover you also have a blog! Thanks for all the good info/recipes!
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