Honey Garlic Chicken Wings with Oven-Roasted Carrot & Potato Fries

This is a great and tasty meal.  You can easily spice it up more, if you like by adding additional cayenne pepper, or a dash of tabasco.  This is a nice mild version the whole family can enjoy.   Give yourself time for the wings to marinate at least an hour.  Other than that, the great thing is that you can cook your carrot & potato fries and wings all at the same time!  I love when meals easily come together so everything ready at the same time.  Enjoy!

Gluten-Free Honey Garlic Chicken Wings - great served with oven-roasted carrot & potato fries, recipe below

Honey Garlic Chicken Wings & Baked Carrot & Potato Fries
based on a recipe from Barnyard Organics - our local PEI chicken growers. Thanks! 

Mix together the following sauce to marinate chicken:
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup Bragg's Soy Seasoning (GF soy sauce)
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Marinate in sauce for at least 1 hour:
2-3 lbs. organic chicken wings

Preheat oven to 400 F.
While oven is heating, prepare the Carrot & Potato Fries below. 

Spread marinated wings on a cookie sheet.  Cook 35-40 minutes, basting 2 times after 10 and then 20 minutes with extra marinade sauce.

Roasted carrot and potato fries: 
Toss together:
6 small potatoes, wedged
3 carrots, sliced into long slices
2-3 Tbsp olive oil infused with chipotle (or add pinch of chili powder)
salt & pepper

Spread on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 F ~40 minutes.   I put the fries and chicken into the oven at the same time.  The chicken gets removed twice for basting, so the total cooking times seem to work out appropriately with both chicken wings and fries being done at the same time! 

Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Cold, snowy winter days are a nice time for a hot bowl of soup.  A hearty homemade chicken noodle soup is wonderful in wintertime.   In order to be able to whip this together, I always try to have cooked chicken available. When I roast chicken (or turkey), I freeze leftovers so I have chicken available in order to whip together this tasty soup.  My kids all love it, veggies included!   We eat it on it's own, or with fresh bread, toasted.  Enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, ready to eat! 

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Serves ~6

Saute about 7 minutes over medium-high heat, until carrots are softening (you want to make sure your carrots are diced very finely because they will be the last vegetable to soften, if they're nice and small they'll be mostly cooked during the saute and then finish up during the boiling):
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 carrots, diced very small
1/2 - 1 onion, diced very small
2-3 gloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup small turnips, diced very small (I had mini ones that I finely diced - leave them out if you don't have any on hand)
~2-3 stalks celery, diced (I used a handful of very thin purple celery stalks)

Add and bring to a boil:
~7 cups homemade chicken broth/stock (or GF chicken bouillon)
1-2 Tbsp fresh parsley, diced
1-2 Tbsp fresh dill, diced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
dash turmeric

Add and boil soup 13-15 minutes, until pasta is cooked:
1 1/2 cups diced or shredded cooked chicken
1/2 package GoGo Quinoa vegetable noodles (they're tiny and circular, perfect for this soup, or you can use small GF noodles of your choice)

Adjust salt & pepper, as desired.  Serve and enjoy!

A hot bowl of delicious homemade GF chicken noodle soup

What to do with leftover candy canes?  I know! I know!  Make my all-time favorite oatmeal brittle recipe!   I'm not a huge fan of ordinary toffee or brittle since I feel like they're amazingly sticky and a bit overpowering in their sugary taste.  This brittle is a happy medium.  It's half crispy oatmeal cookie/half brittle all rolled into one, then topped with chocolate and either peppermint pieces or toffee bits.  How can you go wrong?   These are a favorite among both our friends and family.  It just took me awhile to actually remember to take pictures while I made it, since it's one of those things I usually just whip together quickly, and then we eat - quickly.  Enjoy!

GF Oatmeal Butter-Brittle with Chocolate Peppermint Topping! Yum!

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Butter Brittle!!!

Makes 1 cookie sheet or ~ 24 pieces (depends on how you cut/break up the brittle)

Mix together in a mixer (or by hand in a bowl):
1 cup whole oats (make sure they're gluten-free if you're sensitive)
3/4 cup Kristin's Gluten-Free Flour Mix
1/4 tsp baking powder

Add to oats and mix until mixture is crumbly:
1/2 cup butter, softened

Add and mix in until mixture holds together:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Press onto a 7" x 10" rectangle on a parchment paper lined pan, since dough will spread during cooking.

Bake at 350 F for ~ 17-20 minutes, until brittle is a golden brown (edges will be slightly darker).

Remove from oven and immediately top with:
1 - 1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or mix of semi and dark chocolate chips)

Let the chips sit a few minutes to melt.  Then, spread around chips, sometimes letting sit another minute until the chocolate is fully melted.

Sprinkle top with:
crushed peppermint candy canes or candies
OR
toffee bits

Once pan is no longer very hot, you can slide the parchment paper onto a cooling rack to fully cool.  When the oatmeal part is cool, you can put these in the refrigerator to set the chocolate.

Chop with a large knife or break into pieces.  (For more uniform pieces, I usually cut these while slightly warm before chocolate has set.  For more irregular pieces and a cleaner brittle, I cut/break these once everything has fully cooled.)

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Butter Brittle Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free! 

Homemade Chicken Stock

Happy New Year!  This is a wonderful way to start off the chilly winter months.  I've made homemade broth both with the carcass of a roast chicken after removing the meat, and also with the uncooked carcass we've received when we get our cut up organic chickens.  I've even frozen carcasses and cooked them later when I've had time, so save that carcass next time you roast a chicken and you can simmer a hearty broth later! (literally, just stick it in the pot frozen and it'll heat up in no time! Some recipes that use chicken broth are listed below. A chicken stock will add a slightly richer taste to the recipes, but they will still taste lovely! Enjoy!
A few recipes that use chicken broth: 
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Delicious Risotto
Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom Florentine
Chicken & Rice Soup
Pumpkin Soup
Chicken a la King
Chicken Pot Pie
Leek & Potato Soup
Flavorful Shrimp Scampi with Wild Rice
Broccoli-Cheddar Soup


Homemade Chicken Stock

In a large pot place:
1 chicken carcass (raw, or picked clean after roasting)
2 - 3 carrots, coarsely sliced
1/2 - 1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 - 2 stalks celery & leaves, optional
~1/4 cup fresh parsley
~ 1/8 cup fresh dill
1 - 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 - 2 tsp salt
1/2 - 1 tsp pepper
pinch turmeric, optional
pinch dried mustard, optional

Fill pot just to the top of carcass.  I use a large cooking pot and fill it half-full, which sometimes doesn't quite cover the carcass if it was a large bird.  It's better to have less water than more, so you get a more flavorful broth.

Bring to a boil.  Cover and lower heat.  Simmer stock for 2-3 hours for full-flavor.

Cool and refrigerate or freeze (as you would soup).  Use in any recipe that calls for chicken broth or chicken stock.  You can also use in any recipe that calls for water and 1 tsp GF bouillon.  1 cup stock = 1 cup water + 1 tsp GF bouillon.

Enjoy!