Meat Lover’s Chicken

Meat Lover’s Chicken: That name might make you laugh because it’s a bit of a “dog puppy”—the term that my friends and I in the writing world used to use for redundancies—but it’s accurate. This chicken recipe, which I’ve previously heard called Continental Chicken or Special Baked Chicken, is my variation of a meat-centric recipe that we used to enjoy before I went gluten free. The recipe includes not only chicken breasts, but also dried beef and bacon. The bacon is wrapped around the chicken breasts and the dried beef is used as the base of the dish.

The original recipe called for a mixture of sour cream and cream of mushroom soup as topping for the bacon-wrapped chicken breasts halfway through baking. While there are some ready-made gluten-free products that can substituted for “cream of” soups and there are recipes for homemade “cream of” soups (mushrooms, celery, and more), the ready-made products often include a list of questionable ingredients and the homemade versions can take some time to assemble. (Note:  I do know that dried beef isn’t a prize when it comes to ingredients either, but eating it once every few years is okay by me.) So I thought I’d come up with a much simpler dairy-free alternative to use as “pour-over” topping. How simple? Only two ingredients. My solution was a mixture of coconut cream (that thick cream skimmed off the top of a can of full-fat—not lite—coconut milk) and chicken broth.

Halfway Through Baking … Before Adding Sauce

To be honest, the resulting dish was even better than I remember the original. Don’t you love that? Simple flavorful ingredients rule! I really never taste coconut flavor from coconut milk any more (desensitization from using coconut milk often perhaps?) and Mr. GFE didn’t note a coconut flavor, so this recipe *might* even pass muster for you folks who are not crazy about coconut flavor.

I’ve also made this same recipe in the slow cooker before. In that case, I use whole chicken breasts (because halved chicken breasts would cook too quickly and end up too dry) and usually about 1 1/2 slices of bacon per chicken breast although you can go crazy and use 2 slices per breast if you’d like. I also usually cook at least six chicken breasts as I find that a fuller slow cooker tends to yield a better meal.

Meat Lover’s Chicken–Serve with Some Sauce Over Rice or Noodles, with Salad, or Veggies

Here are the two versions of my recipe below—the first is made in the oven and the second is made in your slow cooker. But before you leave gfe, be sure to check out my Library Clean-out Giveaway #1, which ends Wednesday. There are a total of 11 cookbooks and resource books in this giveaway and more to be given away soon!

Yield:

Baked Meat Lover's Chicken

Print

Three main meat ingredients and a lovely, simply sauce are used to create this Meat Lover's Chicken. Gluten free and dairy free.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package/container (2 1/2 ounces) of dried beef (gluten free, of course)
• 3 large boneless chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise
• 6 slices bacon
• 1 ¼ cup coconut cream (cream skimmed off top of well-chilled full-fat coconut milk)
• ½ cup gluten-free chicken broth (use less if you use less coconut cream)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 9 x 13 baking dish.
2. Run cold water over dried beef to rehydrate it a bit (and rinse off some of the salt that’s used in dried meats); drain. Place dried beef in baking dish, separating the slices and covering the entire bottom of the dish.
3. Wrap each chicken breast half with a slice of bacon and place on dried beef.
4. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
5. Remove baking dish from oven.
6. Combine coconut cream and chicken broth, whisking until smooth. Slowly pour over bacon-wrapped chicken breasts.
7. Bake 25 minutes longer or until juices run clear. (I’m one of those undercooked-chicken-phobes, so I always cut a piece in half to ensure the chicken is done before I turn off the oven and remove the baking dish.)
8. Let rest a few minutes before serving.
9. Serve over rice or gluten-free noodles, or by itself with a salad and/or vegetables.

Notes

I like a lot of sauce with this recipe, but you can reduce the amount of coconut cream and chicken broth to make less sauce if you like.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

Yield:

Slow Cooker Meat Lover's Chicken

Print

A little prep time and a few simple ingredients creates a meal that you'll love coming home to or having ready after you busy yourself all day with other things besides cooking.

Ingredients

• 1 package/container (2 1/2 ounces) dried beef (gluten free, of course)
• 6 to 8 boneless chicken breasts
• 9 to 12 pieces of bacon (don’t skimp on the bacon)
• 1 ¼ cup coconut cream (cream skimmed off top of well-chilled full-fat coconut milk)
• ½ cup gluten-free chicken broth

Instructions

1. Lightly grease bottom and sides (about two thirds of the way up) of slow cooker.
2. Rinse dried beef with water to rehydrate it and remove a bit of the salt used in the processing. Place dried beef on the bottom of the slow cooker.
3. Wrap each chicken breast with 1 ½ to 2 strips of bacon. Don’t fuss over it. It doesn’t have to look pretty. You just want the bacon to stay on the chicken breasts.
4. Place bacon-wrapped chicken breasts on top of dried beef.
5. Mix coconut cream and chicken broth, whisking until smooth. Slowly pour over other ingredients.
6. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours (depending on size of your chicken breasts). You can cook it on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours if you prefer, but I think it tastes much better if you truly slow cook it when using the crockpot.
7. Serve over rice or gluten-free noodles, or by itself with a salad and/or vegetables.

Notes

I like a lot of sauce with this recipe, but you can reduce the amount of coconut cream and chicken broth to make less sauce if you like.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

 This post is linked to Gluten Free & DIY Tuesdays, Gluten-Free Wednesday, Allergy-Free Wednesdays, and Gluten-Free Fridays.

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