delicious food that happens to be gluten free - Chicken with Artichoke Hearts

This is one of my all time favorite meals. Ever. And it's another recipe that I got from my mom. I believe that it once came from a Better Homes & Gardens. It's good for a weeknight. It's good for Sundays. It's good to try and impress your in laws. I've made it for all three with success. I've also adapted it a little bit here and there to make more sauce (because I lika da sauce) and switched out flours to make it gluten free.

Here's your list of ingredients....

2-3 chicken breasts (not pictured, you don't want to look at raw chicken anyway, right?)

1 Tbsp. each butter & olive oil

Salt, Pepper & Paprika to taste

1 can (or however many your like) artichoke hearts

2 Tbsp. rice flour

5 sliced mushrooms or 1 can drained

up to 2 cups of water

1 chicken bouillon cube or 1 tsp. chicken stock base

2 tsp. cooking sherry*

1 tsp. white vinegar

1/4 tsp. dried rosemary

Heat butter & olive oil in a large skillet. Sprinkle salt, pepper and paprika on chicken and then brown in skillet on high heat. Place chicken in an oven safe dish and arrange drained artichoke hearts around it, like so...

Allow me to interject something here. Or rather, try to stop my from it.

My sister also makes this recipe, but we disagree about one thing. Artichoke hearts. She likes the kind in the can, packed in water. I like the marinated kind that you can buy in vats from Costco. The kind packed in oil. The unhealthy kind. Oh good heavens, they are so good! My daughter and I eat them straight out of the ginormous jar. Anyway, it's your call, it just depends on how healthy your feeling that day.

Moving on...

Brown your mushrooms in the oil & butter left in the pan and then add your rice flour. It makes a nice, brown pasty goo. Slowly add one cup of water, your sherry, vinegar (to add some zang to it), rosemary & chicken bouillon and stir it all together. Allow to simmer for a minute, taste for seasonings and add any salt & pepper you need and more water, up to another cup, if the sauce is too thick.

Pour sauce over chicken & artichokes. Cover & bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.

Serve over steamed rice.

See the grease there on top? That's from the marinated artichoke oil. That's what makes it so yummy. Don't be scared.

That's right. Serve it on up.

My favorite brother in law brought over his fancy camera to take some pictures for me. I really do have more than one brother in law and this one really is my favorite. Largely because he packed up his fancy camera and brought it over to my house to take pictures of my food for my blog. I rewarded him with chicken and artichoke hearts. I believe it was a win-win situation.

So there you have it. Make yourself some chicken and artichoke hearts and savor every bite.

*I didn't used to make this recipe with sherry because I never had it around. That's when I started adding the vinegar to add a little extra something to the sauce. Now, I love making sauces with cooking wine so I've got all kinds of it in my pantry. If you don't keep cooking wine around, add a little extra chicken stock, vinegar or apple juice to the sauce.