Tag: chicken

Fried Rice


Serves 4
Time: 30 min
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

500 g cold cooked rice (a)
60 g / 2 sticks celery
90 g sprouted mung beans
120 g green beans, fresh or frozen (c)
230 g green drumhead cabbage (d)
240 g cooked chicken pieces (e)
20 g / 1/2 bunch of dark green spring onion tips (f)
1 tbsp golden syrup (g)
3 eggs
3 tbsp canola oil (h)
1/2 tsp salt

Foodnotes

(a) Avoid basmati, jasmine or wild rice which are moderate in salicylates (RPAH Elimination Handbook, 2011). I used long grain white rice.
(b) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(c) Green beans are low FODMAP at 14 beans (75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018).
(d) Green drumhead cabbage is low FODMAP at 1 cup (94 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(e) Meat should be fresh when cooked and either used the same day or frozen immediately. Follow dietician’s advice.
(f) Tip: re-grow spring onions
(h) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)

Instructions
  1. Rinse celery, sprouted mung beans, green tips of spring onions, green beans and cabbage.
  2. Finely chop celery, green tips of spring onions and cabbage. Chop green beans
  3. Heat 1 tbsp of canola oil in a wok on medium-high heat.
  4. Beat eggs together with 1/4 tsp salt
  5. Cook eggs in wok until very dry
  6. Add celery, sprouted mung beans, green beans, cabbage and remaining 1/4 tsp salt to the wok and stir fry for 3-5 mins until celery is soft. Add canola oil as required to stop food sticking to the wok.
  7. Add cold rice to the wok and stir until warm and well-mixed.
  8. Slice chicken and chop into small pieces.
  9. Add chicken and green tips of spring onions to the wok.
  10. Cook for a further 5 min
  11. Mix 1 tbsp golden syrup with 4 tbsp hot water
  12. Remove wok from the heat and stir through golden syrup mixture.
  13. As this recipe contains meat, serve immediately or freeze immediately.
Personal Notes

This recipe is based off Brigid’s Indonesian-style fried rice from Sue Dengate’s The Failsafe Cookbook, but modified to be low FODMAP.

I think the key to fried rice is having relatively dry cooked rice rather than gluggly. If you don’t have time to prepare the rice multiple days ahead, you can still do it on the same day. I cooked my rice in the morning and then used it in the evening. After my usual 10 mins of absorption, I left the rice on low heat on the stove until the rice at the bottom was dry and starting to stick to the saucepan. I then put it in a large bowl, spread it up the sides and left it to cool uncovered while I got ready in the morning. Once it had stopped steaming I covered it and kept it in the fridge until it was ready to use.

Fried rice is a nice quick dinner, and is also a good way to use up left over frozen roast chicken. You can even add left over chicken stuffing to the fried rice for extra flavour. I tried that once and it was delicious. If you don’t have sprouted mung beans they can easily be excluded, and if you tolerate moderate salicylates, you can add peeled, diced carrot in with the other vegetables at the start. I really like egg in my fried rice. I only had two eggs in the fridge this week, but I’ve bumped the recipe up to three eggs. Anywhere between two and four eggs would be fine, depending on personal preference and what is on hand.

Chicken and Leek Puffs


Makes 8 triangles, serves 4
Time: 1 hr
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients – Puffs

2 x 400 g boxes Genius Gluten Free Puff Pastry (a)
300 g diced chicken thighs (b)
45 g dark green tips of leek (c)
12 g / 6 dark green spring onion tips (d)
1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
1 tbsp canola oil (e)
1/8 tsp citric acid
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp gluten free cornflour (f)
rice flour for dusting
1 egg

Ingredients – optional dipping sauce

120 mL water
1 tsp citric acid
2/3 tsp salt
2/3 cup white sugar

Foodnotes

(a) Genius Gluten Free Puff Pastry can be found in some Coles supermarkets.
(b) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician).
(c) Dark green tops of leeks are low FODMAP. They are also slightly higher in salicylates than the white part although suitable for failsafe elimination. Tip: re-grow leeks and spring onions.
(d) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321).
(e) Use gluten free cornflour, also known as cornstarch, which is a fine white flour. Corn flour from wheat contains wheat and gluten while yellow corn flour or maize flour is higher in salicylates.

Instructions
  1. One day before making chicken and leek puffs, defrost pastry in the fridge
  2. Remove pastry from the fridge and allow to warm to room temperature
  3. Preheat oven to 180 deg C (fan forced)
  4. Rinse dark green tips of leek and dark green tips of spring onion. Chop finely, keeping separate.
  5. Cut the diced chicken into smaller pieces
  6. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil to a small frying pan over medium-high heat
  7. Add the chicken to the pan, and stir continuously until the chicken is sealed, about 5 min
  8. Add the leek to the pan and cook until leek is soft, about 2 min
  9. Mix cornflour in with half of the chicken stock and make a slurry
  10. Add chicken stock, cornflour/stock mixture, citric acid and salt to the frying pan. Mix well
  11. Turn the frying pan down to medium heat and cook until the mixture has thickened. The mixture should be creamy with minimal liquid.
  12. Roll out each sheet of puff pastry to a 20 cm x 20 cm square.
  13. Using a sharp knife, cut each sheet of pastry into four 10 cm x 10 cm squares.
  14. Spoon the chicken mixture onto one triangular side of each small square of pastry. Do not overfill.
  15. On each square, fold the pastry over to form a triangle and seal the edges by pressing with a fork. This may be necessary on both sides.
  16. Beat the egg in a cup and lightly brush over the pastry with a pastry brush. If you don’t have a pastry brush, a piece of folded paper towel also works.
  17. Place the chicken and leek puffs on an oven tray lined with baking paper, and bake at 180 deg C for 25 min.
  18. Serve immediately as an entree, snack or main course, with optional dipping sauce. If you don’t eat them immediately, freeze them immediately as they contain meat.
  19. To make optional dipping sauce combine ingredients in a saucepan, simmer on high heat for 1 minute with regular stirring.
Personal Notes

I have to thank one of my colleagues for the idea for this recipe. He was surprised that I made a lamb, leek and lentil pie when his usual recipe was for chicken and leek pie. I didn’t realise chicken and leek were so commonly paired together! So I came up with this recipe – I’m sure it could also be used to make a pie with either Genius gluten free puff pastry or shortcrust pastry. When I made these I actually only had one packet of the puff pastry on hand, and I couldn’t fit all the mixture in the puffs. I ended up eating the filling on its own, which also tastes good. You could eat half the filling at once and it would still be low FODMAP and failsafe – the only significant FODMAP-containing ingredients are the green tips of the leek (safe at 28 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP App, 2018) and the homemade chicken stock, which contains green tips of leek and celery (low FODMAP at 75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018).

The dipping sauce is an adapted recipe from Thai Cooking Class by Somi Anuntra Millar and Patricia Lake, it has a lot of sugar in it but is a nice addition, especially if you serve the puffs as a party snack. The original recipe poured the dipping sauce over finely chopped carrot, cucumber and coriander. I haven’t tried it yet, but if you tolerate moderate salicylates, you could pour the dipping sauce over very finely chopped peeled carrot and peeled cucumber. I tried to make a potato bake to go with the puffs but it did not turn out well – a bit of optimising is required on that recipe before I share it!

This week we had an event at Uni for International Women’s Day – there was a talk from a eminent international Chemistry professor and a shared lunch with the other female students. It was great to put some names to faces in the School and meet some new people. I brought along these chicken and leek puffs and fit right in having a delicious lunch while the others had pizza.

Roast Chicken

Serves about 5
Time 2 hours
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low or moderate amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

1 size 16 chicken (a)
1/2 bunch dark green tips of spring onions (b)
1 tsp salt
1 cup of cooked rice or 1/3 cup uncooked rice

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Tip: re-grow spring onions

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
  2. Rinse and cook rice, if not cooked already. I use a 3:4 ratio of long grain white rice and water, simmered on the stove for 10 minutes.
  3. Rinse dark green tips of spring onions and chop finely.
  4. Mix rice, dark green tips of spring onions and salt.
  5. Spoon the stuffing into the chicken and fold the skin over the opening.
  6. Place the chicken in a roasting dish and cook. For each 500 g of chicken, cook for 30 mins.
  7. Allow the chicken to rest for 10 mins.
  8. Pour out the fat (high in amines) and peel off the skin and discard.
  9. Carve the chicken and eat immediately or freeze immediately.

Personal notes

This recipe is based on the roast chicken from Sue Dengate’s The Failsafe Cookbook, which has been adjusted to be low FODMAP, so I have assumed it to be failsafe. However, the levels of amines in stuffing and meat cooked over a long time may be too high for some people – please discuss with your dietician.

If you are not eating the chicken on the day it was cooked, it can be frozen in thin layers wrapped in alfoil. The chicken is then easy to break up to the desired size and defrost quickly. I have successfully used the frozen pieces of chicken in sandwiches and fried rice or reheated with roast vegetables. A sandwich in Well and Good bread with iceberg lettuce and a fried egg is really good after a soccer match or for a light lunch.

My favourite side with roast chicken is roast vegetables and steamed green beans as it is really easy to cook the roast vegetables at the same time – put the vegetables in when there is 40 mins left on the chicken. Another good combination is roast chicken with chips and coleslaw.

Roast chicken is a staple of my diet, but it is time consuming – it really has to be bought on the day you cook it, and it is useful to make chicken stock from the carcass when you are finished. I tend to roast a chicken about once a month and then enjoy making all the recipes that need chicken stock in the next couple of weeks. Roast chicken is also a really good failsafe, low FODMAP meal that can be shared with others and is familiar to “normal” people. The stuffing is easily tastier than commerical (or supermarket) stuffing and is much less dense. I have had a group of friends over for dinner and served roast chicken, and have also brought a roast chicken, chips and coleslaw to a party where everyone else was getting pizza. The chicken went down really well, and an option that catered for quite a few dietary requiremements at once was definitely appreciated.

Chicken Schnitzel

Serves 4 large or 6 small
Time 20 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts sliced (by the butcher) into either 2 or 3 schnitzel cuts each (a)
2-3 eggs
quinoa flour
rice crumbs
canola oil (b)

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)

Variations

Use brown rice flour instead of quinoa flour
Use quinoa flakes instead of rice crumbs

Instructions
  1. Break eggs into a shallow bowl and beat with a fork
  2. On one plate, pour flour; on another plate pour the rice crumbs
  3. For each piece of chicken, covering in flour, then egg (wiping off the excess egg), and then crumbs
  4. Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat and add canola oil
  5. Pan fry schnitzel, flipping once and adding canola oil as necessary
  6. When the schnitzel is cooked through and golden on both sides, take it out of the pan and rest on a piece of paper towel.
  7. Eat immediately or freeze immediately.
Personal notes

Schnitzel is one of my staple meals – it doesn’t take too long and is easy to vary with a range of sides – usually roast vegetables, steamed vegetables or coleslaw. In the picture above I served it with steamed green beans and brussel sprouts (limit to 2), and roast potato with moderate salicylate roast carrot and sweet potato (limit to 1/2 cup uncooked).

It is easy to do several schnitzels at once and then freeze. Quinoa flour and rice crumbs is my favourite combination for a traditional schnitzel taste and golden appearance. Brown rice flour is an acceptable substitute. Quinoa flakes on the otherhand make quite a different schnitzel – more like a crispy coating – and instead of going golden, they go from cooked to burnt quite quickly. That said, quinoa flakes are still good and I have found them in Coles/Woolworths supermarkets while rice crumbs usually require going to a health food or gluten free store. I tend to use Orgran rice breadcrumbs or Casare rice crumbs. Watch out for gluten free bread crumbs which often contain soy flour (high FODMAP), maize flour (contains salicylates) or other off-limits ingredients.

The smaller chicken schnitzels are perfect in a chicken-iceberg lettuce-egg sandwich (with Well and Good bread). Extra (but not necessary) additions to the sandwich could be bean sprouts and choko chutney. I have these sandwiches often on the weekend when I have fresh bread on hand. The sandwich is particularly good to have after a sports match, when lunch is late and I’m really hungry and can’t wait to get home. If you put the chicken schnitzel in the sandwich in the morning, it should be defrosted by lunch… unless kept in a fridge or esky. I have spent more than one road trip defrosting my schnitzel on the parcel shelf in the car!

Colourful Stir Fry

serves 5
Time ~ 35 mins
~ low FODMAP ~ failsafe ~ low salicylate ~ low amine ~ dairy free ~ gluten free ~

Ingredients

300 g diced chicken, or 3 skinless thigh fillets (a)
75 g or 2 sticks celery (b)
150 g green beans (c)
170 g bean shoots
150 g red drumhead cabbage (d)
150 g green drumhead cabbage (d)
9 dark green tips of spring onions (e)
2 tbsp canola oil (f)
1 tbsp homemade cashew paste (g)
1 tbsp pure maple syrup
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp citric acid
200 g thick rice noodles (h)
Water

Moderate salicylate optional additions

1 carrot

Foodnotes

(a) Ensure very fresh meat (as instructed by dietician)
(b) Celery is low FODMAP at 75 g (FODMAP Friendly App, 2018)
(c) Green beans are low FODMAP at 14 beans (75 g, FODMAP Friendly App, 2018). Frozen green beans can be substituted for fresh green beans and used in the same way.
(d) Red and green drumhead cabbage are low FODMAP at 1 cup (~90 g, The Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App, 2018)
(e) Tip: re-grow spring onions
(f) Use canola oil that has no antioxidants (no 310-312, 319-321)
(g) Cashew paste (100% cashew) is low FODMAP at 2 tsp (10 g, FODMAP Friendly App). Commerical cashew pastes with lightly roasted cashews are moderate in amines.
(h) Only ingredient in rice noodles should be rice

Instructions
  1. Rinse celery and chop finely
  2. If using carrot (moderate salicylate), double peel and slice into thin strips
  3. Top and tail green beans if using fresh beans, and chop into small pieces
  4. Cut out hard stems of cabbage and chop finely
  5. Dice chicken
  6. Heat a wok with 1 tbsp canola oil on moderate-high heat.
  7. Add celery, carrot (moderate salicylate) and ¼ tsp salt. Cook for about 4 minutes until carrot and celery soften. Remove from wok.
  8. Heat 1 tbsp canola oil in wok, still on moderate-high heat. Cook chicken until sealed, about 4 minutes. If chicken is browning or sticking to the bottom of the wok, add a small amount of water.
  9. Return celery and carrot to the wok, along with green beans, cashew paste, maple syrup, citric acid, ¼ tsp salt. Stir until cashew paste is well distributed, then add 3 tbsp water.
  10. After a few minutes, add bean sprouts. Put the wok cover on and heat until water is simmering. Turn down heat and allow to steam until chicken is cooked through.
  11. Cook rice noodles according to packet instructions
  12. Rinse and chop or cut green tops of spring onions
  13. When chicken is cooked through, add red and green cabbage and green spring onions to the wok. Stir through and then steam for 5 minutes. Add additional water if necessary to stop stir fry sticking to the bottom of the wok
  14. Using scissors, cut rice noodles into small pieces, then drain and add to the wok and stir through
  15. As this meal contains meat, serve immediately or freeze immediately
Variations
  • Beef strips instead of chicken
  • Bamboo shoots (add at the same time as green beans)
  • Sprouted mung beans (add at the same time as cabbage), limit to 50 g
  • Peeled choko (add at the same time as celery), limit to 100 g
  • Serve with long-grain or medium-grain white or brown rice instead of mixing in rice noodles
  • Moderate amine: firm tofu instead of chicken or in addition to chicken
  • Moderate amine: commercial cashew paste (100 % lightly roasted cashews)
  • Moderate salicylate: peeled zucchini (add at the same time as green beans)
Personal notes

Stir fry is one of my favourite meals – relatively quick and always delicious. There are also so many variations depending on what is available at the shop/markets in a particular week. This recipe originally had chickpeas as well (as seen in the photo), but the GOS in chickpeas stacks with the GOS in cashew paste, so I have moved the chickpeas to a new recipe (White and Green Stir Fry). As there are so many vegetables that can be included, this stir fry can also be made vegetarian very easily – I have done this before and it works well. The recipe above (with carrot) is my favourite combination so far.