Sometimes gluten-free cooking leaves much to be desired, especially with those recipes that begin with the phrase, “it tastes just like…” Experience has taught me that this is rarely the case. The 5 or so years that I was GF, I had very little success with GF baking-despite the fact that I really am a good cook. Honest! There were also several years when my kids were little that I actually cooked tofu and bought things like “fakin’ bacon.” No matter how you try to doctor it up, tofu will *never* taste like a steak.
As I am getting prepared to implement the GFCF diet for my family, I have been experimenting with various GFCF recipes in the hopes that I will have an arsenal of already-tried and much-loved recipes so that the transition won’t be such a shock.
I’ve been reading many blogs and collecting recipes as I go. I was excited to read a post on Gluten-free Mommy’s blog for sesame chicken. It’s been years and years since I’ve been to a Chinese restaurant (a friend of mine is friends with one of the local health inspectors. ‘Nuff said.) even though I love the food. This is the first main dish GFCF recipe that I’ve tried this time around and it was *terrific*. Even my “that food looks weird, I’m not going to eat it” kids asked for seconds.
I doubled the recipe since I am feeding 3 teen boys (who I might add, just came back from a massive 4-day hike in the mountains. They’ve been continually starving since they returned) plus my preteen girls. My girls aren’t yet eating the same sized dinners that dh and I are but they are getting close. 3 pounds of chicken breast were gone in one sitting. I can honestly say that the flavor of this recipe was very, very close to that of the restaurant version I used to love. The only thing I would change would be using less soy sauce, though that could have been because I doubled the recipe instead of the recipe itself.
Thanks! Since I am interested in doubling this recipe myself I had a question for you! Did you use tamari sauce or just regular gf soy sauce? Did you double the tamari/soy sauce?That will help me come up with an amt to double it! Thank you for posting about the chicken!
Hi, Natalie! I used LaChoy soy sauce (I was out of tamari and there was nothing on the bottle of LaChoy that said it contained wheat. Since we haven’t started the GFCF diet yet, I haven’t been really careful). I doubled both the amounts of soy sauce and I think that next time I’ll use the original amount of soy sauce for marinating instead of doubling that. I’m also contemplating doubling the chicken but leaving the sesame sauce amounts the same. Thanks for posting that recipe!!
LaChoy does not have the great flavor of the tamari sauce. I would definitely use less like you suggested! Consider investing in the wheat-free tamari sauce because it is truly delicious! It is one of my best finds on the gluten free diet. I LOVE it. I know you can buy it at Whole Foods- not sure where else. I would use it even if I didn’t have to be gluten-free anymore.
Thanks, Natalie. I agree with you on the LaChoy. My favorite soy sauce is the San-J Wheat-free Tamari. I keep forgetting to order it from the co-op, though it is now on my list.