Gluten Free Mexican

I haven't found it easy to get gluten free Mexican food in London, so I have started making my own. It took sometime for me to find the right packaging for the lovely contents. The contents is easy to make gluten free, its the content-carry which is a bit more tricky... things like tortillas, tacos and the like. I am very happy to have Mexican back!

For the contents, which serves two
1 red peppers
1 medium red onion 
2 skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Small pinch of cumin
1 lime
Olive oil
Salt & pepper 
Soya Yoghurt 
Tub of guacamole
100g grated (lactose-free) cheese

For the salsa 
1/2 fresh red chilli 
15 ripe cherry tomatoes 
Small bunch of coriander
Salt & pepper 
1 lime
Extra virgin olive oil   


The method
Halve and deseed the pepper and cut into thin strips.

Peel, halve and finely slice the onion. 

Slice the chicken into thin strips. 

Put the peppers, onion and chicken into a bowl with the cumin, paprika juice of the lime, a big lug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix them altogether really well. Let them marinate for 5 minutes.

For the salsa, finely chop the chilli.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and coriander.

Put all this into another bowl with salt, pepper and the juice of 1 lime. Add good lug of the extra virgin olive oil, mix well.  
 
Put a griddle pan on a high heat and let it heat up for a minute.

Put the pepper, onion and chicken into the griddle pan. Use a pair of tongs to keep everything moving. It will take 6-8 minutes, and then its done. 

Put a serving of the yoghurt, guacamole and cheese on each plate with half the contents from the griddle pan. 

I took the recipe from Jamie's Ministry of Food (one of my favourite cookbooks).

So what can you put this chicken loveliness in? 
Two gluten free vessels that I have found which I definitely recommend...

For fajitas - tortillas from the Mexican Grocer - these will need to heated up first. Put them in a warm oven for a few minutes when you start cooking the chicken. Take them out a couple of minutes before you dish up and this will allow them to cool and will be easier to handle. 

For taco I found taco trays on Ocado by Discovery - these will also need to be warmed - instructions available on the packet. 

I have tried making my own gluten free soft tortillas without success as yet. 


But I have successfully made crispy tortilla chips which I good for scoping up chicken. This recipe I got from the ever trustworthy Phil Vickery's Seriously Good Gluten Free Baking. 


The Ingredients
100g gluten free flour (I used Doves Farm plain)
50g polenta 
3/4 teapsoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 pinches of salt 
Cornflour for dusting
Veg oil for deep frying 

The method 
Add the flour, polenta, xanthan gum, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 

Add eough warm water to form a soft dough. 

Dust a chopping board with cornflour.

Remove from bowl and knead for a couple of minutes. 

Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces - making it easier to roll out. 

Dust a rolling pin with cornflour and roll a piece of dough out as thinly as possible. 

Cut into small triangles.

Repeat with each piece of dough. 

Heat the veg oil (to about 175-180c if you have a thermometer or drop a piece of bread in, if it turns golden in 30 seconds its ready)

Deep fry the tortillas until crispy on both sides.   


Drain well on kitchen paper before scoping your chicken.