My mum used to make this dish for our family regularly when I was growing up. Chicken baked in a mustard cream sauce, with flaked almonds to adorn it. It tastes delicious and could just as well serve as a dinner party dish or as a family favourite. I made some tweaks to the recipe to make it a gluten free chicken simla, with an added Sheffield twist in the form of Henderson’s relish, as a nod to my Yorkshire husband!
Gluten Free Chicken Simla
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breast, cut into large strips (1 breast should go to approx 3 strips)
- 2 tbsp gluten free plain flour
- A knob of butter
- Half a pint of hot water
- 2 tbsp mild French mustard
- 2 tbsp Henderson’s relish or gluten free Worcestershire sauce
- 1 gluten free chicken stock cube
- 150ml single cream
- Salt and pepper
- A small handful of flaked almonds
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C.
- Toss the chicken strips in the flour, then fry in the butter in a frying pan over a high heat. You want to brown the chicken on the outside, but to leave it raw in the middle.
- Next, transfer your chicken pieces to an oven dish and set aside.
- To make the sauce, dissolve the stock cube in the hot water, then add the Henderson’s relish, mustard and salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and then cover the dish with tin foil.
- Bake the chicken in the over (covered) for 1 hour at 180C.
- Remove from the oven and take off the foil. Stir in the cream and then cook the dish uncovered for a further 10 minutes.
- At the same time, spread the flaked almonds out a baking tray and toast them in the oven for the 10 minutes it takes for the chicken to finish cooking.
- To serve, sprinkle the flaked almonds over the chicken and accompany the dish with basmati rice and green beans.
