Tuesday 15 October 2013

Nandos Inspired Gluten Free Chicken Burger

gluten free chicken burger nandos
Gobbled And Photographed By The Glutenite
I've thought about attempting Nando's over the years, knowing that they have the allergy book and are apparently very helpful when it comes to avoiding gluten. This weekend though, all thoughts of visiting went out the window for good.

It was the Breadlingtons that started it, I was sat doing my usual meal plan for the week and it came to me that the DS Gluten Free 'Rolls' were similar to the bun of a Nando's Chicken Burger. It's a hazy recollection as I haven't had Nando's since 2006, The Glutenite agreed though.

A Nando's inspired Chicken Burger was set to be made so I did a bit of research in order to replicate the Hot Sauce / Marinade, my order of choice back in the day. What I discovered in both instances was Pepper. Bloody PEPPER. There was no way that I would be able to replicate the Nando's version and there was no way that I could eat at a Nando's because of this. No biggie though, it stopped me wondering and now I had a challenge. Cool.

I noted down the ingredients from the Nando's Hot Marinade and set about playing with quantities. I didn't use all of the safe ingredients because quite frankly, I like my recipes to be as straightforward as possible. If I can cut corners to make a meal quicker and easier to prepare then I do, especially on the weekend. This would have required Lemon Puree and Concentrate as two separate ingredients. Now I know that melting some sugar and adding some lemon isn't the most taxing of exercises but I just couldn't be bothered, I would have had to let them cool too, so those were ousted in favour of plain old sugar and lemon thrown in.

There were a few quantity changes along the way but nothing major, from concept to marination was no more that 15 minutes and I had a Nando's-esque Hot marinade at the end of it. It could never taste just like the original because of the omission of Pepper but I'm really pleased with the result. It's definitely along the same lines.

nandos style chicken burger chips
Nandos Style
To make 2 Burgers.

Marinade Ingredients:

1 Small Onion 
6 Garlic Cloves
Juice and Flesh of 1/2 a Lemon
1 Tablespoon Tomato Puree
2 Tablespoons Tamari Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Corn Oil (or any vegetable oil)
1 Tablespoon of Sarson's White Pickling Vinegar
4 Birds Eye Chillies
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Directions:
  • Peel and roughly chop the onion
  • Peel the garlic
  • Cut off the chilli stalks, halve length ways and deseed
  • Juice the lemon half and scoop out the flesh
  • Put all the ingredients into a mixer and blend until smooth
  • Transfer the marinade to suitable sized container to marinate the chicken in
  • Spoon 4 tablespoons of the marinade into a small saucepan to make the Hot Sauce, leave to one side
Burger Ingredients:

1 Large Chicken Breast
2 DS Gluten Free Frozen Rolls
2 Dairylea Cheese Slices
Lettuce Leaves (I used a round lettuce as I don't like crunchy)
Nando's Style FFG Hot Sauce

Directions:
  • Put the chicken breast into a plastic food bag and hit with a meat hammer (or rolling pin) until 1 1/2cm thick
  • Cut evenly in half and put into the marinade, make sure the chicken is completely covered
nandos style gluten free hot marinade
Marination Time, C'mon!
  • Marinate in the fridge (ideally cover as it has a very strong smell) for at least 3 hours
  • Defrost the DS Gluten Free rolls
  • Prepare the lettuce leaves
  • Preheat your oven to 200C / 180C fan
  • Preheat a griddle pan or good quality non stick frying pan to medium high (4 on my hob), no oil
  • Put the rolls in the oven for 4 minutes
  • Meanwhile put your chicken into the preheated pan, leave to cook for 4 minutes
  • Remove the rolls from the oven and slice in half using an oven glove to hold
  • Turn the chicken and cook for another 4 minutes
  • 2 minutes in, place the cheese slices on top of the chicken
  • Meanwhile put 2 spoonfuls of the hot sauce* onto the bottom half of each roll
  • Put the lettuce on top
  • Once the chicken is cooked, leave to rest on a clean chopping board for a couple of minutes
  • Put the chicken and cheese onto the lettuce and cover with the top of the roll
nandos style hot chicken burger
It Smelt So Good He Couldn't Even Wait To Take A Shot Of It Whole
It really did smell amazing, from the marinade being mixed to the chicken going into the pan, every step of the way my taste buds were being teased mercifully.

*So, the Hot Sauce. You'll be making the sauce as you're cooking the burger if you want it hot or if not you can make it prior. It just seemed over complicated to me to add this to the directions above.

Directions:
  • Put the pan with the reserved marinade onto the hob and heat on high
  • Once bubbling add 100ml water and mix
  • Lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes or until the sauce has thickened
  • Remove from heat until needed
The chicken was moist, tender and full of flavour, it was hot but not as hot as Nando's. You can alter the heat by using more or less chillies and / or leaving the seeds in.

The DS Rolls worked perfectly, they even fell apart and made a big mess just like the original always did. I felt that I got a proper Nando's type experience because of this. I'm being serious btw.

I went the whole hog and even made a version of the Sprinkles for the chips, guess what I found when I looked at what the Nandos ingredients are? Pepper! It gets bloody everywhere. I couldn't even have the chips were I to visit.

Who cares, made me own.

I'm sure that I could vastly improve upon this but the chips will never taste like Nando's, not without blooming pepper.

Chip Sprinkle Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Sea Salt
1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 Teaspoon Chilli Powder
1 Teaspoon Paprika

Just put all the ingredients into a container and shake from side to side (not up and down because that would just be silly. And messy).

nandos style chip sprinkles
Chip Seasoning
My recipe for Homemade Chips.

nandos style chips
Nandos Stylee
So that was my Nando's inspired Hot Chicken Burger and Chips, it's already on the meal plan for next week. If it weren't for those Breadlingtons I would never have thought about attempting it, so thank you DS Gluten Free, you rock. Freefromgdos created.

In Halloween news I'm going to shoot ghosts. *Tries to contain my excitement* (that's an Amazon page just so you know). US readers if you would also like to shoot ghosts click here.

I have procured some Halloween food making items, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them but there will be something shared. I get so tingly about Halloween things.

More soon.

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