Chicken with Peas and Shitake Mushrooms

4-6 slices of bacon
6-8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
3/4 cup dried shitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes and drained
1 large onion, or 1 bunch of scallions, diced
3 cloves of garlic
2 -4 cups of chopped romaine lettuce (or other lettuce)
16 ounces of frozen peas
1/2 cup of GF broth, water or mushroom soaking liquid
2 teaspoons of GF ketchup
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Chop the bacon, saute it until crisp, drain away the grease and set the bacon aside. Fry the chicken in the same pan until golden, and put the chicken pieces into an oven-proof casserole. In the same pan where you fried the chicken, fry the onion until browned, then add the garlic, lettuce, peas, mushrooms, ketchup, sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and parsley. Add the broth or water, stir to get all the tasty bits of things that are stuck to the bottom of the pan mixed in with the vegetables, then put all of this material - the vegetables and the juices - on top of the chicken. Cover the casserole and bake for 25 minutes at 350.

This is very tasty served with jasmine rice. The recipe is based on one from Paula Peck in The Art of Good Cooking, which was published in 1961. The original recipe had much more fat, from chicken skin and a whole half a cup of butter which I have omitted here. Also, the original included soy sauce which is often not safe for the gluten-free community. I have updated the mushrooms to shitake mushrooms, but you could use regular button mushrooms without any diminution of flavor.

© Gf-Zing! | Alice DeLuca