Best Flour For Stews, Fried Chicken, Etc

[j9n]

My family is being very patient and I want to cook the way they are used to the best that I can. Tonight I am making swiss steak. I am using rice flour. Is this the best or is there a better flour or combo. I am thinking of meals where the meat is floured beforehand and the sauce thickens as it cooks. Do I need to rethink this and add the thickener after?

[catfish]

You should be able to make it using the same method as before.

I would suggest instead of regular rice flour, if you can find an Asian market near you, try "glutenous" rice flour (also sometimes called "sweet" rice flour). It is really niether sweet nor glutenous, but it is a much better flour for most things in that it is not gritty like regular rice flour. I absolutely hate the grittiness of typical rice flour because it completely ruins my sauces, rouxs, fried foods and baked goods. But glutenous rice flour works very well and is not gritty at all- in fact it is superior in many respects to normal wheat flour; it pours and measures easier for instance because it does not clump. Also, where I get mine it only costs 50 cents for a 1 lb bag.

[jerickson]

I have found that using potato starch works wonderful for thickening gravies, making white sauces, and I just recently used it for swis steak and it turned out just like it "used" to.

[hthorvald]

I've used corn starch as a thickener in the past, too, and it worked really well. I've gone back to stir fry, coating the chicken or beef in corn starch. When adding the gluten-free chicken broth and gluten-free soy sauce, it thickens up very well.

I think I'll try the potato starch though, I hadn't heard about that before. Good to have options.

Frying chicken (I know, not very healthy), has been a huge challenge. I used to dip in flour and decided to try corn starch. It burned quickly and added an unwanted flavor, so maybe the potato flour will work better.

H.

[tarnalberry]

I don't generally use a thickener for soup - just used only as much water as would give me the consistency I wanted - but I've had potato starch work in the past. I use cornstarch for gravy, though... always have, even when I'd never heard of gluten.

[mbrookes]

Oops. I didn't do that right.

I find that I can use a commercial mixture like Pamels's flour for most purposes, but for frying chicken and especially for onion rings I like Oriental rice flour (called sweet or glutinous) It stays crisp when even wheat flour doesn't.

For frying fish I use cornmeal with a little Tony Chachere (Too bad. I can't spell that word) It makes great catfish.

[sa1937]

Oops. I didn't do that right.

I find that I can use a commercial mixture like Pamels's flour for most purposes, but for frying chicken and especially for onion rings I like Oriental rice flour (called sweet or glutinous) It stays crisp when even wheat flour doesn't.

Thanks! I didn't know that and I do have glutinous rice flour in my pantry!

[Tina B]

My family is being very patient and I want to cook the way they are used to the best that I can. Tonight I am making swiss steak. I am using rice flour. Is this the best or is there a better flour or combo. I am thinking of meals where the meat is floured beforehand and the sauce thickens as it cooks. Do I need to rethink this and add the thickener after?

I use plain white corn flour (not corn meal). The flour is finer and readily available here in the aisle with the international foods like Goya and Gonsalves

[GlutenFreeManna]

Oops. I didn't do that right.

I find that I can use a commercial mixture like Pamels's flour for most purposes, but for frying chicken and especially for onion rings I like Oriental rice flour (called sweet or glutinous) It stays crisp when even wheat flour doesn't.

For frying fish I use cornmeal with a little Tony Chachere (Too bad. I can't spell that word) It makes great catfish.

Thanks for this tip. I used glutenous rice flour to fry some eggplant and it was really yummy that way. I just dipped the eggplant slices in egg and then in a mixture of crushed gluten-free cornflakes, rice flour and Italian seasonings, then fried until golden brown. I tried it both with and without the rice flour and the glutenous rice flour made a better texture than just cornflakes alone.

[Tina B]

Thanks for this tip. I used glutenous rice flour to fry some eggplant and it was really yummy that way. I just dipped the eggplant slices in egg and then in a mixture of crushed gluten-free cornflakes, rice flour and Italian seasonings, then fried until golden brown. I tried it both with and without the rice flour and the glutenous rice flour made a better texture than just cornflakes alone.

Even better I just found these gluten free italian bread crumbs a few weeks ago. Aleia's.. they are seasoned, and come in a 13 oz. plastic container. AWESOME!!!!!! I made chicken parm and they fried up nice and browned and crispy. I have also used them for eggplant parm and stuffed zuccini.

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[Tina B]

I use plain white corn flour (not corn meal). The flour is finer and readily available here in the aisle with the international foods like Goya and Gonsalves

PS: You don't need to add the thickener after. If I'm making stew I throw all of the beef cubes in a clean ziploc bag, sprinkle in the white corn flour, zip and shake. Voila, evenly coated. :-)