The Hungry Canary

Adapted from Ideals Family Cookbook · Marian Hunter

Chicken and Yams

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Ingredients

  • 6 chicken breasts or 1 cut-up fryer chicken
  • ¼ cup sorghum flour (original: wheat flour), plus any reserved seasoned flour
  • ¼ tsp paprika
  • ¼ cup oil
  • ½ cup chopped celery and leaves
  • 1 green bell pepper, sliced
  • 1 medium garlic clove, minced, or garlic salt to taste
  • ⅛ tsp dried thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (choose wheat-free if needed)
  • ½ cup wine, broth or water, to dilute soup
  • About 1½ cups chopped fennel bulb (substitute for 1 drained can whole white onions; can size unspecified)
  • 6 medium cooked sweet potatoes, or 1 can sweet potatoes, drained
  • Dash of rosemary
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • Dash of pepper

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 375°F. Combine sorghum flour, paprika, salt and pepper. Lightly coat the chicken, reserving unused seasoned flour.
  2. Heat oil in a skillet and brown the chicken lightly. Transfer to a large baking dish or casserole.
  3. Add celery and leaves, bell pepper, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary to the pan drippings. Cook for about 5 minutes.
  4. Stir in any remaining seasoned flour and cook briefly, then gradually blend in the condensed mushroom soup and ½ cup of wine, broth or water to make a smooth sauce.
  5. Arrange fennel and cooked sweet potatoes around the chicken. Pour the seasoned mushroom sauce over everything.
  6. Cover and bake at 375°F for about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake about 30 minutes longer, or until chicken is fully cooked (165°F in the thickest part) and vegetables are hot and tender. Remove bay leaf before serving.

Cookbook source

“Chicken and Yams” was contributed by Marian Hunter to the Ideals Family Cookbook. Her original uses six chicken breasts or a cut-up fryer, ¼ cup flour, paprika, oil, celery and leaves, green bell pepper, garlic or garlic salt, thyme, bay leaf, condensed mushroom soup, ½ cup wine/broth/water, one drained can whole white onions, six cooked sweet potatoes or one can, rosemary, salt and pepper. The chicken is browned, vegetables cooked in the drippings, soup sauce added, then baked covered 30 minutes and uncovered another 30 minutes at 375°F.

Hungry Canary substitutions

Flour: use ¼ cup sorghum flour for the wheat flour as an initial coating-and-sauce substitute; thicken and adjust if necessary. Onions: use approximately 1½ cups chopped fennel bulb in place of the original can of drained whole white onions. Since the original does not specify can size, the substitute is an approximate amount. Soup: many condensed cream-of-mushroom soups contain wheat flour; choose an appropriate wheat-free one or a homemade alternative. Bell pepper/paprika: these nightshade ingredients remain in the source recipe; readers who avoid them can omit the pepper and use another savory vegetable, and omit paprika or use a tolerated seasoning.

Ingredient note

Sweet potatoes are retained as written, even though the recipe title calls them “yams.” The original adds thyme among the ingredients but does not clearly mention it in the dictated cooking directions; it is included with the other herbs here.