Almond flour and coconut flour can be perfect substitutes for traditional flour in many Primal baked goods, but they don’t always provide a texture that is as light and airy as we want. This is why we were so pleased when Katie Hudgens sent us a recipe for baked clafouti that eliminates flour entirely. Her Chicken Curry Clafouti bakes up into a rich, savory pastry with a texture that’s so smooth and buttery it made us wonder why we ever thought clafouti needed flour in the first place.
A clafouti is a French pastry with a texture somewhere between cake and custard. It’s usually served as a dessert, and Katie often makes it this way herself by adding mixed berries to the batter. As good as this sounds, don’t let the temptation of berry clafouti dissuade you from trying Katie’s savory version, Chicken Curry Clafouti. A simple batter of eggs, butter and coconut milk (or whole cream) bakes into a flourless, sugarless pastry that’s more like a quiche than a cake. It does retain a pastry-like quality, however, in the puffy, light-as-air crust and in the sinfully buttery texture. The butter and coconut milk also lend a slightly sweet flavor that is the perfect backdrop for spicy curry powder. A generous amount of chicken adds to the ample amount of protein already in this savory, eggy custard that can be enjoyed any time of day. Make it for dinner and eat the leftovers for breakfast, or pack it up for lunch or an afternoon snack. Whenever you eat it, we think you’ll find it as surprisingly delicious as we did.
Now that we have this flourless clafouti recipe down, Katie has inspired us to experiment with all the tasty combinations we can think of. Salmon and dill? Ground bison and basil? Numerous combinations abound. With a little experimentation, you die-hard pizza lovers might even be able to turn this clafouti into the perfect pizza crust. We haven’t tried it ourselves but can imagine adding sausage to the batter and then in the last 15 minutes of baking, spreading tomato sauce, sautéed veggies and a little cheese over the middle of the clafouti. If you try this, let us know how it turns out.
Before you go wild with variations, however, Katie’s recipe for Chicken Curry Clafouti is the first one you should try. Mainly because it’s so dang good, and secondly, because tinkering with baking is always easier once you’ve mastered the original recipe. But any way you slice it, this clafouti is an easy way to satisfy any sweet, or savory, cravings and is sure to be a favorite of kids and adults.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
6 tablespoons melted butter cooled to room temp. + 1 pat for greasing pan
3/4 cup cream, half & half or coconut milk
4 cups cooked, chopped chicken
2 tablespoons curry spice, or to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400° F.
Butter a 10” round or 13×9” baking dish.
Whisk together eggs, butter & cream until frothy.
Mix in chicken and spices and pour into baking dish.
Bake about 45 minutes or until top is golden brown and puffy.