Gluten-Free: The Great Chicken Finger Cook-Off

Recently I've gotten two different brands of breadcrumbs from the Acton Food Pantry -- one is Gillian's Foods(which comes in plain & Italian and the other is Hol-Grain.

Time for a gluten-free chicken finger cook-off! Yay!

I'm more familiar with Gillian's Foods breadcrumbs since my mother uses them at her home for everything requiring breadcrumb usage (as a coating for chicken and fish, in meatballs & so forth). I was familiar in using both flavors to make chicken fingers and any number of other kinds of breaded chicken. Gillian's has wide distribution throughout New England given their location in Lynn, Massachusetts. The Hol-Grain I hadn't used before, but it was intriguing; it's Louisiana-made in the oldest working American rice mill, so I was looking forward to the potential Cajun kick of what Conrad Rice Mill calls its "chicken coating mix".

Each of these breadcrumbs were placed in a bowl, and then the raw chicken fingers were dipped into them after being dipped in egg.

I like Gillian's Foods but the breadcrumbs are thick. It's difficult to fully coat the chicken and then keep the breadcrumbs on the entire piece of chicken while frying. Hol-Grain meanwhile is much thinner and thus sticks better to the chicken throughout the cooking process. Surprisingly both took about an equal length of time to brown. The resulting consistency of Gillian's is more like a breading found at a local one-off restaurant, whereas the Hol-Grain reminded me more of a small fast food chain in the greater New Orleans area. Gillian's allows for more customization with your own choice of spices if the plain is used and makes perfect Italian chicken fingers if that flavor is chosen; the Hol-Grain comes pre-spiced, which allows for less steps in preparation, but its enjoyment is down to whether you like the manufacturer's spicing or not.

Dinner #1: Gillian's Foods

Dinner #2: Hol-Grain

It's a good thing Liberty and I (and my gluten-eating partner) like them all.

The thing is, my little competition was a draw. Both products are gluten-free but they can't really be compared. It all depends on what you want out of a meal. Each are good for chicken fingers or fish, and it all depends on what you're seeking -- how much work do you want to do, what specific taste you're seeking (plain, Italian, Cajun or something else entirely) or what texture you're in the mood for.

I can't imagine Hol-Grain being quite as extensively useful as Gillian's for use as fillers, binding agents or cheese / vegetable coating as its use seems to be limited to meat only. Conrad Rice Mill seems to know this with their other gluten-free Hol-Grain branded products (like tempura batter & onion ring batter that I must try) as well as others under the name of Konriko Products. Hol-Grain packaging is also deceptive by only being half-full; if the sole factor was value for money, Gillian's would win hands down with at least double the amount of uses for around the same price of $5, but that is not the only consideration here.  I can imagine Hol-Grain being delicious on catfish but that would be a let-down on Gillian's Foods; I can imagine Gillian's in chicken parmigiana but not Hol-Grain chicken coating mix. They both have their uses, even for variations on the same (such as these chicken fingers).

When it comes down to it, I honestly can't imagine not having either breadcrumbs in my home.  I would lose out on many potential delicious meals without both of them. Try them both and see what you think -- then please let me know here in the comments!