Yep, there's no law saying you can't use a regular receiver, provided you're okay with the weight penalty, and the plane has space for it. There's nothing "electric-specific" about the smaller receivers, really, though some wouldn't be a good idea to use with glow planes due to limited range and vibration resistance (i.e. GWS Pico receivers).

The signal going from receiver to servo (or ESC) is standard for all brands of radio equipment. Your ESC will work fine with your "glow" receiver.