There are a few tips to make the best seitan and fried chicken. First off, you want to make sure that your seitan is moist. This is why I choose to cook the seitan straight in a pot of simmering water. To pack the seitan with flavor I recommend using vegetable broth instead of water and adding a couple dashes of soy sauce. I just didn’t have enough on hand this time. If you use water like me then make sure to add some salt into the water like you would for pasta. This ensures that the water won’t strip the entire flavor from the seitan when cooking. If you bake your seitan instead it is going to leave it very dry. We don’t want that for our vegan fried chicken. To me the perfect fried chicken has a nice thick and crunchy coating with a tender and moist inside.
This recipe is great left over as well. I found that not only is the recipe for the coating perfect for the flavor and texture, but it also stays crunchy even hours after I fried it. You can make the seitan days in advance if you’d like as well. When you store it in the fridge make sure to let it sit in some of the liquid it cooked in to keep the seitan moist. You can even freeze the seitan for weeks if you’d like and just let it defrost in the fridge overnight before coating it and frying it.
We coated the seitan 3 times before frying it. That’s the sweet spot for our preference. But it’s up to you depending on how thick or thin you want the coating to be on your vegan fried chicken. The first time I dipped the cooked seitan straight into the flour mixture since the seitan is so moist and the flour mixture will easily coat it. Then into the vegan buttermilk, back into the flour, into the vegan buttermilk again and lastly into the flour. Make sure your oil is not too hot or not enough. You want it at about 375 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer then just leave it on a middle-low heat. Test a piece of your coated ‘chicken’ first to see how slow or fast it fries and then adjust the stove accordingly. Also keep in mind that one small piece alone will cook faster than when you put a few in at a time because they’ll lower the temperature of the oil. We like to use a shallow pan and add about ¾ an inch of oil to the pan and fry it that way because we don’t have a deep fryer. If you have any questions at all don’t be afraid to ask in the comments.
RECIPE FOR CHICKEN SEITAN:
Wet Mixture (Should make about 1 ½ cups)
1 tsp Soy Sauce (or miso paste)
1/4 Cup Chickpeas
1 Tbsp Bullion
3 Garlic Cloves
2 Tbsp Onion (you can also use cooked onion)
1 Tbsp Oil (or tahini)
1 Cup Water
Dry Ingredients-
1 Cup of Vital Wheat Gluten
¼ Cup of Chickpea Flour
2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
¼ tsp Poultry Seasoning
1 tsp Sea Salt
Method
FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE:
Wet Ingredients-
1 Cup Vegan Milk
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar (or any vinegar/lemon/lime)
A few dashes of hot sauce – optional for heat
Dry Ingredients-
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp Thyme
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 tsp Poultry Seasoning
1 tsp Salt
ENJOY!!!
P.s. I also have an amazing recipe for Vegan Turkey. My twin sister and I made it for Thanksgiving the other week and it would be perfect for Christmas too. My twin and I hosted thanksgiving at our house. Our mom cooked one non-vegan dish but we cooked everything else vegan. There were almost 20 people there and no one else was remotely vegan. Family members told us that they had no idea it was vegan meat and that they preferred it to the real turkey. This was so gratifying coming from our family because as you may know, family can be more close-minded about veganism than anyone else. So please leave a comment if you’d like a recipe for the vegan turkey.
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Vegan (& gluten free) inexpensive daily vitamins we use and highly recommend with 26 Vitamins & Minerals and 15 Superfoods in one daily tablet. 3 months supply for about $12:
https://amzn.to/2yrPGvK (Deava)
Our vegan sugar:
https://amzn.to/3cAlIVc
The nutritional yeasts we love:
https://amzn.to/2RTsEoh (now brand)
https://amzn.to/34OixX6 (Anthony’s)
Our blender:
https://amzn.to/2VJJZB8
Our kitchen scale:
https://amzn.to/3cD8yGZ
Our food processor:
https://amzn.to/2yxVy6r
