My mom can fry the heck out of some chicken. Pre-vegan, pre-vegetarian, fried chicken was my favorite food.
We are from the south, my parents are from Alabama, so frying foods is something you are basically born doing. My mom taught me young.
I have tried all sorts of vegan fried chicken variations over the years, using tofu, and basic seitan. I have seen people using jackfruit to mimic the shredded texture. But I decide to take my turkey seitan recipe, change a few things and fry that up.
It is by far the most convincing vegan meat recipe I have made to date, and surely it would work well for a vegan fried chicken. And it did!
The basic recipe for this chicken is pretty similar to the turkey, with some changes to certain spices, and the addition of adding rice paper skin when baking to add another element of crunch to the whole thing.
I am always preaching about letting setian rest, and it does need to rest. I did find this recipe did well when I baked it in morning and fried it that night. The pieces are thin enough that a 6 hour rest seem sufficient. I do think it would have been even better if I gave it overnight but 6 hours works.
I like to add the coating to a large zip lock bag, although you can use a clean brown grocery bag as well. It just makes for less mess when getting the pieces coated. I also like to double coat them so they are good and crispy. Thats what you want, a nice crispy “skin". You can also cut the pieces once they have rested and make chicken fingers pretty easily.
I have not tried this recipe in the air fryer. It should work just fine, it just won’t be nearly as goo. If you give the pieces a spray with oil, I think you could cook them on 375 for 10 minutes but check on them to see how they are doing. I have reheated the pan fried pieces in the air fryer and that works great.
So if you are looking for a crispy, flavorful, vegan fried chicken, this is my favorite, and now my go to recipe! My only other suggestion is be sure you also bake up a batch of fluffy southern biscuits when you deiced to make this recipe. Every southerner knows you can’t have one without the other.
INGREDIENTS:
1 block super firm tofu (the kind that is vacuum packed with little liquid)
1 cup vital wheat gluten
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons tapioca or corn starch
2 teaspoons poultry or Trader Joes Vegan Chicken Seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoons onion salt
2 teaspoons No Chicken Better Than Bouillon
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
1/2- 3/4 cups water
RICE PAPER SKIN:
10 pieces of rice paper, summer roll wrappers
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon
1 teaspoon vegan chicken seasoning or poultry seasoning
COATING:
1/2 cup plain unsweetened vegan yogurt
1 cup milk
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca or corn starch
2 teaspoons each, garlic powder, dried thyme, salt, onion powder, sugar
1 teaspoon each turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, smoked paprika
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
MAKING THE SEITAN CHICKEN BREAST:
*If you attempt this recipe with REGULAR EXTRA FIRM TOFU you will need to press it well, and reduce the water added to the recipe. Add the water last only a tablespoon at time until the dough resembles the picture. This will cause varying results and I really do suggest finding the super firm, vacuum sealed, high protein tofu if you can. It gives the seitan a far better texture.
Break up the tofu and place it into a food processor with the regular metal blade. Run the processor for around a minute until the tofu is broken down.
Add all of the remaining ingredients and let the food processor run for a couple of minutes. You want the mixture to form a dough. Letting the processor run will help knead the dough. We want this seitan to be firm so we need it to knead for a bit. If you dough seems a bit too dry, you can add another few tablespoons of water, just don’t add too much more! I start at 1/2 cup and work from there.
Once you have a smooth but firm dough, remove it from the food processor and place on a clean counter. Knead the dough with your hands for about a minute, forming a kind of oval, flattened out shaped with the dough. Cut the dough into 10 triangles. Using your hands, form the triangles into a chicken breast shape.
In a shallow dish or pie plate, add the warm water, bouillon and seasoning for the rice papers. Stir well until the bouillon is mixed in. Place one rice paper at a time in the mix until it is super soft and pliable. Lay the rice paper flat on a cutting board. Place one piece of chicken seitan in the middle and wrap the rice paper skin around the seitan. Repeat with process with remaining rice paper and seitan pieces.
Line a baking sheet in parchment paper or foil, spray with oil. Evenly space out the seitan chicken pieces making sure they are not touching. They will expand as they bake. Spray the tops with oil and tightly cover the entire pan in foil, tucking the edges tightly around the edges of the pan. We want the seitan to steam inside the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
Open up the foil and allow the seitan chicken to bake for another 20 minutes uncovered. These chicken seitan pieces are thin, if you know your oven cooks hot or the temp is off, you may need to adjust your cook time by 5-10 minutes. If the seitan over cooks it tends to form tiny holes that look like bread. That is often an indication you oven temp is off and you may need a oven thermometer to check the actual temp.
Let the seitan cool at room temp them transfer to the fridge for at least 6 hours to rest. I often bake the seitan the night before I wish to fry it. But you could also bake it in the morning and it would be fine to fry by dinner. Seitan requires a nice long rest to firm up and achieve a more meaty texture. The longer you can let it rest, the better!
FRYING THE SEITAN CHICKEN BREAST:
If you want chicken fingers, you can slice the chicken breast into 3 pieces now that it has rested.
In a medium bowl or pie plate, whisk the plant milk and yogurt together.
In a large zip lock bag combine the flour, starch, and spices. Shake it up really well to get it all mixed together
Take a piece or seitan chicken breast and first dip it in the milk mixture, next shake it in the bag of flour, shake off any excess flour and dip it in the milk again, then back in the bag for another shake. Place on a plate and repeat with remaining pieces.
Place a wire cooling rack onto of a paper towel lined baking sheet. This is where the fried seitan chicken will go once its cooked. This helps it stay crispier than if you just placed it on a paper towel lined plate. This method works for all fried foods.
Heat a large, deep skillet with 2-3 inches of neutral flavored oil good for frying like canola or peanut, over medium heat. You will know the oil is hot enough if you place a chopstick or wooden skewer in the bottom of the pan and little bubbles form around the tip.
Place 3 or 4 pieces of seitan chicken in the pan, careful not to over crowd and let it fry on each side until golden brown. Place the finish pieces on the cooling rack. Fry remaining pieces.
Serve with southern vegan biscuits, mashed potatoes, or whatever side you like.
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