Publised on 14/08/2019 by Richard. Last Updated on 28/09/2023 by Richard.
Vegan fried chicken like you've never tasted before - seriously. It's meaty, flavoursome, moist inside and super crispy outside. Call your mates - it's the big one!
This vegan fried chicken recipe is BY FAR the most popular on School Night Vegan. Could it be down to that crispy, crunchy batter which doesn't require any egg or dairy? Quite possibly! Could it be that this is the most fun way to cook and eat my vegan chicken? Almost certainly!
Whatever your reasons for wanting to make my vegan fried chicken, I'm glad you're here and I hope this batch of chickeny heaven makes you very happy! Alright, let's get crackin!
Jump to:
Vegan Fried Chicken Ingredients
This vegan fried chicken recipe was the first ever vegan meat alternative I made from home. Originally it involved a rather elaborate process of rolling out thin layers of seitan to create a chicken-like texture. I quickly realised this was overkill and so this version of the recipe uses my much improved vegan chicken recipe for the meat replacement. Other than this, you'll need:
- Gram flour - aka chickpea flour or besan. this is to help thicken our vegan fried chicken batter. It acts similarly to egg which is why it's used in many traditional Indian batters such as onion bhajis!
- Plant milk - any will do! Just make sure it's unflavoured and unsweetened.
- Cider vinegar - this helps to split the plant milk, which makes it thicker, resulting in a most substantial batter.
- Sriracha - to give the batter a tiny spicy kick, any hot sauce will do!
- Plain white flour - used for "dredging" the vegan fried chicken to make the batter coat it better!
- Corn flour (aka cornstarch) - keeps things crispy and helps with browning.
- Sea salt - for obvious reasons!
- Old bay seasoning - If you can't get hold of old bay, here's how to make your own
- Black pepper - because BP makes everything better!
See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for quantities.
Instructions
You've likely made this vegan fried chicken before, but if not, HI AND WELCOME! Here's a little visual guide on how to actually make this recipe. From start to finish! Obviously the full recipe is at the bottom of the page, but feel free to guide your cooking process with these HANDY PHOTOGRAPHS!
1. Make the vegan chicken! You'll need to do this in advance (unless you're using a store-bought alternative or mushrooms instead). This recipe is a simple seitan chicken and can be used in a bunch of other recipes, like my tikka masala, so you can't really make too much!
2. Make the batter! For this recipe our batter is a tale of two mixing bowls! We're going to make a wet batter and a dry flour dredge. The flour helps the wet batter to stick to the vegan chicken and when combined with the cornstarch and gram flour, it keeps everything crispy and golden brown.
3. Coat the vegan chicken! It's a good idea to tear your vegan chicken into wings, strips or tenders before frying, so do this first. Then dunk in the flour mixture, then into the wet batter then BACK into the flour mixture. This double coating method keeps everything super crunchy!
4. Fry the vegan chicken! The best oil for deep frying is either plain vegetable oil or sunflower oil. You want to get it up to around 170c/340f so a chef's thermometer comes in handy here. Fry a few pieces at a time (depending on the size of your fryer/pan).
Substitutions
Here are some ways to customise this recipe to your specific diet! EVERYONE deserves vegan fried chicken, so let's make this friendly for everyone!
- Gluten free? - This recipe can be made gluten free, but you'll need to start by swapping out the vegan chicken. Either use a store-bought GF alternative or simply use clusters of oyster mushrooms! You'll also need to swap out the plain flour for a gluten free variety. My favourite brand is Freee or Bob's Red Mill.
- Soy free? - This is very easily done! Again, you'll need to use a store-bought GF alternative for the actual chicken or simply use clusters of oyster mushrooms instead. Just be sure to avoid soy milk in the batter - any plant milk will do!
- Kid friendly! - If your kids aren't great with spice, ten feel free to leave the sriracha out of the batter ingredients. The spice levels of this recipe are actually SUPER low, so if your kids are up for an experiment, go with the flow!
Vegan Fried Chicken Variations
I can't tell you the possibilities you've unlocked by making this vegan fried chicken! SO exciting! Now you can have a go at customising the recipe for yourself!
- Korean BBQ! - Why not drench your crispy fried vegan chicken in this vegan Korean BBQ sauce before serving? My friend Lisa has got your back with this insanely good recipe!
- Sammich time? - This fried chicken works so beautifully in a fried chicken sandwich! Why not follow the instructions in my katsu chicken sandwich recipe and make some magic!
- Buffalooo - Looking for some wings for the big game?! Why not whip up a batch of vegan buffalo sauce from this recipe here and get dunkin!
If you make any variations and you think they're a success, be sure to tag me in a pic on instagram! I'd love to see how you get on!
Equipment
Here's a peek at the equipment you'll need for this recipe. Just a heads up - you do NOT need a deep fat fryer to make this recipe. You can just as easily fill a high-sided frying pan with an inch or so of oil and fry the vegan fried chicken in that. Personally I use this tefal deep fat fryer because it automatically filters and stores the cooking oil for you, so it can be used again in another recipe!
- 2 x medium bowls
- 1 x high sided frying pan or
- 1 x deep fat fryer
Storage
Unfortunately, like regular fried chicken, vegan fried chicken down't age too well. You want to eat it almost immediately after frying, if possible. However, you can make the vegan chicken ahead, store in broth in a sealed container then either store in the fridge or freezer.
Top tip
It's a good idea to drain the vegan fried chicken on a sheet of kitchen roll immediately after frying. Not only does this remove some of the residual oil, but it also helps the vegan fried chicken to stay crispy even longer. To make things EXTRA crispy, sprinkle the freshly fried vegan chicken with salt right afterwards.
Vegan Fried Chicken FAQ
Seitan, in this case. However this really depends on which recipe or product you use. Some recipes use pea protein or soy protein. Alternatively you can simply used clusters of oyster mushrooms, since their texture is naturally so meaty.
Vegetable oil or sunflower oil. These work best for frying as they have a high smoke point, meaning the oil won't burn in the time it takes your food to get crispy.
Vegan Fried Chicken
Equipment
- 2 x medium bowls
- 1 x high-sided frying pan OR
- 1 x deep fat fryer
Ingredients
For the Vegan Chicken
- 1 batch vegan chicken (or alternatively use store-bought vegan chicken OR oyster mushrooms)
For the Egg Coating
- 4 tablespoon gram flour (aka chickpea flour or besan flour)
- 200 ml plant milk (unflavoured and unsweetened)
- 1 teaspoon cider vinegar (or any white vinegar)
- ½ teaspoon sriracha (or any hot sauce)
For the Spiced Flour
- 300 g plain white flour (aka all purpose flour)
- 3 tablespoon corn flour (aka cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoon old bay seasoning (If you can't get hold of old bay, here's how to make your own)
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
For Frying
- vegetable oil (or sunflower oil for frying)
Instructions
To Prepare the Vegan Chicken
To Fry the Chicken
- In one medium bowl, combine the gram flour, plant milk, cider vinegar and sriracha. Whisk well to combine. This is your egg mixture.4 tablespoon gram flour, 200 ml plant milk, 1 teaspoon cider vinegar, ½ teaspoon sriracha
- In another medium bowl, combine all the spiced flour mixture ingredients. Mix to combine.300 g plain white flour, 3 tablespoon corn flour, 2 teaspoon fine sea salt, 2 teaspoon old bay seasoning, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Place a medium, high sided frying pan over a medium heat or turn on a deep fat fryer. Bring the oil to 170 °C, testing the temperature with a chef's thermometer.vegetable oil
- Assigning your left hand to the egg mix and your right hand to the spiced flour, dunk a piece of chicken in the flour and toss to coat. Then, with your right hand, place the floured chicken in the egg mixture. Use your left hand to coat the chicken and then pick it up and place back in the flour. Very carefully coat for a second time in the flour mixture then place carefully in the hot oil.
- Fry the chicken piece for around 2-4 minutes or until completely golden brown. Using a spider or a slotted spoon, remove the chicken from the fryer and place on a few pieces of kitchen towel to drain. Repeat the process with the remaining vegan chicken.
- Serve while hot!
Harriet
Can’t wait to try this! Also thank you for changing the format of your recipes to include the cooking time and servings, it’s a big help! I use a recipe manager to organise recipes from my favourite food blogs (so many of yours are in it!) and it makes the process a lot easier when all that info is included 🙂
Richard Makin
Thanks for the feedback Harriet! So glad you like it!! xR
oliver
Hey there
I didn't really get the rolling of the dough really thin is that to create the different layers in the texture do you have a picture of doing it just so I can visualize the process if possible. If you wanted not use the tin foil would it still work
Nicholas Burgess
How much did it cost you to make one recipe of this and where did you buy the ingredients?
Kai
Hello. I'm a HUGE fan & I want to say THANK YOU for sharing your recipes!! I just have one question...what is gram flour? I feel like I should know this! 😊 I truly cannot WAIT to try this recipe!
Thank you!
Shannon
Also trying to figure out what Gram Flour is or what may be substituted.
kulsum koya
gram flour is chickpea flour
Dios
Regular white flour all-purpose is great fine . I think.there British thats why the say Graham which could mean several types I doubt bread or pastry flour Go with All-purpose!
Collette
chickpea flour, basan
Martina
It's chickpea flour
Karra
Google is your friend! I also didn't know what it was. Typed it into google - bam. Chickpea flour.
Sheila
Chickpea glour
Dios
Regular white flour all-purpose is great fine . I think.there British thats why the say Graham which could mean several types I doubt bread or pastry flour Go with All-purpose!
Eva
Its a chickpea flour 😉
Deanna
This looks so good!
Are you able to specify the size of the can of chickpeas? They come in several sizes and the standard size varies by country. Thanks!!
siue
I concur! What size can of chickpeas!?
Aneta
Also concurring! Tried to make these with the 540mL cans in Canada and it didn't make a dough. More of a batter. Adding in more gluten flour until it binds.
Swash🏴☠️B
400g - look at the label for the weight.
Emily Cook-Newman
I love all your recipes they are awesome and I would change anything in them my autism child loves them too maybe if you make some kids recipes in the future
Liz
When you say corn flour do you mean UK cornflour or US style? Thanks
Richard
Hey! I mean UK CORNFLOUR, US Cornstarch!
Bnali
Did not know this, but had blue corn masa... it was still great! 😆
VEE
MADE THIS TONIGHT-MIND BLOWN🤯ABSOLUTLY DELICIOUS!!!!
pat
Just next level! So glad I made this. Took while but so worth it.
Renn Collier
I can't believe this aint chicken. Thanks for this recipe its amaznig with vegan coleslaw
Jules
Hi Richard! Do you happen to know whether either soft, firm or extra-firm silken tofu will work well for this recipe? May I ask which one you used? Can't wait to try this. Thanks in advance for clarifying.
Richard Makin
Hey Jules! It makes no difference, but I used firm!
Deb oxo
I use vegan mayo for my "egg" coating for the batter. It works really well for me.
Richard Makin
Thanks Deb! xR
Aija
I am about to try this recipe. What size of can of chic peas is it? Approx how many grams?
Thanks
Richard
Just a normal 400g can.
siue
Great! Thanks for the info on the chickpeas (14 oz in Canada!)
Catherine
Hi, really want to try this but avoiding oil! Do you think it would work in an airfryer? Thanks
Richard Makin
Hey! No idea, sorry. I don't own an airfryer and I don't know how they work. Sorry!
Pierre Chicoine
Hi Catherine, I was thinking the same thing! I've used my air fryer with every recipe that asks for frying; just add a little bit of oil sprayed over everything.
Let me know how it works for you!
Cheers!
Matthew
I came here with this question. Have you tried it with the air fryer yet?
I am making fried chicken for a party and thought this recipe would be a great alternative for my vegetarian and vegan friends. I just don't have a deep fryer and don't intend to get one.
Kayleen
I was SO excited to try this until I saw the tofu😩 I'm allergic to soy, is there any alternative to it?
Sam
You can definitely make Seitan without tofu in it. :)) This recipe has such a small amount that omitting it entirely won’t ruin it. The texture may be very slightly different but the tofu isn’t mandatory.
Sam
You could try jackfruit instead of tofu.
Tammy
How many pieces in the 5 serving recipe?
Kayla
This looks insane! Definitely cannot wait to try it.
Dawn
I don't have a stand mixer, but am used to making/kneading bread with heavy spoon and hands; is a stand mixer mandatory for this recipe? Thank you
Sam
I use my hands to knead Seitan recipes like this all the time and it works fine. 🙂 It should be noted though you will have to knead for 10-15 minutes to get the texture right though, so it’s a good workout!
Nikhil
Super excited to try this out!
Just now working through the steaming portion - a few questions for next time:
1) Have you ever used Just Egg? Not sure if it's available in the UK. I'll definitely use your "egg" recipe, but wondering your thoughts on using that product.
2) Surprised that you didn't include any salt in the "chicken" portion. Does adding salt to the mix change up any of the cooking characteristics?
3) Do you have any recommendations on baking vs. frying? I'm going to fry half the batch, but my wife wants me to bake a portion of this, just to test it out.
Thank you so much for sharing all your recipes with us!!
Nikhil
Here's a link to Just Egg: https://www.ju.st/en-us/products/consumer/egg
Ash
I was curious about the Just Egg too, but knew he wasn’t going to reply due to it being a substitution. Did you try it? It’s such a lengthy involved recipe and I’m a single mom and could use the few minutes of time it would buy me!
JoAnne
Wow! This is near perfection. Even my non vegan husband loved it!
Rachel
Hey Richard, this sound AMAZING!!! Do you have any plans to make it on YouTube for us visual types??
Richard
Hey,
I made it on instgram. You can see it in my story highlights. X
Rachel
I would really like to see a video of this. How do you roll it out thinly? The dough was way too springy and stringy for me. It didn't hold together and didn't stay rolled out.
Richard Makin
Hello Rachel. There's a video in my story highlights on instagram showing exactly what you asked for. Hope this helps.
Rachel
Found it. Thanks!! Even without properly layering it was delicious, by the way!
Luciano Willemse
No all of us do Instagram...
Richard
Then you’ll have to settle for a completely free recipe that someone spent hours of their life developing then. Lots of love x
Carmen A. Lopez
Hello 🙂
Is there a substitute for vital gluten in this recipe? My daughter can't have gluten. 🙁
Richard Makin
Hello Carmen,
As far as I'm aware, this recipe only works because of the gluten. It's essentially a seitan chicken recipe and seitan is almost 100% gluten. You could always try replacing the seitan for tofu and frying in gluten free flour? Like a mention in the post though, I'm not an expert on gluten free cooking and tend not to advise on subs and swaps. Apologies and good luck!
Stacey
I made them! great recipe, flavor and clear instructions. thank you, school night vegan!
Richard Makin
Thanks Stacey! So glad you enjoyed them!
serena
Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙏I bought some old bay seasoning today, so my vegan card is still valid. lol
Debbie
Hi this looks sooo good and I’m sure it is.
Can you share what gram flour brand you use? Thank you for all your hard work and for sharing with us. I love all your recipes.
Jared
Looking at the nutrition facts, it doesn’t say how much a serving is. Just wondering because the sodium and carbs are through the roof.
blown
Amazing. I fried it and tried in a small bites in a stew, both times it had the texture of chicken!
Fitness health Forever
Thank you for sharing this lovely post. have a good day.
diabetic hyperglycemia symptoms
Rhonda Ojongmboh
I made it and it looks just like the description, but better in real life. I don't remember exactly what chicken taste like (i've been vegan for 1.5 years) but I assure you this recipe is better than chicken. It is absolute a 10/10. The crunch is amazing. Definitely worth the time (took me 6 hours because I'm like to go at a slow pace.)
Victoria
Hi! I’m making this for my husband’s 40th birthday since we cannot go out. Quick question- when it says “Place the layered piece of seitan on a new large piece of baking parchment and fold it up tightly. Wrap tightly with tin foil and set aside” - does fold it up tightly refer to the parchment paper? Like is the seitan supposed to be wrapped in BOTH the parchment paper and the foil to steam? Just want to make sure I’m not misreading.
Joanne Rosandich
kia ora
this looks fab, my big question i appreciate your thoughts on is
my girl is gluten free, i tried to replace vital wheat gluten with buck wheat flour AND xanthan gum in another recipe. it was a FLOP more i think becos i handled the mixture to much and the water was not the correct temperature.
so can i replace with buck wheat and xanthan gum in this recipe??
DAA
you're a GENiOUS!!!
Mr. Jason Michael Donahue
Thanks for sharing, finally someone explains why chickpeas are added to a seitan recipe!
Sarah
Hello there,
I have an allergy to chickpeas. What else would work?
Susan
Richard,
You're a King, a Guru, a Master, and a mighty GREAT CHEF!!!!!
Thank you!!!!
This recipe is AWESOME!!!!!!!
Susan Rosenberg
I forgot to leave the STARS.
It should be 10 Stars instead of 5
Suzita8
my daughter is vegetarian, not vegan (sorry!) so i'd like to make this with egg for the coating... do i just replace the whole "egg coating" with a couple of eggs, i guess? THANK YOU! This looks amazing and we'll all eat it up, i'm sure!!
Dr. Eggman
The author literally said in the recipe description "I won’t give advice on any ingredient swaps, substitutions, omissions or changes to the method described above (how dare you talk about my baby like that!)"
Vegetarians can eat vegan recipes. If your daughter will literally die without having traces of egg in her food, there are tons of fried chicken recipes you can use that have an egg coating. Try making the chicken as done in this recipe, and then find a fried chicken recipe with goddamn eggs in it.
I hope you all have a wonderful day full of eggs cracking all over your kitchen.
Jenbro
Wow, sorry dr eggman felt the need to be so rude to you 💛 yes, you’re correct that that would be an appropriate swap. Happy cooking!
Yumi
Hi Richard,
How thin did you roll the seitan out? I rolled it pretty thin, but the layers did not come out as amazing as yours. They were more like...layers of slate, so obviously layered and not meat like (but the taste was really good). I'm wondering if I put too much oil between each layer. Do you recommend rolling the final "piece" out to squish the layers together? If you had that in the directions, apologies.
Sharon
Absolutely amazing thanks for all your hard work - everyone loved it .
Matt
Best chicken seitan my wife and I have ever had! Lots of work especially with the rolling out and layering, but its worth it!!!
Joao
This gave me one of those Chris Farley Colombia Decaffenaited Coffee crystal moment. If I did not know it could have been hard to tell the difference.
Not hard to make takes some planing but tasted good in chicken a waffles!
Markus
How to steam it if you don’t have a steamer?
Khushal
Hi. I am from south africa and we don't have old bay seasoning. I know u have a link for old bay seasoning recipe. Just wandering if you ever tried making your own seasoning and how close is it to your store bought one. I have come across many OBS recipes. Thanks for your kindness in sharing.
Kat
Amazing recipe..once again! Love SchoolNightVegan!! Thank you for your awesome recipes.
Angeline
I’m not even vegan and this is bomb! Will be having it again in the near future.
Nikki
This was amazing - thank you for sharing, time intensive but worth the effort!
Patty
People who know how to make great Southern fried chicken don't use egg in the coating as you mentioned. The trick is the oil's temperature. With real chicken, I normally soaked the chicken in salted like warm water for 30 minutes. Then once the oil is hot enough, flour the chicken then dump it in the oil making sure you don't crowd the pieces or reduce the temperature. The best way to check the oil is with your wet hands,grab a pinch of flour creating a small clump and dump it into the oil. If the tiny clump rises to the top of the oil immediately, then your oil is hot enough. It creates a super crispy exterior. All the spices go into the flour, not the chicken. Or in this case, the chickpeas. You just want it salted enough not to be completely bland on the inside. I hope this is helpful.
Ruby
Then perhaps you should start your own blog and share your own recipe for southern fried murder chicken. The author clearly went through a lot to perfect this vegan recipe, and clearly states there are no substitutions, etc. Canned chickpeas will already have sodium and furthermore do not need to be brined. Dead animal carcass does not naturally have sodium. Soaking chicken in salt water is called brining, and keeps the meat juicy. This isn't a meat recipe and therefore isn't going to be the same as a meat recipe.
Taryn
@Ruby Why are you being so hostile to this person who is just sharing tips from real life experience? It makes you sound like a bit of a knob.
@schoolnightvegan Great job on this recipe. I am going make this next week so I'll update with my rating but I'm sure it's gonna be bomb.
made it loved it
I agree w Ruby that it is impolite to talk about meat recipes on a vegan food blog.
Also I made this and loved it! As I was a bit time crunched I didn't let it refrigerate down to cold which i think would have improved the texture of the final cooked chicken, but it was fab and so moreish. Next time I will prepare the day before. Worth all the effort.
Thank you @schoolnightvegan!!!! <3
Jenbro
Whoa Ruby chill! You live in a world where meat eaters exist & although we here are looking to learn vegan recipes, we can certainly accept a little advice without being complete jerks. Kindness goes a long way
Lloyd
I think this is the single best vegan dish I've made in the 25+ years I've been veggie.
Holly M Taylor
I made this for myself and my nonvegan boyfriend. He LOVED it. Way better than any other mock meat I've ever made. Thank you for posting the video on your IG! Some of the video was sped-up so fast, so I couldn't see exactly how you were rolling the chicken-dough into the tinfoil. I think I still got it to work.
I think I did a few things differently than the recipe, but it still came out really good. I did not need a whole 300g flour to coat this... probably only 75g-ish stuck to the chicken as I breaded it. I used a DIY/makeshift steamer which worked fine. I also hand-kneaded the wheat gluten with the dry ingredients instead of putting it in a mixer, because I don't have a mixer. I also used 2 (vegan-friendly) chicken bouillon cubes because I don't have bouillon powder. I threw them in the blender with all the other wet ingredients and had no issues with it. I'm wondering if I should try using Better than Bouillon paste next time I make it.
I am an American, so the 400g can of chickpeas was tricky for me. I used a regular Goya can of chickpeas that the packaging says it has 439g. When I measured out the contents of the can on a scale, it came out to less than 300g. I was confused so I just used the whole can. Maybe the Goya measurements includes the can's weight in the grams calculation? I probably should have added more water at this point, because the texture of the chicken was a little dry, but still very good.
We served the fried chicken with mashed potatoes, sweet corn, and gravy. Not the healthiest meal... but it was tasty!! It is 100% time consuming, and worth every step. I'll make it a few times a year.
Thank you again for sharing it with us. Your website is one of my favorites now, can't wait to try out other recopies 🙂
Caresse
I make this recipe ALL the time! my family absolutely lovessss it! today I made a huge batch so I can freeze it. On the instructions it says it can stay for 2 months frozen... how do you keep it (is there a special way to wrap foil etc) and how to you defrost when you’re ready to use it?
sb
that's what I would like to know too! If you try something out. Please let me know 😊
Jana
Please make a video. It would be so much better.
philip hickman
Took a whole while to make. But totally worth it ! Cheers for sharing your recipe x
Susan Rosenberg
Can i use a pressure cooker to steam this recipe?
Thanks Richard
Ariane
I just bought an InstantPot and used the steam program, high pressure for 90 minutes, then realised the pressure quickly and toolk them out and it came out perfectly! (put about 2 cups of water at the bottom, just under the trivet and put my "logs" on top of the trivet). It shreds beautifully!
Christy
5 star all the way! Worth the time and effort. My vegan daughter asked for chicken and waffles for her birthday meal and couldn’t believe how good this was. Definitely will be making again.
Rachel
So, I was really reluctant to make these as I am not a big fan of seitan and the recipe takes hours! Also I was extremely skeptical that it would be a good outcome. But my non-vegan boyfriend who is trying to become vegan wanted to make seitan chicken after trying Temple of Seitan wings. So I gave in and agreed to give this a go.
Well, at first I thought the dough smelled disgusting and felt horrible and I was determined that it was a waste of my time. But when we took it out of the fridge and my boyfriend tore some off and ate it he was absolutely delighted! And as such, so was I! By itself the seitan would make a good replacement for chicken or other meat in a lot of recipes. But fried it was pretty damn good. I have to say after being on a pretty healthy vegan diet for a lot of years the amount of oil required for the frying that seemed to be absorbed did worry me quite a lot and it is definitely something that should be a once in a blue moon treat.
Overall, it was totally worth the effort and if my non-vegan boyfriend thinks this is better than most fried chicken he’s ever had I think that says an awful lot! Great recipe, which I wholeheartedly recommend.
sb
Hi!
Can you freeze this? If so, for how long? And how so? Can you fry straight from frozen?
Thanks!
Emily
I have made this several times now. It's not the quickest but it is the best seitan recipe I have tried. The layering really makes a difference with the texture. Thanks so much!
Glen Bambrick
Incredible! Really impressed. I followed the recipe but switched out the old bay with my own concoction of herbs and spices. If you took a bite without knowing what it was you'd be convinced it was chicken. Although long enough timewise to make, each step is easy and well worth it. I left the seitan wrapped in the fridge overnight and cooked the next day. Perfection!
Robert W.
Made this last night. WOW. This was beyond what I thought was possible for vegan fried chicken. I didn't have old bay seasoning and substituted it with poultry seasoning. Also I used Just Egg instead of gram flour. This turned out perfect and I can't wait to make it again.
Imma
Hi Richard,
Is it at all possible to get separate measurements for the chickpeas and the chickpea liquid (aquafaba)? I usually make my chickpeas from scratch.
I looked through all the comments and didn't find an answer. Really excited to make these! Thank you!
Tyema
Hi! So excited about this recipe and I’m currently in the process of trying it!
I was wondering if you had any advice at all about steaming the Seitan in an instant pot!
Will the time still be the same 90 minutes!? And also how much water to add?
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
Ariane
I did it in the InstantPot! ☺️
I first looked everywhere on seitan facebook groups to see what would be the time conversion and it seemed like time should be the same. So I cooked mine for 90 min, using the "Steam" program, at high pressure setting.
I put about 1.5-2 cups of water at the bottom and then stacked my foiled rolls on top of the trivet that comes with the instantPot. I did the QuickRelease of the pressure and took them out right after the cooking time elapsed.
It shredded beautiful! (I'm doing the breading and frying tonight hehe) but the texture of the "chicken" is perfect!
Ruby
Hello! I would like to make this for Thanksgiving, but given the prep time I'm not sure that's practical. What are your thoughts are preparing it up through the steaming portion, maybe even the ripping portion, of the recipe and then frying on the actual day of serving?
Anna
Great effort mate. Great texture and taste! That said I'm going to try and play wtih the taste in the future and maybe add more Bouillon, soy sauce, and some miso paste to see how it ends up. Thank you again!
Keenan
The point of rolling the 6 pieces thinly and stacking them, is to weave the seitan together and mimic the stringiness of real chicken meat
Jamie
My son is the pickiest eater. The first time we made this, I showed him the process. He ended up trying one piece. The next time we made it, he ate like 5 pieces. And now he actually asked if we could make it tonight. This is a kid who doesn’t eat much of anything!!!!!! Thank you Thank you Thank you for all your hours of development and for posting this for all of us to use. So much appreciated!!!!!
Elouise P Smith
Amazing recipes. I am glad that I found your blog as I got new snack ideas from it. My daughter always wants new snacks in her tiffin and now I can make it for her. Keep sharing such tasty recipes with the foodies.
Taryn Beck
Awesome job on this recipe. It turned out great and it was well worth the effort. Thanks for working so hard on this!
Michael Green
A winner.
Thanks for this. My wife and I have a bit of a competition going on to make the best vegan fried “chicken” sandwich. We recently had the Atlas Monroe sandwich, and it was good, especially the batter, but really salty, and we both soon fell into a food coma.
Your recipe has the taste, the texture, and the crisp. One of the three “breasts”, torn into 6 pieces, made three lovely sandwiches.
Eric
Do you know if you could stem the seitan in an instant pot?
Ariane
I did! 90 minutes in the Steam program and it worked perfectly! (I released the pressure right away at the end)
Elaine
This was amazing! Time consuming but I doubled the recipe, froze the extra and have 5 more meals! My husband loved it. Thanks for a great recipe.
Mae
RICHAAAAAAARRRRRD!!
Marc
If you cut rice paper into pieces the size to go around each piece of chickn and then soak in hot water until soft, you can wrap each piece with this "skin" and then do the flour, egg wash, coating steps.
Lindsay
This is probably the most amazing tasting thing I’ve ever made!!! I have 6 kids so I doubled the recipe. I am in the US and our cans are about 440 grams so I just measured with a scale. What was left was one layer of chickpeas at the bottom and it was exactly 400 g. I steamed them in the instant pot like the other reviewer suggested. Press steam button, 90 minutes high pressure then quick release when finished. I refrigerated overnight and all the next day and late tonight I started tearing up the pieces. I’ve never made seitan before so I’m not sure what it was supposed to be like but it was a bit doughy it seemed to me. I wondered if I should steam them more since I had doubled the recipe maybe they needed more time. I decided to fry them up anyways and see how they turned out. They were AMAZING!! So so so good. My kids kept sneaking in picking at pieces and were in heaven. I was actually supposed to be making them for Sunday dinner so I’m going to see what happens reheating and crisping up in the oven after being in the fridge. I’ll report back. Thank you so much for your hard work perfecting this recipe! I can’t wait to try more of your recipes!
Dr. J Q. Javier
I'm vegan for ten years now hope I can make it .
Hailey White
I used finely chopped onion and garlic since I had no powder and it worked out very well
Camilo
I don't get why made a different chicken recipe using chickpeas if you already made one with white beans, is the chicken better with chickpeas or white beans? can I do the layer thing with both of the recipes?
Siue
Did anyone else's seem uncooked? This second time I made it I realized how "doughy" it was. Like nearly just eating dough. I steamed for 90min but ?? I'm going to try and steam the left overs (not made into fried chicken) again and see what happens.
Sharon
HELP....I'm so excited about trying this recipe but am stumped by the metrics. I've purchased ingredients in addition to a steamer and don't want to mess recipe up. Can the recipe be accurately converted from grams ?
Theva
Hiya,
Is there a way to make this gluten free?
Ned Meyers
3 grams of fat??? Good recipe but you're not even approximately close with your fat grams. Between the chickpeas and oil retained by the deep fat frying alone, you are looking at a minimum of 9 fat grams per serving and probably more around 15 fat grams per serving. I highly suggest you have a trained nutritionist look at your ingredients and frying process to better calculate your fat grams.
Catherine Gardner
I’m in the US and have been wanting to make this 😊... based on the metric measurements snd the 1st 2 steps, I’m not sure mine will turn out. The sriram never got smooth and STRETCHY. Our chickpea cans are 439 g, our silken tofu packages 454 g. I tried to convert everything, but must have gotten something off/wrong. I’d post a pic of what it all looks like after 1st 2 steps, but don’t see how.
Catherine Gardner
Dang iPhone typos... meant “and”, “seitan”
paul
Have you thought about making and selling through the mail, like Atlas Monroe? Seems she,s the only game in town right now (and she,s always sold out). You could kill it!
Em
Hello, this looks amazing and I would like to make it for a Xmas party potluck. Do you think it would keep if I cooked them up and drove 15 minutes to the location? Could they be freshened up in the oven there without losing their magic? I don’t think the potluck hosts would want me to cook them their (though they would politely but reluctantly accommodate).
Krishnan
This information is very much helpful, thanks for writing this article.
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Cory
Ok I'm no vegan, but my girlfriend is and she misses fried chicken so I'm going to make this for her birthday. I was worried once I had the dough made as it wasn't very stretchy, I'm not entirely sure where it went wrong. I pressed on, very frustrated, and rolling it out was a bit of a disaster, but i made it through thinking it was a failure. I fried it up today and it was delicious, I'm quite happy, I'll make a few seasoning adjustments before i make it for her, but this recipe is great. Thank you.
Jacob
Why did you change the recipe from using chickpeas. I can't do the recipe like that anymore?
Richard Makin
Hi Jacob, the current recipe is easier and much less labour intensive, plus the texture of the chicken is far superior. By all means replace the cannellini beans in the vegan chicken recipe for chickpeas though, if you'd prefer!
Alice
Can you please change the grams into cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc
Rebecca
This fried "chicken" is delicious. I didn't have old bay seasoning and used a random recipe I found on the internet, and I think it made the coating a touch too salty for my liking (next time I would try a different recipe or try getting store-bought). It is crispy and delicious and also freezes well! One batch made way more than we could eat in one sitting, but the leftovers were easily frozen and warmed up in the oven later on.
Ruby
Hello.
I checked out the seitan's recipe and may I know what can I substitute the white wine with, please?
I apologise for asking this question here. I could not find the comment box in the original seitan recipe.
Thank you 😊
Julie H.
I have to say, this tasted very much like fried chicken. So much so that my carnivore husband complimented me on how good it was. We tossed the pieces in Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Yum! I will however not recommend that you use your blender to "knead" the seitan dough. I also have a Ninja blender and it started smoking. Maybe knead by hand for 10-15 min or blend in small batches. If you have a KitchenAid with dough attachment that might work better. Overall, bravo. This was really good.