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!
Yes, yes, you’ve been waiting for this vegan fried chicken! I first posted a hint about this recipe almost six months ago, and you guys LOST IT. The reason for the delay? I’m a perfectionist, OK?
But don’t fret because you know what that means? THIS RECIPE IS DAMN NEAR PERFECT! I’ve literally been working on this almost weekly for six months (oddly I’m still REALLY interested in EATING IT!).
This is a seitan recipe, but please don’t add this to the “spongey fake meat” pile in your recipe folder. This chicken is next level – with no sponginess, just a beautiful tender meatiness which I’ve never come across anywhere else.
What makes THIS vegan fried chicken special?
There are many vegan fried chicken seitan recipes out there, so the pressure is AWN! But here’s the deal, I’ve tried them ALL, and this is better. Here’s what makes mine different:
Chickpeas!
Most vegan seitan recipes use chickpea flour to stop the gluten from becoming too stringy and gummy. This is good! Unfortunately chickpea flour is also super dry, and what you end up with is a chewy dry piece of sponge. My recipe uses tinned chickpeas along with the whole can of aquafaba! This helps to keep everything super moist!
The LAYERS!
My recipe is unique (as far as I’ve seen) because it’s layered! I dreamt this up when I was making laminated pastry a while ago. I wondered if I can stack layers of pastry with layers of vegan butter to get a great layered flaky pastry, maybe I can do this with seitan!? So, this recipe is slightly fiddly, but believe me, this makes a huge difference to the texture, so don’t skip this step!
The SPICES!
My recipe is NOT over-spiced! Almost every seitan recipe I’ve ever made has relied super heavily on spices to make it flavoursome. Mine doesnt! I use vegetable bouillon which, strangely, when combined with all the other ingredients, TASTES LIKE CHICKEN SOUP!
Don’t believe me? Make the recipe! It will BLOW your mind!
And that coating tho!?
The coating took me EQUALLY long to perfect – seriously, who knew this was so difficult! The challenge with the coating is that most fried chicken is dipped in egg, before being dredged in flour.
Replacing that egg was a nightmare. I also wanted to give the coating that hint of buttermilk, like with traditional southern fried chicken!
I used gram flour and plant milk to make the egg mix and by jove it works wonders! The whole thing has a vibe of buttermilk thanks to some added acidity from the cider vinegar! BINGO!
The flour mix is gently spiced with old bay seasoning! This is a staple for most vegan pantries, so if you don’t have any, your vegan card has been REVOKED! Just kidding. Head over here for a recipe to make your own!
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Please keep in mind…
I love sharing my food with you – it seriously gives me so much joy! As a result, I put a huge amount of time and energy into creating these recipes. This recipe right here is my lil baby and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. As such, 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!)
But seriously, if this recipe doesn’t do it for you and you want to customise it – that’s cool – no probs. Put that finely honed chef’s intuition to good use and tailor the recipe to suit you! Regardless of whether you make any changes or not, let us know how you get on in the comments below.
Vegan Fried "Chicken"
Equipment
- High Speed Blender
- Steamer
Ingredients
- 1 400g can chickpeas ((including their water))
- 35 ml water
- 1 tbsp bouillon powder
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 50 g silken tofu
- 200 g vital wheat gluten
For the Egg Coating
- 4 tbsp gram flour
- 200 ml plant milk
- 1 tsp cider vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sriracha
For the Spiced Flour
- 300 g plain white flour
- 3 tbsp corn flour
- 2 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 tsp old bay seasoning ((If you can't get hold of old bay, here's how to make your own))
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
For Frying
- vegetable oil ((for frying))
Instructions
To Make the Chicken
- In the cup of a high speed blender, combine the chickpeas (including their soaking water), the water, bouillon powder, white wine vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder and silken tofu. Blend until very smooth.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook, combine the vital wheat gluten and the blended liquid. Knead on medium speed with the dough hook for no less that 5 minutes. The seitan dough should be smooth and stretchy.
- Cover the mixing bowl and leave to rest for ten minutes.
- Once rested, remove the dough from the mixer and slice into three even sized pieces. Return two of the pieces to the covered bowl. Take the one piece of dough and slice it into six separate pieces (don't worry if they're all different sizes - just roughly the same is fine).
- Lay out a piece of baking parchment and take one of the small pieces of dough. Place the dough on the left hand side of the baking parchment, then fold over to cover the dough. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough as thinly as you can. Unfold the parchment and peel off the thin piece of seitan. Stretch it out with your fingers and place it flat on a plate. Brush it very lightly with vegetable oil.
- Repeat the process with the next piece of dough - roll it out very thinly then remove from the parchment. Stretch it out with your fingertips and place it in top of the first piece, pushing down lightly with the flat of your hand to remove any air bubbles between the two pieces of seitan. Brush the top piece lightly with oil then repeat the process with the remaining small pieces of dough.
- Once all six small pieces of dough are layered, stretch the top piece of dough down and over the other layers to envelop them and tuck under the bottom layer. 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.
- Repeat the process with the other two large pieces of dough.
- Bring a steamer to the boil and place all three pieces of seitan in the steamer. Steam for a total of 90 minutes, flipping and moving the pieces around half way.
- Once the seitan is steamed, carefully remove it from the steamer and allow it to cool to room temperature (20 minutes) before placing in the fridge for at least an hour. Do not unwrap.
- Once cooled fully, unwrap the seitan and tear apart into whatever size shreds you'd like. (If you're planning to make fried chicken, I'd suggest keeping the shreds quite large. If you're using in a curry, I'd go a bit smaller).
- Keep sealed in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for 2 months.
To Fry the Chicken
- Take the pieces of shredded chicken out of the fridge.
- In one medium bowl, combine the gram flour, plant milk, cider vinegar and sriracha. Whisk well to combine. This is your egg mixture.
- In another medium bowl, combine all the spiced flour mixture ingredients. Mix to combine.
- Place a medium, high sided frying pan over a medium heat or turn on a deep fat fryer. Bring the oil to 170c.
- 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 chicken.
- Serve while hot!
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 🙂
Thanks for the feedback Harriet! So glad you like it!! xR
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
How much did it cost you to make one recipe of this and where did you buy the ingredients?
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!
Also trying to figure out what Gram Flour is or what may be substituted.
gram flour is chickpea flour
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!
It’s chickpea flour
Google is your friend! I also didn’t know what it was. Typed it into google – bam. Chickpea flour.
Chickpea glour
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!
Its a chickpea flour 😉
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!!
I concur! What size can of chickpeas!?
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.
400g – look at the label for the weight.
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
When you say corn flour do you mean UK cornflour or US style? Thanks
Hey! I mean UK CORNFLOUR, US Cornstarch!
Did not know this, but had blue corn masa… it was still great! 😆
MADE THIS TONIGHT-MIND BLOWN🤯ABSOLUTLY DELICIOUS!!!!
Just next level! So glad I made this. Took while but so worth it.
I can’t believe this aint chicken. Thanks for this recipe its amaznig with vegan coleslaw
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.
Hey Jules! It makes no difference, but I used firm!
I use vegan mayo for my “egg” coating for the batter. It works really well for me.
Thanks Deb! xR
I am about to try this recipe. What size of can of chic peas is it? Approx how many grams?
Thanks
Just a normal 400g can.
Great! Thanks for the info on the chickpeas (14 oz in Canada!)
Hi, really want to try this but avoiding oil! Do you think it would work in an airfryer? Thanks
Hey! No idea, sorry. I don’t own an airfryer and I don’t know how they work. Sorry!
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!
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.
I was SO excited to try this until I saw the tofu😩 I’m allergic to soy, is there any alternative to it?
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.
You could try jackfruit instead of tofu.
How many pieces in the 5 serving recipe?
This looks insane! Definitely cannot wait to try it.
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
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!
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!!
Here’s a link to Just Egg: https://www.ju.st/en-us/products/consumer/egg
Wow! This is near perfection. Even my non vegan husband loved it!
Hey Richard, this sound AMAZING!!! Do you have any plans to make it on YouTube for us visual types??
Hey,
I made it on instgram. You can see it in my story highlights. X
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.
Hello Rachel. There’s a video in my story highlights on instagram showing exactly what you asked for. Hope this helps.
Found it. Thanks!! Even without properly layering it was delicious, by the way!
No all of us do Instagram…
Then you’ll have to settle for a completely free recipe that someone spent hours of their life developing then. Lots of love x
Hello 🙂
Is there a substitute for vital gluten in this recipe? My daughter can’t have gluten. 🙁
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!
I made them! great recipe, flavor and clear instructions. thank you, school night vegan!
Thanks Stacey! So glad you enjoyed them!
How is this vegan?? bouillon contains milk and chicken fat? Lol
….? Thank you for that one star review of a recipe you clearly haven’t tried. There are literally dozens of brands of vegan bouillon. But the important thing is that you got to give a hard-working person a one-star review for a recipe which you didn’t pay for or even attempt to make. Good work mate. Great work.
😂😂😂 touché Richard, you’re awesome JUST LIKE YOUR FOOD!
Ha ha, you tell them Richard.
For sure it’s not exactly rocket science to find a veggie stock powder that’s vegan. I found a freakin awesome one at a Polish shop, cheap too & now they sell it at most telcos, go check it out kids!
Why did you rate a recipe you didn’t make? It just makes you look petty and dumb. Never heard of vegan bouillon?
There are vegan bouillons that come in a variety of flavours, man. Some chicken, beef, fish, mushroom, vegetable, and prawn, to name a few. Some companies make exclusively animal-free bouillon for recipes like these.
No! It doesn’t! “maybe” wherever you are you don’t have access to options but I’m not even vegan and I just enjoy using vegan products and learning how to cook this way Because I don’t really like meat. I use vegan bullion in a jar, and have multiple choices….vegetable, chicken, and beef flavor….all Vegan, non-GMO, Gluten free and they taste JUST LIKE what they’re mimicking. I do live in the United States and there are tons of Options here so maybe you only have 1 option for purchase but you can “always” order online from Amazon! The sky is the limit there! Hope you are able to fix that problem!
@mario Campos: What are you talking about??? What chicken fat? What milk? Go educate yourself!
My only complaint with this recipe is that my dough was SOOO wet even after adding the vital wheat gluten that I had to near double it to get the right consistency for kneading. Also had to throw some gram flour in the mixer for it to stick to itself. My guess is that my can of chickpeas was immensely bigger than the one you used in your recipe, so it’s probably a matter of what the norm for a “can” is per region.
Other than that, this turned out very tasty and I’ll be using this recipe (although adjusted) Again in the future. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙏I bought some old bay seasoning today, so my vegan card is still valid. lol
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.
This was LABOR intensive, but worth the effort. I got mixed results when converting measurements from Brit to US, so I may not have added enough gluten the first time. It didn’t cooperate when I tried to roll it out so I had to go back to them mixing bowl. I ended up using around 1.5 cups to get the consistency right. I made this for a birthday meal for a NONVEGAN who loves fried chicken, and she approved. I wish I could post a pic because the final look was just beautiful. SO MANY ppl asked for the recipe just from seeing the pic. I chose this recipe bc my friend is very sensitive to spices and we actually used a poultry seasoning from a jar and it came out just fine. I think any seasoning you like (Cajun, herbs de provence) could be subbed for the Old Bay. Instead of sriracha we used BBQ sauce. I would also like to try with buffalo sauce. Also used rice vinegar instead of white wine and that was fine. Really important tip: Don’t sub wax paper for the parchment paper. It took me forever to remove the little strips that got stuck to the seitan after steaming/cooling. I would like to try again… now that I’m on quarantine I’ll have the time!
Thank you for the recipe and all the hard work that must have gone into developing it. My first attempt was good, It’s a step up from some chicken I’ve experienced from a taste and texture perspective before you get into ethics and sustainability. The layering idea is inspired.
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.
Amazing. I fried it and tried in a small bites in a stew, both times it had the texture of chicken!
Thank you for sharing this lovely post. have a good day.
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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.)
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.
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??
Followed the recipe exactly which I mention because I normally don’t. Everyone thought it was good, but not OMG or anything. Seitan can be tricky for sure. The lamination is a great idea but I’m not sure it really makes a huge difference. The one thing I wasn’t clear on was the “tearing.” Why tearing? And with the grain or against it? I was encouraged to try again and make a few tweaks. Also, I found there was way, way more egg batter and flour mixture than needed. But it did work really well and make a fantastic crust in our deep fryer. Finally, like others noted, a “tin” needs a specified amount of the chick peas. In my country, the “normal” sized can is 550gr, with about 290gr drained chickpeas. So I measured out the suggested 400gr of solid and liquid as best I could.
you’re a GENiOUS!!!
Thanks for sharing, finally someone explains why chickpeas are added to a seitan recipe!
Hello there,
I have an allergy to chickpeas. What else would work?
Richard,
You’re a King, a Guru, a Master, and a mighty GREAT CHEF!!!!!
Thank you!!!!
This recipe is AWESOME!!!!!!!
I forgot to leave the STARS.
It should be 10 Stars instead of 5
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!!
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.
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!
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.
Absolutely amazing thanks for all your hard work – everyone loved it .
Best chicken seitan my wife and I have ever had! Lots of work especially with the rolling out and layering, but its worth it!!!
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!
How to steam it if you don’t have a steamer?
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.
Amazing recipe..once again! Love SchoolNightVegan!! Thank you for your awesome recipes.
I’m not even vegan and this is bomb! Will be having it again in the near future.
This was amazing – thank you for sharing, time intensive but worth the effort!
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.
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.
@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.
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
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
I think this is the single best vegan dish I’ve made in the 25+ years I’ve been veggie.
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 🙂
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?
that’s what I would like to know too! If you try something out. Please let me know 😊
Please make a video. It would be so much better.
Took a whole while to make. But totally worth it ! Cheers for sharing your recipe x
Can i use a pressure cooker to steam this recipe?
Thanks Richard
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!
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.
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.
Hi!
Can you freeze this? If so, for how long? And how so? Can you fry straight from frozen?
Thanks!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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?
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!
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
Could use more flavor, for me. Instead of the onion and garlic powder, I just roast actual onion and garlic, almost to the point of burning them. I add a generous amount of salt to this and blend it with the other ingredients.
I also add ground mustard, and maple syrup before blending.
Honestly just put whatever you want in that blender, but just know that the vital wheat gluten WILL dilute the overall taste. Taste test, taste test, taste test.
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!!!!!
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.
Awesome job on this recipe. It turned out great and it was well worth the effort. Thanks for working so hard on this!
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.
Do you know if you could stem the seitan in an instant pot?
I did! 90 minutes in the Steam program and it worked perfectly! (I released the pressure right away at the end)
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.
RICHAAAAAAARRRRRD!!
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.
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!
I’m vegan for ten years now hope I can make it .
I used finely chopped onion and garlic since I had no powder and it worked out very well
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?
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.
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 ?
I just finished eating a few pieces and I really like it! I think it could be improved by adding some spices in the dough, so just as you wrote, I’m going to tweak the recipe until it suits me. I didn’t have sriracha so I replaced it by Sambal. I couldn’t find Old Bay spice and I didn’t want to buy the whole list of needed ingredients to make it, so I just used the spices I usually use for vegan turkey : thyme, rosemary and sage.
It was a long recipe but so worth it. Honestly I kind of want to make a huge batch of it next time we are having dinner with the non vegan side of the family.
It’s also the first recipe of yours that I try and I’m happy it worked well! Thanks man!
Hiya,
Is there a way to make this gluten free?
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.
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.
Dang iPhone typos… meant “and”, “seitan”
I’m confused how is fried chicken Chinese & Indian???
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!
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).
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