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.
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
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
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.
When you say corn flour do you mean UK cornflour or US style? Thanks
Hey! I mean UK CORNFLOUR, US Cornstarch!
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
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!!
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.