Vegan Hot Chicken

This Vegan Hot Chicken is the very best there is.  Don’t let the list of ingredients trip you up – there are quite a few, but it is not difficult to make and it will be well worth the effort.  Whether you what Chicken and Waffles, Hot Chicken Sandwiches, Chicken Tenders or Chicken Nuggets, this is the recipe for all of these!

This recipe make a lot, so you can freeze some or make it a couple times in a row.  It is so good you WILL want to make it again the very next day!

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Vegan Hot Chicken

This vegan fried chicken takes a little work, but it is SO WORTH IT! Perfect for a hot chicken sandwich, or chicken and waffles or just as chicken tenders. It won't disappoint – trust me!

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Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 15 minutes mins

Course: Main Course, Side Dish, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Hot Chicken, Seitan Chicken, Vegan Fried Chicken

Ingredients

THE CHICKEN SEITAN WET MIXTURE

• 1/2 Cup Non Dairy Milk
• 1 Can Cannelli Beans w/liquid
• 1/3 Cup Veggie Stock – I use No Chicken Stock If using paste or bullion add a little extra
• 1/3 Block Firm Tofu Drained
• 8 oz Dried Mushroom – I use shiitake
• 1 T Tahini Sauce
• 3 T Miso
• 1 T Dried Onion Flakes
• 1 T Garlic Powder
• 2 t White Pepper
• 1 T Celery Salt
• 2 t Dried Sage
• 1 T Poultry Seasoning
• 1 T Old Bay Seasoning – Optional
• 1 T Umami Seasoning – Optional

THE SEITAN CHICKEN DRY

• 2 3/4 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten

THE BROTH

• 8 Cups Veggie Broth (No chicken or vegetable)
• 1 Bunch Fresh Rosemary
• 1 Bunch Fresh Thyme
• 1 Onion Quartered

THE SEITAN CHICKEN BREADING

• 1 Cup Flour
• 1 Cup Non Dairy Milk
• 2 T Rice Wine Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
• 2 T Hot Sauce
• 1 T Dill Pickle Juice
• 2 T Egg Replacer or Ground Flaxseed
• 1+ Cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 2 t Black Pepper
• 2 t Sea Salt
• 1 T Cayenne Pepper
• 1 T Dried Oregano
• 1 T Paprika
• 2 t Dried Sage
• 2 t Dried Thyme
• 2 t All Spice
• 1 T EITHER Red Pepper Flakes or Slap Ur Mama Spice
• 1 T Celery Salt
• 2 T Sugar

Instructions

THE SEITAN CHICKEN

• Combine all the wet ingredients into a food processor. Blend until nice and smooth.
• In a large bowl, place the Vital Wheat Gluten. Pour in the wet ingredients and start to mix. Once the seitan has started to come together, remove from the bowl. Your mixture should be firm, but fliable. You can add a more Vital Wheat Gluten or water depending on the consistency of your seitan.
• THIS IS IMPORTANT. Start to kneed the seitan by hand. You have to work the seitan for at least 5 minutes. The more you kneed it, the firmer the texture on your "chicken". Keep kneeding, pounding and working the seitan. The seitan will firm up the more you kneed it.
• In a large pot, add the 8 cups broth, rosemary, thyme and onions. Bring to a boil
• Cut the seitan into smaller pieces. The seitan will expand quite a lot during to cooking stage in the broth. I use a roller and roll out each piece to about the size of a hamburger bun. These pieces should be thinner than you want them for your chicken sandwich due to the expansion of size. If you want chicken tenders, you can leave your pieces a bit larger and tear them into size once they are cooked.
• Add you seitan pieces to the broth, reduce the broth to a low simmer and cook for 60 minutes.
• Remove and dry off the seitan. Place in the refrigerator and let cool. Since this recipe makes quite a lot of seitan, I usually freeze some for later. I typically don't leave it in the freezer for more than 1 month, but I read you can leave up to 3 months.

BREADING AND COOKING

• Use 3 medium size bowls.
• Bowl #1 – Place the flour. When ready, add your seitan and coat nicely with the flour.
• Bowl #2 – Add the non dairy milk, the rice wine vinegar, the pickle juice, the egg replacer and hot sauce. Let this sit for about 5 minutes before using. This allows the milk and vinegar to create a buttermilk and the pickle juice to create a brine.
• Bowl #3 – Add the Panko breadcrumbs and all the spices. You can reduce the amount of the cayenne and red pepper flakes if you want a less spicy chicken.
• Take the seitan pieces that are coated in flour, dunk them in the milk mixture and then coat them with the panko/seasoning mixture. Make sure you shake off any excess liquid before placing in the panko mixture.
• For frying, you can either fry in a pan or use an air fryer. Either way, I use as little oil as possible. I do not deep fry these, but you certainly could.
• For a fry pan, coat the pan with either avocado oil or some type of vegetable oil. Cook over medium heat until each side is crisp and golden brown. Add a little more oil as needed.
• For the air fyer, once the setain is breaded, spray the pieces with light oil. Cook at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the outside is golden brown. I usually flip the seitan at about 5 minutes.

Notes

OPTIONS – You can make chicken patties, chicken breasts, chicken tenders or chicken nuggets.  Just think ahead as to what you want and form your seitan into the right size.  For tenders or nuggets, you can cut or tear the finished/cooked seitan before breading.

Chicken Sandwich – We like to make our sandwich with fresh lettuce and tomato, vegan mayo and sweet pickles.

Chicken and Waffles – Make your seitan into patties or breasts.  Use your favorite waffles recipe (I will be adding one here soon).  Serve with warm real maple syrup.

NOTE – You will probably have more of the breading components than you need for just one meal.  Just save the leftovers and use the next day!

Check out some of my inspirations for developing this recipe.  It started in Nashville when we visited The Southern V.  This place totally blew us away with their flavors, textures and spices used to create their southern style foods.  We fell in love!  You can read more about the vegan food scene in Nashville at Vegan Nashville Baby.

During my search for information on how to create my own version of Vegan Hot Chicken, I found The Avant Garde Vegan, Gaz Oakley.  I was truly inspired by his passion and his skill at developing big, wonderful flavors.