"Chicken" Seitan Round One

In my last post I mentioned that I have a recipe for chicken-style seitan that I use all the time.

I should have said that it is a recipe that I used it all the time.

As many new veggies will tell you, when you decide to make the switch you spend a lot of time initially trying to recreate new, "safe" versions of your old favorites. I think this is normal, as you're still getting to know how to do things differently and learning a whole new way to cook and eat. 

If this didn't happen, I honestly have no idea what I would have eaten in the first few weeks.

This recipe is one I used all the time in the early days - so much so that I got really sick of seitan.  For a while I had three separate posts in the pipeline all about seitan and every time I went to edit them I just couldn't hit "publish." 

Now, after literally months seitan-free, I am ready to once again delve into the archives and pull out my chicken-style seitan recipe. (I know I make this sound really terrible and I swear it isn't - I just Oh-Dee'd on seitan for a while.)

I make this one of two ways, depending on what I plan to use it for. If I'm looking for something that resembles cutlets or tenders, I will make it the first way, on the stove top. When I want to make the boyfriend's favorite "chicken" salad, I make it the second way, in the oven. Today's post is all about the first way. The next post will teach you how to do the second version.

For the stove top version you will need:

1 cup vital wheat gluten

2 TBSP vegetarian chicken broth powder

1 tsp garlic granules

1 cup water

To start, mix together your dry ingredients until the spices are evenly distributed.

Add the water and stir with your hands. The dough will form almost instantly - gluten is desperate to get to some water and make dough; it just can't even wait it's so excited. When the dough is pretty much mixed together, turn it out of your bowl and onto the counter. 

The dough will be very wet. Don't worry, this is totally normal. You will notice that it's definitely springy and spongy but it doesn't hold together terribly well. Knead it a few times until it starts to hold together a little better but stop before it starts to get tough! 

Remember Baking 101 - DO NOT OVER MIX. Bear in mind that when you bake and you mix your dough/batter/whatever, you're basically activating the gluten to hold everything together. Over mixing your dough/batter/whatever will make your baked goods tough and elastic-y. Now think for a second about what you're working with - GLUTEN. VWG is just flour with all of the starch removed so be really careful that you don't mix it too much. The results are unappetizing, believe me! The best thing to do is just try it a couple of times until you get a consistency you can live with.

Next, form your gluten into four cutlets that are roughly the same size. Making them the same size will help them to cook evenly. Last you're going to add the cutlets to a broth to simmer them.

For the broth you will need:

4 cups of water

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 TBSP vegetarian chicken broth powder

Mix the broth together in the biggest skillet you have. Trust me when I tell you this - the seitan grows when you cook it and will take over your skillet. If you don't have a huge skillet, I suggest splitting the broth between two skillets and cooking the seitan in two batches.

Heat the broth over medium heat and add the seitan cutlets. On my stove I put the burner on 4. Make sure you don't boil the seitan. Boiling will also make your seitan turn out tough and rubbery.

Simmer covered for about 35-40 minutes or until the broth is nearly all absorbed. You can make the seitan ahead of time and store it in the rest of the broth or you can use it right away. You can keep it refrigerated for about a week and since this recipe makes a TON of seitan, you'll definitely need to refrigerate some of it.

Some serving suggestions:

1. Instead of making cutlets, make the seitan into nuggets. Dip them into soy milk, followed by the bread crumbs of your choice, and fry in a little oil for nuggets.

2. Slice into strips and mix into your stir fry.

3. Butterfly the seitan, fill with whatever you like, and roll to keep everything inside. Secure with twine or toothpicks and bake.

4. Slice the cutlets open so you create a pocket. Fill with the mixture of your choice and suttee on both sides until golden.

5. Follow the same steps in #1 but serve with spaghetti sauce and "mozzarella" like a hurried-up version of "chicken" parm.

However you decide to use this, keep in mind that this method of cooking your seitan isn't perfect for everything, but it is super versatile in your old recipes that used chicken. The second method will allow you some additional cooking options so stay tuned!