Beer Battered Chicken Seitan Strips

Beer Battered Chicken Seitan strips, served with Veganomican bbq sauce, boiled new potatoes, steamed broccoli with Veganomican cheezy sauce a dill pickle.

I recently restocked my supply of vital gluten flour, and decided to give this chicken style seitan another go. I had been happy with the results the first time I tried it, but wasn’t really into seitan at the time myself. I made a batch last week to to use for meals, and wanted the first use of it to knock my boyfriend’s socks off, or something (ala Grasshopper's chicken fingers in Allston,MA - though their dough is more donutty)…

The beer batter is slightly adapted from this recipe for Beer Battered Onion Rings from the Vegan Cooking School podcast.

Beer Battered "Chicken Strips"

One batch of Chicken Style Seitan*, cut into ½ inch wide strips
2 Cups Unbleached white flour (you will not need all of this)
12 ounces of vegan beer (I used Mirror Pond)
½ tablespoon brown sugar
½ tablespoon agave nectar
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon dried paprika
Dash of freshly ground pepper
2-3 cups of oil per serving (I used a mix of canola and peanut)


In a 2 quart saucepan, bring to oil to a medium temperature. Do not boil.

In a medium sized bowl, stir together 1 cup of the flour, agave, mustard, salt, paprika and pepper. Add more flour by the tablespoon full to your desired consistency – it should be similar to a pancake batter.

Slightly spacing them out so they don’t stick (not that that would be the end of the world), put 3-5 seitan strips into the oil. Keep an eye on them, and turn once while frying, about 1-2 minutes per side till a slightly golden color is achieved.
Remove from oil and place on paper towels. Sprinkle with additional sea salt, let cool at least a couple minutes and serve with desired dipping sauce(s).


*The chicken style seitan recipe is from here. My dough required some additional flour to work with.
I added ¼ cup of dried wild mushrooms (Trader Joe’s brand) to my broth, as well as dried sage, fresh parsley, fresh rosemary, onion salt, freshly ground black pepper, white pepper and vegetable buillion. I added onion salt, dried paprika, white pepper and dried thyme to the dough as well. I substituted Braggs for soy sauce, since that’s what I had in the house.

The chicken style broth powder recipe can be found here.

End result - I thought these were great, and Thomas not only said he'd like to eat them once a week (I declined), but has requested them twice already since our meal. I'd like to make a ton for a party with a few different dips, since they are vegan junk food and all.
Portlanders - any interest in a junk food potluck? Of course not just chips...