Thursday, August 02, 2007

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...

29 comments:

nerdling said...

Oh wow. I know what I'm making for dinner tonight!

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

I'd be honored!

Anonymous said...

I would totally come if you made these. holy jebus!

shaun.marie said...

you have to stop making such delicious food! brian is starting to wonder why i don't make delicious battered seitan nuggets. homewrecker!!

just kidding. junk food potluck is an excellent idea!

Anonymous said...

how i wish i was a good neighbord of you!

thanks so much for share this.

Unknown said...

Hey i love your blog and the baked goods always look awesome. Thanks for the vegan inspiration!

Chris said...

Wow! I love those vegan cooking school onion rings and I love fried seitan so this is quite the awesome idea...

bazu said...

Need. To. Experiment. More. With. Seitan!

Anonymous said...

Your blog is really great! I will definately try the battered seitan, but since we just bought a grilling pan today, I think I have to do some grilling first.
Thanks for sharing your awesome ideas!

Anonymous said...

You always woo me with your seitan! This seitan is in the oven right now. I'm going to do something a little different, though your beer battered strips are pretty inticing!

laura k said...

Thanks for the recipe! If I get an uncontrollable desire for junk food (which happens sometimes), I know just what recipe to turn to! :) PS, I'm not a Portlander but if I were, you could count me in on the potluck. Hee hee.

Unknown said...

Yummy.
It's given me an idean for Thai gado gado with these nuggets :)

Thank you

Anna said...

Wow, these look so tasty. Thanks for the recipe! I just tried making chicken style seitan for the first time a couple days ago (RFD recipe) and really liked it. Maybe I could use some in this. These strips look like they'd satisfy a craving for tasty, savoury hors d'oeuvre type food.

Anonymous said...

*faints*
that all looks so delicious; i love beer-battered anything (vegan, of course), even though i don't like actual beer very much!

Sheree' said...

They look and sound like a hit to me! I have read a few posts and it sounds like it was a seitan weekend for many. We made BBQ seitan ribz this weekend and they are wonderful.

Rose said...

The food looks so good, I've been wanting to make seitan ever since I became vegan.

erica said...

oooh junk food potluck... um... dammit. No junk food for me, my immune system can't take sugar or wheat these days :(

Judy said...

Beer battered seitan - what a great idea.

Unknown said...

I love beer battering and these look very yummy!

Crystal said...

Considering I just made a big batch of chicken-style seitan, this would be perfect!

-Crystal

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urban vegan said...

Damn that look sgood.

Carrie™ said...

Awesome! Thanks for the links to the recipes. I've bookmarked them and will be trying these for sure!

Bonnie said...

Your pictures are getting more and more beautiful. I can't get over it!

Lillet Langtry said...

These were UNBELIEVEABLE! Now I'm going to chain myself to the stove and beer-batter everything in sight!

We ate them watching "King Of The Hill."

Doodleyboo said...

Ooooh! I have to make these! Along with yam fries and miso gravy. Yum! I really need to get with the seitan making.

elise said...

JESS!
I made these for a potluck (having never made them before). They sounded so damn tasty and they were even better than expected. Everyone LOVED them. Who doesn't crave some good vegan junk food every now and then? I whipped up some agave mustard to go with them and it was an all around hit. Everyone is going to be hitting your blog up now. Thank you a million! My boyfriend liked them just as well as yours did, I guess. Man-food.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Lillett & Elise - AWESOME! I'm glad you guys dug them : )

Chicago Paul said...

This recipe is incomplete. It references a more complete recipe for onion rings, but...the instructions don't even indicate how to incorporate the beer! While I do appreciate the idea for this recipe, I'll have to get creative to complete it.