Crispy Vegan Chicken Sandwich

This easy recipe for a vegan chicken sandwich takes tender homemade seitan, coats it in a seasoned batter, and then pan fries it until golden and crispy. Served with all your favorite toppings, this is one “fried chicken” recipe you’ll want to make again and again!

What Makes This Recipe So Good

• This recipe for a delicious, crispy, juice vegan chicken sandwich brings together all of the textures and flavors you love(d) in traditional fried chicken sandwiches, but makes it completely meatless, dairy-free, and egg-free.
• We’re using an easy homemade seitan for our chicken fillets. You can also use the seitan recipe for chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, grilled BBQ chicken, or even seitan ground beef, so be sure to bookmark this one. It’s so versatile and comes in handy more often than you know!

Chef’s Tips

• We kept things simple, topping our vegan chicken sandwich with mayo and pickles. With the touch of cajun seasoning in the breading, the mayo and pickles make this a solid vegan take on Popeye’s chicken sandwiches. Feel free to use all your favorite toppings instead, though!
• No deep-fry thermometer? No worries. Slice a piece of bread into a 1-inch cube. When the oil is hot, drop the bread into the oil. If the bread cube turns golden brown and toasty after 45-60 seconds in the oil, your oil is around 350°F. If the bread toasts faster than 45 seconds, your oil is too hot. Reduce the heat, let the oil cool slightly, and try again. If the bread takes longer than 60 seconds to toast, or if it doesn’t toast at all, your oil isn’t hot enough.

Try These Vegan Recipes While You’re Here

• Vegan Tartar Sauce
• Buttery and “Cheesy” Vegan Popcorn
• Vegan BBQ Sauce
• Perfect Vegan Pound Cake
• Fried “Chicken” Tofu

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5 from 1 vote

Vegan Chicken Sandwich

Prep: 15 minutes minutes

Cook: 1 hour hour

Total: 1 hour hour 15 minutes minutes

Tender seitan enveloped in a wonderfully seasoned batter then fried until golden and crispy. Pair it with your favorite sandwich toppings, or opt for mayo and pickles for a vegan take on a Popeye's chicken sandwich.

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4 sandwiches

Ingredients

For the "Chicken" (Seitan)

• ▢ 2 cups vital wheat gluten
• ▢ ¼ cup nutritional yeast
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• ▢ 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 7 cups vegetable broth divided

For the Fry Batter

• ▢ 1 ¼ cups unsweetened non-dairy milk
• ▢ 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ▢ 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• ▢ 1 teaspoon salt
• ▢ ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
• ▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ▢ ½ teaspoon cajun seasoning

To Fry "Chicken"

• ▢ neutral oil as needed

Serving Suggestions (All Optional)

• ▢ 4 vegan burger buns
• ▢ butter lettuce leaves
• ▢ pickle chips
• ▢ vegan mayonnaise or your preferred condiments

Equipment

• 2 large mixing bowls
• Silicone spatula
• large cutting board or similar large, flat work surface
• Knife
• Large pot
• Rolling Pin
• 2 wire cooling racks
• large skillet with high sides
• deep-fry or candy thermometer optional, see Notes
• whisk
• Tongs
• Paper towels

Instructions 

• Add vital wheat gluten, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper to large mixing bowl. Mix well until ingredients are blended.
  
• While stirring constantly, slowly add olive oil and 2 cups vegetable broth to mixing bowl with dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are fully combined to form dough.
  
• Transfer dough to cutting board or other flat work surface. Using hands, knead dough to form ball. Once dough is kneaded, use knife to divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Set dough pieces aside.
• Heat large pot over medium-high heat. When pot is warm, add remaining 5 cups vegetable broth. Bring liquid to rapid boil.
• While broth heats up, use rolling pin to flatten each piece of dough, forming each piece to resemble chicken fillets.
• When broth begins to boil rapidly, add "fillets" to pot. Allow "fillets" to boil, uncovered, 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, carefully drain liquid from broth and transfer "fillets" to wire cooling rack. Set aside to cool completely.
  
• Place second wire cooling rack over multiple layers of paper towels and set aside to use later.
• While seitan fillets cool, heat large skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is warm, fill pan roughly enough neutral oil that top of oil rests approximately one-third up sides of skillet. Continue heating skillet over medium-high heat until oil is hot, reading 350° Fahrenheit on deep-fry or candy thermometer.
• While oil comes to temperature, add non-dairy milk, apple cider vinegar, flour, cornstarch, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, and cajun seasoning to clean mixing bowl. Whisk all ingredients together until mixture is fully combined, forming thick batter.
  
• When seitan fillets are completely cool and oil reaches desired temperature, dip each seitan fillet into batter, coating fillet completely. Immediately placed battered fillet into hot oil. Quickly repeat process with remaining 3 fillets.
• Fry seitan fillets until golden brown, then flip fillets over and fry until golden brown on other side. Once fillets are fried and golden on both sides, transfer fillets to wire cooling rack over paper towels and let excess oil drain completely.
  
• After draining excess oil from fillets, assemble vegan chicken sandwiches with preferred toppings and serve.

Notes

• No deep-fry thermometer? No worries. Slice a piece of bread into a 1-inch cube. When the oil is hot, drop the bread into the oil. If the bread cube turns golden brown and toasty after 45-60 seconds in the oil, your oil is around 350°F. If the bread toasts faster than 45 seconds, your oil is too hot. Reduce the heat, let the oil cool slightly, and try again. If the bread takes longer than 60 seconds to toast, or if it doesn’t toast at all, your oil isn’t hot enough.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1“chicken” fillet (no bun or toppings) | Calories: 459kcal | Protein: 52g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Total Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 2g | Net Carbs: 37g | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Sodium: 994mg | Potassium: 194mg | Calcium: 200mg | Iron: 5mg

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Sam Guarnieri