Hello friends and not-yet-friends!
Welcome back to Mary’s Test Kitchen where I’m excited to share my vegan chicken and
broccoli with you. If I can’t make this for you in person, this has gotta be next best thing.
Sharing how to make my favourite plant-based low-effort but high flavour meal when I’m lazy
about making dinner. Which, let’s be honest, is almost every night during this season.
And I have a few tactics that help make this recipe even more friendly for your end of the
day self, which I’ll get into as the video goes on, but the first tactic is using my Chickeny
Chickless Seitan as the main protein. Because you have some prepped in the fridge by now, right?
By the way, thanks for all the great comments on that video and the warm
welcome back. I feel so lucky to have such a sweet and supportive community.
Anyways, of course, you can sub in store-bought vegan chicken alternatives or whatever you have
on hand like beans, tempeh or tofu. This is your vegan chicken and broccoli and there are no rules!
Just guidelines, such as: please start steaming your rice now before anything
else so you’ll have it ready when your plant-based chicken and broccoli is done.
For two adults, I like to prepare 1 cup of uncooked Jasmine Rice.
After roughly measuring, I take this to the sink to rinse until the water turns clear,
then add the appropriate amount of water.
You’ve probably seen me use this measuring technique before. Just use your finger to
measure the height of the rice, then make sure the water line hits double that.
Then put it on the stove over high heat and let it just start bubbling.
Immediately turn the heat down to low and let it simmer with the lid on for 15 to 20 minutes
while we take 10-ish minutes to prepare everything for our 5 minute stir-fry.
First, let’s get our pre-shredded chickeny chickless seitan from the fridge and if it’s
not already torn into small bite-sized pieces like this, go ahead and do that.
You want to end up with 8oz or about roughly two cups worth.
Then prepare a marinade.
With 1 tablespoon of water,
And one teaspoon of Chinese Mushroom Stir-Fry Sauce.
Which if you didn’t already know, is the vegetarian sauce made specifically to replace
Chinese Oyster Sauce in Chinese cuisine. It adds a salty fermented very savory distinct flavour.
And while you might have to go to an East Asian grocery store or look for it online,
it's quite inexpensive and well worth the effort. Especially since you can use it for
lots of dishes like fried rice, my Vegan Tofu Katsu, Black Pepper Tofu and more.
Back to the marinade, you’ll also want toasted sesame oil
for it’s lovely fragrance and to add a little body.
Mix that all together. Then you can add your vegan chicken shreds. Or protein of your choice.
Just keep in mind this chickeny chickless seitan is quite flavourful already.
So if you add a bland protein instead, you can bump up the savoriness a little by adding
a bit of soy sauce or extra mushroom stir-fry sauce. Or wait until the end
so you can taste and adjust. I’ll leave that decision in your very capable hands.
Let that sit while we prepare the rest.
I’ll do the stir-fry sauce first which starts with some vegan chicken broth.
I came across this President’s Choice variety recently. They’ve
been coming out with so many vegan products lately which is awesome.
But sorry to my International friends, I believe this is only available in Canada.
However, you can use any vegan chicken broth you like or even regular vegetable broth.
You’ll need three quarters of a cup of broth.
And you may want to keep a little more handy for later but that’s optional.
Then 2 teaspoons of regular soy sauce. Of course for my gluten-free friends,
choose gluten-free tamari or coconut aminos or something like that.
And the same amount of Shaoxing wine. I’m not too sure if Shaoxing wine is gluten-free
so if that’s a concern, go for Sherry instead. And for my alcohol-free peeps,
the alcohol content is cooked off and none remains in the final dish
BUT if you want to leave it out, that’s okay too. Just replace it with a tad more broth.
Add sugar or sweetener.
A little more Mushroom Stir Fry Sauce.
A half teaspoon of sesame oil
And a pinch of white pepper.
Stir this up and that’s it for the sauce. By the way, you can always make this ahead
of time or make multiple batches and leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days so you
can cut down on prep time when you know you have some busy days ahead of you.
In a separate container,
mix up a cornstarch slurry and this will thicken the sauce at the very end.
Now let’s move on to the chopping board.
You’ll need one clove of garlic. Yes,
only one is necessary but if you want more, of course you do you.
For convenience sake, I’ll grate it with my box grater on the finer plane.
Then push this aside and do the same with a bit of ginger.
You only need about a quarter teaspoon. Though, a little more is fine too.
Then our other star ingredient: broccoli.
This is already rinsed well and I'll cut bite-sized florets.
How big or small that bite is is completely at your discretion.
I just have enough for tonight’s dinner today but it’s one of those veggies that’s
easy to prep ahead of time. So if you happen to have more on hand,
chop it all up and you can store it in a container and it stays fresh all week.
Now we’re nearly ready for the stove but let’s add a bit of
cornstarch to our marinated vegan chicken shreds.
Finally, we can get cooking!
In a wok or large pan,
heat about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil. My favourite to use is refined coconut oil.
Let it melt over high heat and swirl it around so the wok or pan can get nicely coated.
Then, when it’s very hot and just barely starting to smoke, add your chickeny chickless seitan.
Spread them out but then leave ‘em alone to get some nice colour on the bottom.
This should take less than a minute.
Look at this very lovely colour!
We’ll brown the other side too for about 30 seconds.
This is why I love a wok. We can just push this all to the side and if you feel you need to,
add some more oil before the garlic and ginger.
You can turn the heat down a bit for control so we don’t burn anything.
15 to 30 seconds later when the fragrance of the aromatics have bloomed, add your broccoli.
Give your stir-fry sauce a quick mix and pour it in too.
The broccoli will cook as the liquid comes to a simmer.
In about 2 minutes, when the broccoli has become fork tender or is as cooked as you enjoy,
turn off the heat, give your cornstarch slurry a little stir, and you can slowly pour it in.
The sauce will thicken quickly in the residual heat and you may not need to use
all of the slurry; just use your judgement.
If it thickens too much though, you can simply thin it with a little more broth or water.
And now you have glorious, glossy sauce enveloping perfectly cooked broccoli and
tasty chickeny chickless seitan. It’s sure to satisfy any Chinese Chicken and Broccoli craving!
It should be perfect. But if you used other proteins instead of my seitan recipe,
please taste it and add extra soy sauce or Chinese Mushroom stir fry sauce if you like.
And by now, your steamed rice should be ready to load into some dinner bowls or plates.
And generously heap on your vegan chicken and broccoli. And if you can remember, please take a
photo and tag me on instagram at marystestkitchen. I would love to feast my eyes on your creations!
And excuse me while I have to take a bite.
Or a few bites. It’s just so delicious!
Thank you so much for watching, my friends. And thank you to everyone who requested this dish.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and make this recipe soon. Please give this video a thumbs up
and subscribe if you haven’t already for more easy and delicious vegan recipes like this.
Remember, you can get the printable version of this recipe on marystestkitchen.com
where I’ve also written up more details because there’s always more to say.
Plus it helps me out a great deal when you leave your reviews too.
On the subject of helping me out, you could also leave a comment here with what kind of recipes
you want to see next year with the hashtag #reciperequest so I’ll be sure to see it.
Coming up next, I have more vegan chicken dishes that you requested.
Which I have to go edit pronto so bye for now!