(bright, upbeat music)
- Hey guys, I'm Chef Joya,
and I'm an expert at transitioning non-vegan to vegan food.
Today we're makin' vegan southern fried chicken,
maple collards, and candied yams,
usin' five ingredients or less.
Let's go ahead and get started.
So, we're gonna start off by heatin' our oil,
and we're using grapeseed oil for this recipe.
We're gonna add that to the pot.
So for my southern fried chicken,
we are going to use oyster mushrooms.
I absolutely love oyster mushrooms
because it has a very meaty texture.
Now you wanna make sure
that you've cleaned your mushrooms with a towel.
You don't wanna put these in water
'cause it will absorb it,
and your mushrooms will become mushy.
Now the chicken could be any size that you want.
We're gonna have some that's smaller pieces.
So all you have to do, is break them up right at the base,
and you wanna keep that base intact
because that's gonna hold your mushroom together.
So I'm gonna use poultry seasonin'
because it has all of the herbs and spices you need,
so we're gonna get that mixed in the bowl.
This is going to just taste amazin'.
It's not going to taste like fried mushrooms
because all of the seasonings is going to taste
just like fried chicken.
So we're gonna take 1/2 of our seasoned flour,
and we're gonna add this into a shallow pan
because we're gonna need a wet and a dry batter.
So for our wet batter,
we're gonna add our club soda to our seasoned flour,
and we're gonna whisk that in there.
So we want it to be about the texture of pancake batter
'cause it is going to thicken up over time.
I love the club soda
because it gets the chicken extra crispy
and a lighter texture.
So we're gonna put it into our dry batter,
and we're gonna give that a nice little coat.
So we're gonna take our chicken pieces
and put it in our wet batter,
and once we get those coated evenly,
we're gonna put it back in our dry batter.
So now that we have our oil nice and hot
and our chicken pieces have been fully covered,
we're gonna add this to the pan.
Now we wanna start with our bigger pieces first
because it takes longer to cook.
Now you wanna get as many chicken pieces
that you can get in a pan without overcrowdin' a pan,
because that will slow down the process
of cooking your vegan chicken, and just like with anything,
it'll make it really oily, and you don't want that.
We want this to be light and crispy.
All right,
so we're gonna turn over our first piece of chicken.
Like, if you don't tell anybody,
they wouldn't even know that it's vegan,
like it looks just like fried chicken.
So we got all our pieces turned,
and we're gonna let that cook for about another two minutes.
All right, and it should be nice and golden brown.
And we're gonna use a paper towel,
so we can drain any excess oil.
This looks absolutely delicious.
I cannot believe
that I got this recipe down to five ingredients.
All right, let's get into this chicken.
This is absolutely delicious.
Like, look at this.
You could give this to somebody that's not vegan.
It looks like meat.
Do you see this?
Like, matter of fact, when you make this,
don't even tell people that it's vegan chicken.
Make sure they don't have a mushroom allergy though.
Please (laughs).
Let's go ahead and get started on our other sides.
All right, let's start by heating our oil in a pan,
and next we're gonna add our onion.
And we're gonna slice 'em,
so you can slice 'em or dice 'em,
it's just whatever your preference is.
As we're gonna add our onions to the oil,
so this is gonna cook down for about three minutes
till your onions are almost translucent,
and then we're gonna add our collard greens.
So I add 1/2 of my collard greens to the pan,
and I'm gonna go ahead and mix that around.
So let's go ahead and get that cooked down,
and then we're gonna add the remaining 1/2.
So we have this first 1/2 almost covered
with our infused oil and onions,
and we're gonna add our remaining collard greens to the pan.
These maple collard greens, it reminds me of my mom.
Collard greens is my one of my mom's cookin' staples.
She's known for her collard greens in Wisconsin.
She's won every competition that she competed in.
My mom even ships me collard greens to North Carolina.
Hey mama, don't forget this year.
So once we get these coated all the way,
we're gonna go ahead and add our seasonings,
the vegan beef bouillon, I'm gonna use.
You'll find it at the Asian market.
So let's go ahead and get that mixed in there.
And then next, we're gonna go ahead and add our seasonin'.
I like to use an all purpose seasonin',
so I'm gonna add that to my pot and give that a nice stir.
Now I haven't added any water to the pan,
but you can see that there is water that's comin' out
because the greens is going to release some water.
But I do add a little bit more,
and we're gonna turn this on high,
and once it starts to boil,
we're gonna change it to simmer
and let it cook for 30 minutes.
This is two pounds of collard greens.
You wouldn't think that,
but it's not gonna cook down like spinach.
Now that our collard greens are done
to our desire tenderness, it is time to add our maple syrup.
I started usin' maple syrup instead of sugar
because it gives it more of a robust flavor.
So now that our greens are done,
we're gonna go ahead and put in a bowl,
and we're gonna get all the liquid in the bottom of our pot.
That is called the pot liquor.
You can't have greens without the pot liquor, okay.
So we have our maple collards ready to go,
and it's time to give it a taste test.
This is real good.
Even if you cook collard greens with meat,
there is absolutely no need to.
This is the perfect collard green recipe for any day.
We're gonna start off with our peeled candy yams,
and we're gonna slice them about 1/2 inch thick.
And we're gonna use about four to five, medium to large,
whatever you prefer.
Now, that we have our yams in a bowl,
we're gonna mix in our seasonings.
So we're gonna take our brown sugar,
and then we're gonna use our cinnamon sugar.
Now, this is one of my cheats and my tips,
because you can buy
the cinnamon and sugar already mixed together.
Next, we're gonna add our vanilla extract.
Next, we're gonna use our vegan butter.
Now you can use whatever kind of vegan butter you want.
You can use a coconut base, a avocado base,
whatever vegan butter you want,
you just wanna make sure it does not overpower your dish.
We're gonna mix this all up.
We wanna make sure that every potato gets covered
in our sugar and butter mixture.
We're gonna put this right into our aluminum pan.
You can use a glass pan if you want to,
it just takes a longer cook time.
Once we put into our aluminum pan,
it's gonna help caramelize the potatoes,
and it's going to be absolutely delicious.
So once we get that spread out into an even layer,
we're gonna top it with some aluminum foil.
And we wanna make sure we have it sealed up real nice.
Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah.
Oh, look at that.
Why this tastes like big mama house.
This is home.
There you have it.
We have made our vegan Thanksgivin' with five ingredients.
We have our southern fried chicken,
our maple collards, and candied yams.
I would love for you to try these recipes at home,
so make sure you tag me @cookingwithjoya,
and let me know what you think.
Happy Thanksgivin', from my family to yours.
See you next time, ciao.
- [Announcer] Oh, yes!
(bright, upbeat music)