Hello friends, and not-yet-friends!
Welcome back to Mary’s Test Kitchen
where I have prepared 5 of your most requested chicken recipes,
made vegan of course.
But to start this series, I thought you should have my most versatile vegan chicken alternative that you can use in all of them.
So long as you are happy to be gluten-full rather than gluten-free.
It may look familiar but this recipe was developed from scratch with a couple secret
ingredients to make this chicken-y seitan extra succulent with a meaty
texture without being oddly chewy or WHEATY. If you know what I mean.
Make one batch and you’ll have enough for several meals. Which is great because I admit,
it takes a little while to make, but it’s so worth it.
With some techniques I learned from my friend Lacey from Avocados and Ales.com
and her Chickwheat recipe, I give you my very best Chickeny Chickless Seitan to fulfil the function
of skinless, boneless chicken in your ol’ favourite chicken recipes.
Before we begin, please give this video a thumbs up to let me know
you’re still watching and comment what chicken dish you’re most eager to veganize this season.
Then, let’s get started by grabbing the best blender you can get your hands on.
I’m going to use my Vitamix which really makes a difference to the texture of our final product.
Though you can make do with a regular non-high speed blender with some considerations.
Also, I really recommend measuring by weight to control the liquid to dry ratio
and well, I just love to be precise.
As always, the measurements are in the printable recipe linked in the description box..
Start with water. One and three quarters cup of cold or cool water.
That’s 415 milliliters for anyone using metric.
And a cup of cooked white beans. Whether from a can or home cooked,
make sure you strain them really well so you don’t add extra water into the mix.
The beans will provide different amino acids in this attempt to make the seitan more
of a complete protein source than, say, if you just used wheat gluten.
Plus they help to prevent the seitan from becoming rubbery.
And before you ask, yes, you can substitute the beans with extra firm tofu.
Since it doesn’t have any fiber, it actually makes for a smoother seitan.
Just cube it and pat it dry before weighing it out and adding it in.
Next, add a quarter cup of white vinegar. Vinegar cuts the wheaty flavour you might’ve
previously encountered when making seitan. Vinegar makes it much less noticeable.
Next, you could almost call this cheating. Almost. Because we’re using vegan
chicken broth cubes. Made to taste like chicken but it’s all-vegetable. I use three
of these cubes from McCormick because they are in almost every grocery store near me.
There are other brands available, just choose one you like.
I also really like the Better Than Bouillon Vegetarian No-Chicken
Soup Base. If you have that kind, use one tablespoon of the paste.
Next, is a special ingredient that you might have to make yourself
because it’s not super common to find in stores: Dried Oyster Mushroom powder.
Oyster mushrooms have a really lovely savory, kind-of chickenish,
flavour that becomes concentrated and even better when they’re dried.
To be honest, I thought about leaving this out of the recipe
‘cause it’s kind of a hassle but it really makes such a difference
that I never leave it out when I’m making seitan and I find it’s really well worth the time.
To make it, choose fresh, nice looking oyster mushrooms. Never
wilty, discoloured ones because they can have a bitter taste.
Clean ‘em off with a damp paper towel, then load them into your dehydrator.
You can also dehydrate them in the oven and I’ve written up instructions on marystestkitchen.com.
As per usual, the link is in the description.
But if you do have a dehydrator like mine, it holds about a pound of fresh oyster mushrooms.
Then it takes about 3 hours at 115°F to get ultra crisp dried oyster mushrooms.
Then you can use whatever you have to turn them into powder.
I really love using this Cuisinart spice grinder because it’s super fast and easy
to clean. But you can also do this in a bullet blender or clean coffee grinder. And probably
a blender if you had the flour blending base but I don’t have one so I don’t actually know.
I trust you’ll figure it out.
For this recipe, you’ll need 3 tablespoons of the powder which works out to be 12 grams.
The equivalent being just under a quarter pound of fresh oyster
mushrooms. So think about how concentrated that flavour is!
Next up, something sweet. Use one tablespoon of sugar or your favourite 1 to 1 sweetener.
It’s not going to be noticeably sweet in the final product but instead the sweetness
helps to balance out the other flavourings.
Like monosodium glutamate. I’m using 1 teaspoon to boost the flavour of the ingredients
as well as add its own unique flavour.
And finally, one teaspoon of salt.
It doesn’t have to be pink. It can just be normal table salt.
Then blend until everything is liquified and completely smooth.
About 30 seconds on maximum speed in your high-speed blender.
So of course if you’re using a regular speed blender,
it’s going to take a little longer. But you can do it.
Then we can add a good amount of refined coconut oil to make this wheat meat juicy and satisfying.
Melt it first and then, with the blender still running low enough so you’re not risking a mess,
pour it in slowy.
After 30 seconds or so, it should be well incorporated and you can leave that there
while you measure out your vital wheat gluten.
Not to be confused with regular wheat flour, vital wheat gluten contains
only the protein in wheat called gluten. Or as close to it as the manufacturers can make it.
Usually, I use Bob’s Red Mill, but I ran out.
And had to try another brand. Luckily, it worked out. And by the way,
if you have a Bulk Barn near you, they label it as gluten flour. Or 100% gluten flour.
Whatever brand you choose, you’ll need 3 cups or 360 grams.
Again I really have to recommend weighing this out because scooping cups can give you
inconsistent results. And the hydration of this dough really makes a difference.
So, yeah, I hope I’ve convinced you.
Anyways, make a well in the flour, pop on a sieve and pour your blended ingredients in.
Use a spatula to help it through. And see the little lumps we kept
out? This helps make our seitan come out smoother.
Then you can stir until the dough forms. I’m
popping this immediately into my stand mixer and letting the machine do the work
for me so I can save my hand budget and avoid aggravating my chronic tendonitis.
Once you have a rough dough,
just stop and flip the dough to make sure there’s no dry bits in there.
And here, I’m not playing with my food;
just trying to show you the feel of it. It’s quite moist and very soft.
Put the dough hook on to your mixer and slowly ramp up the speed. I aim for speed 6 for the
first round which is as fast as my machine can handle without it bouncing on the tabletop.
If you don’t have a stand mixer, or you just don’t think it can handle dense heavy dough like this,
you split the dough into smaller portions and use a good sturdy food processor to knead it.
Whatever you use, just pay attention and don’t let
it burn out the machine because this is quite a heavy dough.
When in doubt, use a lower speed and knead for longer time.
Anyways, at first, it might not look like much is happening. But just go with it.
After about 10 to 12 minutes in the stand mixer, you can see the texture has changed. The dough is
more cohesive and you can start to see lots of little gluten strands, though they are short.
All that kneading has tightened the dough too so it would be tough on the machine to keep going.
Plus it’s getting pretty warm.
So I let it cool for about 15 minutes
and this time also lets the dough relax and get softer again.
See how it’s even more stretchy than before?
You can just about get a successful window pane test on it. Almost.
Let’s put the bowl back in, ramp it up again and we'll repeat this cycle 3 more times.
Which, I know, means this will go on for quite some time.
The total knead time is 40 minutes. But every 10 minutes, we’re stopping for about 15 minutes.
But the good news is you can chill while this is going on. It’s all hands off.
Just sit nearby, put your feet up, and watch some Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime or something.
Now you might be thinking you can do this by hand. Maybe you can. Especially if you share
the workload with another person. You can take turns. Team work makes the dream work.
But me and my chronic pain are not going to try. If you do,
let me know in the comments how long it took you! Because you probably deserve a round of applause.
The wait is worth it. After all that kneading,
the texture becomes super smooth and taffy-like. It stretches so much more.
You take a one inch piece and it can stretch to 4 inches or more.
It’s not just about the look of if,
but the bite comes out so much better when you take it to this level.
Anyways, divide your dough into two parts.
Knead each piece very well, forming a log shape. The texture will become tighter and
shinier and it will be slippery and a bit tough to do at first but persevere!
Stretch the end of the roll up around the log and it *should* be able to stay in place.
This should do it. But if you want to make sure it stays in place during cooking,
wrap it up in some parchment paper.
Tightly roll it up.
Then to really secure the bundle, wrap it again in aluminum foil.
This piece is feeling softer and not as tight. I’m not as satisfied with it.
So I’m gonna knead it a bit more.
Then cook it using a pressure cooker like an Instant Pot or Cosori for best results. Otherwise,
if you steam it the traditional way, it takes about 2 hours or more and the texture
isn’t quite the same either, plus you’ll need to monitor it so your pot never runs out of water.
Which is a pain so I much prefer my Cosori for the job.
Then, add 4 cups of hot boiling water to the pot.
Add the steamer insert and set the seitan on top.
I’m going to leave this other one unwrapped so you can see the difference.
Finally, you can close the lid and twist the weight from open
to closed so the pressure can start to build up.
Set the cooker to Manual mode, then set the cook time to 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Adjust the pressure to high or maximum. Then set it and forget it! And maybe while your
Chickeny Chickless Seitan steams, you can steam too. In some bubbles! You probably deserve it.
Whatever you choose, when the hour is up you can use the quick release or let
the pressure naturally release. It’s up to you.
And when it’s safe, open the lid and remove the seitan with
some tongs because they will be very hot.
So hot that sometimes I find the foil has disintegrated.
Which is why I always use a parchment paper barrier if I’m using foil at all these days.
But as you can see, the wrap isn’t always necessary. As long as you kneaded the seitan
enough and rolled it up very tightly, it can hold itself together pretty well.
On the other hand, if you didn’t knead it well enough and roll it tight enough,
and didn’t wrap it up, it can expand like this. It’s kinda ugly;
though, sometimes delicious food is ugly and that’s okay. But more on this later.
You might be tempted to break into your seitan right away but they are still super hot inside.
I generally let them cool down for an hour at room temperature
and then I wrap it up and put it in the fridge until the next day.
So the next morning we have about two pounds of Chickeny Chickless Seitan ready to rip into.
Check out that texture.
The nice thing about cooling the seitan before shredding is that you don’t lose any moisture.
And of course, you’re not burning your finger tips.
You can just shred by hand or use a couple of forks.
For comparison’s sake, here’s some shreds from the batch that expanded during cooking.
The layers are still there but you can see some bubbles in the texture.
Whereas a good batch has smooth layers. However, they both taste good so if you
get the bubbly texture, don’t be sad. It will still taste delicious.
Anyways, back to the shreds. I think we have enough shreds here
so I’m gonna chop the rest of this piece.
You can see even though we’ve cut chunks, we still retain this texture.
And so it’s really good and satisfying in soups and stews.
And we still have about a pound left. What do you
think we should do with it? Let me know in the comments below!
Coming up next, I’ll get in-depth about dried oyster mushroom powder
plus all my favourite vegan chicken recipes that you requested! Make sure you hit that
thumbs up if you liked this video and want to see more like it. Plus, turn on notifications
because you don’t want to miss anything and I have 5 more awesome recipes coming your way.
Thank you so much for watching all the way to the end. I appreciate you so, so very much!
Especially since I've been away so long. If you want to keep up with me between videos,
follow me on Instagram at marystestkitchen. I’m always sharing what's going on behind
the scenes over there, what I’m testing, working on, and eating! Bye for now!