firm chicken seitan cutlets

I put up another post explaining why some seitan recipes have garbanzo flour it them – something I’ve never seen explained in said recipes: BETTER TEXTURE. It makes for a firmer, more dense seitan instead of the brainy stuff you’re probably used to.

Another tip – I’ll make a batch, flash freeze (lay out all the pieces individually out on a pan, freeze for an hour. This makes it so when you put it all in a bag, you don’t have one giant mass – all the pieces will not be stuck to each other. You can just open the bag, pull out however many pieces you need and just defrost those), bag them and freeze. Once defrosted, I squeeze a good amount of the liquid out of them and cook as though it’s meat.

For the seitan:

2 cups vital wheat gluten

1/4 cup nutritional yeast (gives it a slight cheese taste. Again, umami)

1/4 cup chickpea flour (THE FREAKING ANSWER)

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 1/4 cups fake chicken broth (get the good shit – not the chemical and salt fest)

1/4 cup soy sauce (I use Bragg’s Amino Acids like a real hipster)

2 T tomato paste (for color and umami. I left it out this time because I didn’t have any. Was still awesome.)

For the broth:

8 cups fake chicken broth

6 cloves garlic, smashed (I actually left those out this time. Too many cloves and I was lazy)

2 bay leaves

Mix the dry ingredients well in one bowl and the wet ingredients well in a separate bowl. The mix the two together until well incorporated. Knead for 5-10 minutes or until you get tired. Fuck it, you’ve worked hard enough. Let the seitan rest a while – this builds the gluten bonds. They get really close and talk about their hopes and dreams over Bon Bons. I go anywhere between 5-10 minutes. It’s really whenever I remember what I was just in the middle of doing and I get back to it. Knead it a bit more.

At that point you’re cutting 1/4-1/2″ in slices. I mash the slices with my hands and stretch them out some to get bigger pieces. Plop them in the cold liquid you’ve pot together in the pot. Once everyone’s in the pool, bring the water to a boil, then simmer covered for an hour.

I’ve made fried chicken cutlets before by dredging them in flour, plopping them in an egg bath and then covering every inch with Panko. Mmmm. Panko is the greatest invention as far as chicken goes. That and smashed up Corn Flakes. I’ve made a vegan version which involved wetting the chicken a bit and having the Panko stick that way. It wasn’t bad at all. I’ve not had the chicken stand alone as it’s own giant, proud piece without the help of fried-goodness until recently.

Last night I made vegan chicken parmesan even though at present, I’m a vegetarian. I dredged the chicken in flour mixed with a buttload of nutritional yeast, pan fried it in organic avocado oil and then sprinkled more nutritional yeast, freshly-ground black pepper and oregano on top. Put those puppies on top of Garden Delight pasta (pasta infused with veggies) and homemade marinara. Tiiiiiiiiiiits!!

how to get better texture in your seitan

My vegetarian mission has been to perfect seitan and I’m getting closer with every batch.

I’ve seen a decent amount of recipes and they’re all pretty much: equal parts of seitan and water/broth, add whatever spices. I’ve come across a few that add garbanzo bean flour and never understood why. I don’t have the stuff in my kitchen, the person posting the recipe doesn’t give a reason for it and getting that stuff organic means downgrading to a studio apartment.

In wanting to cut out processed flour recently, I looked around for healthier alternatives. As much as I’d love to switch to whole wheat because it’s decently priced and can be found most anywhere, I know it tends to make baked goods heila dense so I kept looking.

Of course I land on garbanzo flour. Of course I can’t just get organic, I spring for sprouted. If I’m spending that much money, it better be sprouted so that my body can pick up every last nutrient.

Then I remembered!

I made a batch and froze a whole mess of seitan chicken cutlets. To this batch I added garbanzo flour. In this moment, I’ve realized I never posted the recipe for chicken cutlets. I suck, I’m sorry. That will be the next post up – immediately following this one.

It makes a difference. That’s why it’s in the damn recipes. Why people don’t tell you that is beyond me. It gives a firmer texture to the seitan so that it’s less brainy. That’s it. That’s the damn secret. My preferred method of cooking has been to drop the seitan in a big pot of cold liquid (with whatever spices), bring it all to a boil and then simmer covered for an hour. I then freeze and when I defrost, I squeeze out the excess water and treat it like regular meat.