Vegan Fried Chicken!

I have been checking out vegan cook books from the library like crazy lately, and loving almost all of them!  One that I have been very impressed with is Vegan Cooking for Carnivores by Roberto Martin who is Ellen's personal chef.  The tagline is "Over 125 Recipes So Tasty You Won't Miss the Meat!"   Well I don't miss meat at all anyway but my husband definitely does so I decided to test out the fried chicken recipe from the book for dinner last night.  OH.MY.GOSH!  HUGE success, the kids LOVED it, hubs LOVED it, I LOVED it and the last piece that was left over got fed to the lucky pup who LOVED it too!  I was concerned that it would take a long time but once I got the Gardein thawed it was actually pretty easy and quick to get it all assembled and cooked.  I have a deep fryer so I used that rather than pan frying it like he suggests in the book.  Also I didn't put in the blackening spice, as with the addition of hot sauce I was worried the kids wouldn't eat it if I made it any spicier.

There are a couple things that need to be done ahead of time for this.  You need to have some soaked cashews, if you are going to use the blackening spice for the extra heat it takes a couple minutes to mix that up, and you need your Gardein chick'n to be completely thawed so you can shape it, either leave it out on the counter for a few hours or use the defrost option on your microwave.

Blackening Spice Recipe is as follows:

• 1tbsp paprika
• 1tsp cayenne
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl and store in an air tight container

Cashew Cream Recipe is as follows:

• 2 cups raw organic cashews
• 2 1/2 cups water

Soak cashews in water overnight or bring the cashews and 4 cups of water to a simmer.  Remove from heat and let soak 1 hour.  Drain and rinse the cashews. 

Blend soaked cashews and water in blender until completely smooth stopping a few times to scrape down the sides of the blender and make sure you get all the nuts blended.  The book recommends straining the cream to make sure there is no unblended particles in your cream, I processed mine for about 3-4 minutes in my Vita-mix and there was nothing put perfect smooth cream so I didn't bother straining.  The cream should be the consistency of heavy cream.

This makes like 5 cups of cashew cream, you only need 2 for the fried chicken recipe, the rest can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.

*TIP* I keep presoaked nuts of all kinds in gallon ziploc bags in the freezer.  I buy nuts in bulk and soak them in large quantities over night, then rinse and fill up the bags and freeze.  When I need some I just take out what I need they are presoaked and I'm all ready to go without waiting for the nuts to soak.


Southern Fried Chick'n adapted from Vegan Cooking for Carnivores

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp blackening spice or Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic
  *Note* I left this spice out of the recipe when I made ours*
• 1 tbsp garlic powder *also I noticed at the last minute I was out of garlic power too so we skipped this ingredient too.
• 1 tbsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 2 tbsp kosher salt
• 2 cups Cashew Cream
• 3 tbsp Tabasco sauce
• 2 packages of Gardein Chicken Scallopini
• 1 package rice paper spring roll wrappers

If you are pan frying you need about 2 cups high-heat oil for frying.

In a medium bowl mix flour, blackening spice, garlic powder, Old Bay seasoning, onion powder, and salt until well mixed.


In a separate bowl mix the cashew cream and Tabasco sauce.











Roll each Gardein patty into a ball and then shape into a 1-inch-thick patty.

Now it's time to put the "skin" on the chicken! You need a dish is big enough for the spring roll wrappers to fit into and deep enough to hold about a cup of water, a shallow bowl worked well for me.  Check your wrappers and make sure they don't have any holes or cuts.  You need one wrapper for each piece of chicken, the package of wrappers I bought from my local Asian market had like 50 wrappers so I just stuck the rest in a Zipoc and put em back in the pantry.  Put 1 cup of water as hot as you can stand into your bowl and you are going to soak one wrapper at a time for about 20 seconds or so, do not let them get totally soft.  Soak your first wrapper, take it out and spread it out smooth on your counter or cutting board.  Then put your Gardein onto the wrapper and roll it up in the wrapper like a burrito.  Repeat this with all 8 pieces of chicken.

Put a little of the seasoned flour onto a large plate or baking sheet.  Dip a patty in the seasoned flour bowl and coat it all over, then into the cashew cream and then dredge it back into the flour bowl, then place it on the floured plate.  Repeat with all the rest of the pieces.

The book recommends frying in a cast-iron skillet or heavy bottomed pan with sides that are at least 3 inches high.  I used our deep fryer heated to 375 and fried them for about 4 minutes.  I tend to burn almost anything I try pan fry, I can never get the heat right and always cook things too long, so using the deep fryer saves me from this issue the oil is all heated evenly and the timer beeps to let me know they are done.  If you are pan frying the recipe states to cook four patties at a time for about 2 1/2 minutes each side. 

After frying transfer to a paper towel lined dish.  Serve hot!  I served ours with smashed potatoes and baked white carrots.

So crispy and perfect!

Smashed potatoes and white carrots

The "skin" on these was sooo perfect, almost a little too realistic!

Perfectly juicy, crispy, hot and a little greasy... everything I remember fried chicken to be.

Princess portions!  My daughter's dinner plate was 1/2 a piece of chicken, 1 smashed potato and some of the baked white carrots.  She ate every bite of this!

OH!  I almost forgot!  Here is a coupon for Gardein products! 
*Tip*You can print the coupons twice from each compute you own*