Vegan seitan chicken
You can make homemade seitan using just plain flour and water. This recipe uses a piri-piri seasoning, but see the tips section for alternative flavours.
Serve with crispy sweet potato wedges and corn on the cob. Drizzle over piri piri hot sauce for extra heat!
Ingredients
- 1kg/35¼oz plain white flour
- 2 tsp piri-piri seasoning
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 400ml/14fl oz vegetable or meat stock
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 large sweet potatoes, cut into wedges
- 4 sweetcorn cobettes (or 2 large sweetcorn cobs, halved)
- salt, to taste
Method
In a very large bowl, mix the flour and 625ml/21fl oz water together. Knead the dough by hand or using electric dough hooks until the dough is supple and elastic, and doesn’t break when stretched to the point you can see light through it. If doing by hand, this will take around 15 minutes. Clean the bowl out and place the dough back in the middle. Cover with cold water and leave to rest for 2 hours.
Drain the water and rinse the dough well for 5 minutes or until most of the starch has been removed and the water runs clear-ish. The dough will look stringy and a bit like a sponge at this point. Put it back in the bowl, cover with a cloth, and rest for one hour.
Add the piri piri seasoning, knead well, then twist the dough and tie into a knot.
Heat a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of the oil. Fry the dough for 5 minutes on all sides, or until golden-brown. Remove from the heat and carefully pour in the stock and 1 teaspoon paprika (if your pan is still on the heat be careful as the oil may spit). Cover with a lid and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes, making sure to top up the liquid if it starts to boil dry. The dough will at least double in size.
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Toss the sweet potato wedges with 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon paprika then season well with salt. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned.
Place the corn on the cob into a saucepan of boiling water and boil for 8–10 minutes or until the sweetcorn is cooked and tender.
Serve the seitan, corn and wedges on a platter. Drizzle over any leftover stock and hot sauce, if using.
Recipe Tips
If you season seitan just using salt and pepper, it works really well with sauces like peanut satay, hoisin, sweet chilli and even gravy! While this recipe replicates a chicken dish, seitan tastes good in dishes such as peking ‘duck’ and braised five-spice ‘pork belly’ too.