So, this happens to be my second attempt at fried chicken style seitan, and I think I'm making improvements. My first try was actually for new year's eve, when my mom and I prepared a southern-style new years meal complete with collard greens and black-eyed-peas (which were my favorite part of the meal). That time I actually made it a different, slightly odd way because I was short on time. I found a tutorial saying that for fried chicken style seitan you can just stretch your dough very thin and drop it right in your cooking oil, no need to pre-cook the seitan. I did this, and the best way I can describe it is that it was like fried chicken skin without the chicken. Pretty tasty (my family rather enjoyed it, particularly my mom and older brother who are both vegans), but not quite what I had been wanting. This time was closer to what I'm looking for, but still wasn't 100% my goal.
First, I mixed up a seitan dough. I used the dragonfly brand pork broth mix for it because I was out of chicken broth, and it turned out tasting really great. I flavored it additionally with some Johnny's seasoning salt (but that shouldn't be a surprise) and some garlic powder. Instead of making cutlet-shaped pieces I just tore it into little chunks and dropped them in a saucepan of broth. If anyone reading this is a little lost about how to make seitan, refer back to my first or second post (ham roast and steak, respectively) or look up any recipe on cooking seitan using the simmering method. I particularly recommend the cookbook Veganize This! by Jenn Shagrin.
Lovely little simmering seitans. After cooking I drained them, but I really could have drained them longer. The bits ended up rather juicy which made them quite flavorful, but a bit soft. I also think that in the future for deep-frying I'd use less all-purpose flour in the mixture, because these were just all around too soft. Most of the time when preparing seitan in a dish I cook it in some way that removes mosture (such as sauteeing). Deep-frying tends to seal in moisture, especially when there's batter involved. I didn't really take this into account, but despite their soft texture they were still rather delicious
For the coating I bought the Krusteaz brand frying mix. The last time, I used the kind they were selling in the bulk section of Winco, because this was the only vegan kind we could find. After comparing the two I think that the Winco kind was actually tastier, but the Kusteaz is still rather good. I also added in some smoked paprika to the Krusteaz which was a nice addition. The way I ended up applying the mix was different than the instructions called for, but I think caused the coating to be a bit thicker. Instead of just rolling the pieces in the dry mixture I turned it into a thin batter using milk (you could easily sub in soy milk if you are vegan), coated the pieces in this and then coated again in the dry mix to cut down on splattering.
My boyfriend got a small fryer for Christmas a couple years ago, and I love using it. I don't use it terribly often because it makes our little apartment smell like fry-oil all day, but when I do bust it out I'm always happy with the results. Of course, this is terribly, terribly unhealthy. But you're reading a blog post about popcorn chicken, so I don't imagine you were expecting health food. Alternatively you could always deep-fry or shallow-fry on the stove if you don't have a fryer. The end result should be the same.
Since I always want to make the most of it when I do use the fryer I paired the chicken with some frozen french fries (I have learned not to buy the Kroger brand fries ever again-- every single fry in the bag was one of those tiny crappy fries that hide at the bottom of any respectable bag/carton of fries).
After frying a put them on a double layer of paper towels to cool and dry. Don't they look fantastic? The coating was a bit thinner than I'd like for popcorn chicken, so I'll keep experiementing with how to get it crunchier (if anyone has any tips please put them in the comments!). This way they were crispy and delicate which was nice, but not what I was going for.
There's a closeup to see the texture inside. Very juicy which I think made it more flavorful, but as I said earlier it was a bit on the soft side. Next time I'd cut down on the all-purpose flour, or maybe not use it at all. I would definitely give it more time to dry out before frying. Still, pretty good for a work in progress!
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