Vegan Chicken Cutlets

Sandwich is homemade Ciabatta Roll with Chikn Cutlet, tomato, organic greens, homemade vegan mayo and yellow mustard.

So sure, technically these are not "chicken" cutlets in the literal sense of the word, so sometimes I use the veganized monicker "chikn" to refer to these remarkably accurate meat substitutes. Honest, if you made these in McNugget form I think you could fool an omnivore. The spice blend mimics well-seasoned chicken and the texture, thanks to my old friend Vital Wheat Gluten, is satisfyingly meaty.

You can use these for many different purposes. In today's post I show them in chicken sandwich form, mostly to build off yesterday's ciabatta bun post. However, I have also served them over pasta or in a French roll with marinara sauce and vegan cheese to make Chicken Parmesan. I have also sliced and re-baked them to put in Vegan Chicken Caesar Salad. Stay tuned!

Also: this recipe is an original! I am very proud of it, so let me know what you think!

Ingredients:

-1¼ C Vital Wheat Gluten (VWG)
-3 Tbs nutritional yeast
-¼ tsp onion powder
-a couple dashes sage and/or thyme
-dash marjoram
-1 tsp parsley, rubbed to powder between your hands
-¼ tsp garlic powder
-¼ tsp ground celery seed
-dash mint
-1 tsp salt
-¾ C veggie broth
-1 Tbs soy sauce
-olive oil

To make:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Mix liquid ingredients in a separate medium bowl.
4. Stirring as you do so, mix wet into dry, then mix well another 2 minutes.

5. Knead for about 3 minutes. Roll into a big cylinder about 5 or 6 cm thick and maybe 15 cm long.
6. With a sharp knife, cut the roll every 2 cm or so into 6 or 7 round chunks.

7. Flatten each chunk into a cutlet roughly 1 cm thick. These guys will grow as they cook.
8. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the cutlets on the baking sheet and put them in the oven. Bake 20 minutes.

They look so chicken-ish!

9. Flip the cutlets over and bake another 10 min or until both sides are golden brown. When you get to this step, take a look at the cutlets: they may have puffed up an unreasonable amount. When this happens to me, I put another baking sheet on top with a cast iron pan on top of that to help press them back down while they bake.
10. Remove baking sheet from oven. Let the cutlets cool a little. Serve!

The one on the lower left looks creepily fetus-like.