The Best Vegan Chicken (2024)

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This easy vegan seitan chicken recipe will amaze you! You can make your own homemade plant-based chicken breasts, nuggets, and chicken strips in just minutes of your time. Fry it, bake it, or toss it into stir-fries or soups.

Use it in any recipe as you would boneless chicken! Seitan chicken is surprisingly easy to make and can be used in place of chicken in almost any recipe.

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This vegan chicken breast recipe is made from wheat gluten, sometimes also referred to as wheat meat or seitan. It may sound difficult, but I promise that you will be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to make.

Once you start making this homemade chicken seitan, you will never want to buy store-bought chicken products again. It's moist, meaty, and delicious!

You can use it in any recipe as a replacement for chicken breast, chicken strips, or even shredded chicken. It's delicious in stir-fries, pasta dishes, vegetarian fajitas, vegan chicken noodle soup, tossed on salads, and even grilled.

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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
🔪 Helpful tools
🥄 How to make vegan chicken breasts
👩🏻‍🍳 Pro Tips
🌟 How to make vegan chicken strips
📖 Variations of vegan chicken
🥘 Cooking methods
🥡 Storage and reheating
❓ Frequently asked questions?
🍲 How to use it in other recipes
🌟 More meaty vegan recipes
📋 Vegan chicken recipe

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

You can use it to replace chicken in most dishes.
It's high in protein and makes a hearty meal.
Both vegans and omnivores will love it!
Satisfies your cravings for meaty meals.
It freezes well, so you can always have it on hand to toss into soups or stir-fries.

🧾 Ingredients and substitutions

Chickpeas or White Beans - or you can use tofu or any type of bean that you wish. I usually use one 15.5 oz can of drained chickpeas or white beans, or one 14 oz block of extra firm tofu that has been drained and pressed.
Broth - I like to use the Not Chick'n Broth or Better Than Bouillon No Chicken brands for a chicken flavor. You can also use vegetable broth.
Oil - any neutral-flavored oil will work well. You can also leave it out completely, but it helps to give your chicken the proper moisture and mouthfeel. Chicken breasts have a natural fat content of about 11%, so I add a little fat in order to replicate that.
Nutritional Yeast - for an umami flavor. (optional, but recommended)
Poultry Seasoning - for flavor. If you don't have any premixed, you can use this homemade poultry seasoning to flavor the "chicken."
Salt - for flavor. Feel free to reduce the salt for a lower-sodium chicken.
Garlic Powder - for flavor. (optional)
Onion Powder - for flavor. (optional)
Vital Wheat Gluten - this is a fine powdery flour that is high in wheat protein. You can't swap this out for regular flour or any other flour. You can usually find it in the Bob's Red Mill section or the specialty baking section of large grocery stores. I order a large bag from Amazon to make lots of seitan recipes.

A blender or food processor - to blend the beans or tofu with the broth and spices.
A steamer basket - if you don't have one, you can use jelly jar rings or balls of aluminum foil to lift the chicken up out of the water at the bottom of a pot for steaming.
A glass bowl - to mix the dough in. Gluten is very sticky and will stick even more to plastic.
A silicon spatula - to stir the gluten into the flour. Don't use any wooden utensils, or the gluten will stick to them.

🥄 How to make vegan chicken breasts

Step 1 - Add a can of drained chickpeas to a food processor or blender along with broth, oil, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder.

Step 2 - Blend until smooth, then transfer to a glass mixing bowl.

Step 3 - Stir in 1 cup of the vital wheat gluten, then add the remaining 1/2 cup of wheat gluten and knead with your hands for about 1 minute until a firm dough is formed. *don't eat it until it has been cooked.

Step 4 - You can now cook your seitan, or for "chicken" with a stringier texture, let it rest in the fridge covered for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

🔥 How to cook the seitan

Step 5 - Flatten the kneaded gluten into a large circle about 1.5 inches thick and cut it into 4 - 6 equal sections depending on the size of "chicken" breasts that you want.

Step 6 - Form the pieces into the shape that you desire and wrap the individual "chicken breast" tightly in foil.

Step 7 - Steam the vegan chicken breasts in the foil packets for 45 minutes and remove them from the steamer with tongs.

👩🏻‍🍳 Pro Tips

You can use any type of bean or tofu, blended with the broth to make vegan chicken.
For a stringier chicken texture, allow your dough to rest for at least an hour in the fridge before cooking.
Gluten needs to be cooked, don't eat it raw. You know that it has cooked enough when it is firm and meat-like and no longer has a doughy texture.
Wheat gluten is a very fine powder that can get messy. When pouring the flour into the bowl, hold it low in the bowl so it doesn't splash out or make a cloud of dust.
Use only a glass bowl and silicone spatula. Wet gluten is very sticky and hard to clean.
Wash your bowl and utensils in very hot water. This will help to reduce the stickiness of the gluten. You may want to use an old rag that you can throw away after you clean up.

Note - this is a quick and easy method of making chicken seitan using gluten flour, if you want to use the washed flour method, use my flour and water chicken recipe that makes vegan chicken by washing the starch out of regular flour.

🌟 How to make vegan chicken strips

Cut the steamed vegan chicken into strips and store them in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Toss it into soups, stir-fries, or simply pan-fry the strips for about 5 minutes and then add them to salads.

📖 Variations of vegan chicken

Vegan Chicken Made with Tofu - You can use a 14 oz block of firm or extra firm tofu instead of chickpeas or beans. To do so, simply drain the tofu and squeeze or press it until all excess liquid drains off. Then follow the rest of the recipe the same except you may need to add 2-3 extra tablespoons of wheat gluten until the dough is no longer sticky. Chicken made with tofu is a little softer and moister, yet equally delicious.

Extra Stringy Seitan Chicken - If you want to achieve a very stringy chicken, you can place the dough in the fridge to rest for 24 hours before cooking. If you don't want to wait this long, you can also add 1/2 cup of canned jackfruit shredded into small pieces. Simply toss this in while you are kneading the dough. You can also use my vegan shredded chicken recipe for a stringy texture.

🥘 Cooking methods

You have 3 cooking methods to choose from when you make this vegan chicken, steaming (as described above) boiling, and baking. Since seitan expands when it cooks, I like to wrap it and then steam it to produce the densest meat-like "chicken." However, boiling and baking are also great methods, but just produce a little different result in texture.

Boiled Seitan - Instead of steaming the chicken seitan, you can boil it in chicken broth as well. I like this method when I'm using "chicken" in a soup because you can just rip off tiny pieces of the dough and throw them directly into the soup pot. The seitan needs to simmer in the broth for at least 30 minutes to cook all the way before eating. I use this method in my quick and easy seitan and my shredded chicken seitan recipes.

Baked Vegan Chicken - You can also bake your wheat meat. When I use this method, I like to make a breading or batter to coat the "chicken" and then bake it on an oiled cookie sheet. You can see more details about this method in my vegan chicken patty recipe and vegan chicken nuggets recipe.

🥡 Storage and reheating

Refrigerator: The vegan chicken will keep well in the fridge for 3 - 5 days in a sealed container.

Reheating: Reheat your chicken in the microwave for about 2 minutes, or pan-fry on low to warm it up.

Freezing: Vegan chicken freezes well and can be stored in an airtight bag in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can allow it to thaw in the fridge overnight, or you can toss smaller strips into stir-fries or soup while still frozen.

❓ Frequently asked questions?

Can seitan be made gluten-free?

🍲 How to use it in other recipes

Once the "chicken" has been steamed, you can use it in any recipe that calls for cooked boneless chicken. Here are some of my favorite ways to use it.

Vegan Broccoli Pasta
Vegan Caesar Salad with "Chicken"
Vegan Chicken a la King
Vegan Buffalo Chicken
Strawberry Spinach Salad with "Chicken"
Vegan Cream of Chicken Soup
Vegan Rasta Pasta

🌟 More meaty vegan recipes

Vegan Turkey
Vegan Ham
The Best Vegan Bacon
Vegan Pepperoni
Vegan Steak
Seitan Salami
Vegan Hot Dogs

📌 Be sure tofollow me on Pinterestfor new vegan recipes!

📋 Vegan chicken recipe

5 from 13 votes

Print Recipe

Seitan Chicken (Vegan Chicken)

Delicious vegan chicken made from beans and wheat gluten. The taste and texture will amaze even skeptical eaters.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Total Time55 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken seitan

Servings: 6

Calories: 221kcal

Author: Monica Davis

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups chickpeas (15.5 oz can) drained or white beans or 14 oz. firm pressed tofu
1 cup not chick'n broth (reconstituted) or other vegan chicken-style broth or veggie broth
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
2 tablespoons neutral-flavored oil
1 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Make the dough

Add a can of drained chickpeas to a food processor or blender along with broth, nutritional yeast, oil, poultry seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt.
Blend until smooth, then transfer to a glass mixing bowl.
Stir in 1 cup of the vital wheat gluten, then add the remaining 1/2 cup of wheat gluten and knead with your hands for about 1 minute until a firm dough is formed. *don't eat it until it has been cooked.
You can now cook your seitan, or for "chicken" with a stringier texture, let it rest in the fridge covered for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.

Cook the seitan

Flatten the kneaded gluten into a large circle about 1.5 inches thick and cut it into 4- 6 equal sections depending on the size "chicken" breasts that you want.
Form the pieces into the shape that you desire and wrap the individual "chicken breast" tightly in foil.
Steam the vegan chicken breasts in the foil packets for 45 minutes and remove them from the steamer with tongs. (At this point, you can eat it, slice it into chicken strips to toss into stir-fries, put it on salads, grill it, or panfry it as you would chicken breast.)
To panfry, sauté it in a tablespoon of oil for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Notes

You can use any type of bean or tofu, blended with the broth to make the vegan chicken.
For a stringier chicken texture, allow your dough to rest for at least an hour in the fridge before cooking.
Gluten needs to be cooked, don't eat it raw. You know that it has cooked enough when it is firm and meat-like and no longer has a doughy texture.
Wheat gluten is a very fine powder that can get messy. When pouring the flour into the bowl, hold it low in the bowl so it doesn't splash out or make a cloud of dust.
Use only a glass bowl and silicone spatula. Wet gluten is very sticky and hard to clean.
Wash your bowl and utensils in very hot water. This will help to reduce the stickiness of the gluten. You may want to use an old rag that you can throw away after you clean up.

Nutrition

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