Homemade Vegan Chicken Recipe (2024)

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5 from 5 votes

1 hour hour 46 minutes minutes

by Marly

Updated 2/4/24

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This is the best vegan chicken recipe because it’s so easy to make and boasts a fantastic texture and flavor. Serve it as fillets or as part of your plant-based dinners like stir-fries, and more!

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There was a day when making my own vegan chicken meat seemed impossible. Then my plant-based cooking school covered seitan. Now I’m on the other side of that learning curve, and I’m happy to say it’s easier than you think.

In fact, this recipe comes together so quickly, it’s amazing. The hardest thing about vegan chicken recipes is finding the vital wheat gluten, and I’ve got a link in the recipe that has you covered!

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Key Ingredients

You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.

Here’s the simple list of ingredients for this recipe:

Cannedchickpeas — Adding cooked chickpeas improves the structure and flavor of the fillets
Bouillon Base + water — Use your preferred, high-quality vegetable broth. I recommend Better Than Bouillon Base (see link in recipe) because it delivers a consistent high-quality broth
Nutritional yeast flakes — We’ll add nutritional yeast flakes for flavor (here’s more onnutritional yeast flakes, including where to buy it)
Olive oil — adding a touch of olive oil adds tenderness and moisture to this plant-based chicken
Onion + garlic powder — this savory duo adds delicious flavor
Poultry seasoning — believe it or not, there is no poultry in poultry seasoning. It’s simply a delicious combination of spices
Vital wheat gluten — it’s quite possible you’ve never worked with vital wheat gluten before, but it’s a simple flour-like substance used to create vegan meat products. You can usually find it at health food stores like Sprouts and Natural Grocers or online.

It’s easier than you think to make your own plant-based chicken.

Ingredient Spotlight

What is Vital Wheat Gluten?

Gluten is the main protein of a wheat berryfound in the endosperm. When gluten is separated from the wheat, you have a flour-like substance (vital wheat gluten). This has been used in vegan and vegetarian recipes for years. Also known as “wheat meat,” it has a similar texture to meat. You can also add it to yeast bread to improve the texture and volume.

What Makes This Recipe Shine?

BEST TEXTURE — Adding chickpeas to the base creates a moist texture to every bite
BEST FLAVOR — Nutritional yeast flakes combined with poultry seasoning add a savory umami flavor.
FIRM — Wrapping the loaf in foil before baking prevents the vital wheat gluten from expanding as it cooks, creating a firm loaf.

Storage Tips

Once your vegan mock chicken is done, wrap the fillets in waxed paper or foil, or store them in a sealable container. Keep this in the fridge for up to 4–5 days. Or they can be frozen for up to 2–3 months.

Frequently-Asked Questions

What is vegetarian chicken made of?

Vegetarian chicken is made from a variety of ingredients, but the most popular recipes call for vital wheat gluten or ‘wheat meat.’ It creates a great texture and is a low-calorie, low-carb ingredient to work with.

Is Vital Wheat Gluten bad for you?

Vital Wheat Gluten is created when wheat flour is combined with water and kneaded to activate the gluten. After that, the starches are rinsed away to reveal only the gluten. What’s left is vital wheat gluten, a relatively healthy, low carb, and low-calorie product that can be transformed into vegan meat.

Reader Reviews

★★★★★
I used this recipe to make chicken wraps for dinner with hummus, homemade vegan cheese sauce, salsa, cilantro and lettuce on Flatout Light wraps. My husband and I loved them. Very tasty and tender. I’ve made other chicken seitan that turned out very chewy, but this was delicious.
Kim

★★★★★
This was incredible! I cannot believe how amazing this turned out. Thank you so much!
Mary

How to Use Vegan Chicken

Serve vegan chiken fillets with lemon herb sauce (see the recipe card below). It’s delicious! Here are some favorite vegan sides to serve with
You can bread and fry your fillets to make vegan fried chicken. Then serve them with creamy Vegan Mashed Potatoes. It’s like a plant-based homecooked Sunday dinner!
Make vegan chicken nuggets by cutting the fillets into smaller pieces. You can bread them using the same process in my fried tofu sandwich. Then serve the nuggets with Air Fryer Fries or Sweet Potato Tots.
Add fillets to this Vegan Chicken and Rice Casserole and serve it with a Vegan Wedge Salad.
Cut the chicken into cubes and add it to your yummy Vegan Chicken Noodle Soup. You’ll love serving it with a Vegan French Dip Sandwich.
You can use these vegan chicken fillets in other recipes that call for chicken. For example, cut them into strips and make this vegan taquitos recipe.
You can also chop it into chunks and make it into meatless chicken salad.
Bread the fillets into vegan parmesan cutlets and serve them over Vegan Fettucine Alfredo pasta.

As you can see, there are so many ways to use seitan chicken recipes!

Vegan Meat Favorites

If you love vegan chicken, here are even more plant-based meat recipes to try:

Impossible Meatloaf

60 mins total

Vegan Meatloaf

195 mins total

Vegan Lentil Meatballs

50 mins total

Vegan Beef Stew

35 mins total

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Plant-Based Chicken

Don't have access to store-bought vegan chicken? Make your own! This plant-based chicken recipe makes tender vegan chicken pieces you can use for stir-fries, vegan fried chicken and more!

5 from 5 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 46 minutes minutes

Resting Time: 45 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 46 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 fillets

Calories: 148kcal

Author: Marly McMillen

Ingredients

Vegan Chicken Fillets

▢ 1 15 oz can chickpeas drained
▢ ⅔ cup water
▢ 1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon No Chicken Base (see notes)
▢ 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes
▢ 2 tbsp olive oil
▢ 1 tsp onion powder
▢ 1 teaspoon garlic powder
▢ 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
▢ 1 ¼ cups vital wheat gluten

Lemon Garlic Sauce

▢ 3 tablespoons vegan butter divided
▢ 2 teaspoons minced garlic (1 – 2 cloves)
▢ 1 cup water
▢ 1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon Vegetarian
▢ 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
▢ ½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest
▢ 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
▢ 1 teaspoon dried chives

Instructions

For the Vegan Chicken Fillets

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Add chickpeas to a food processor with the water, oil, bouillon, onion powder, garlic powder, and poultry seasoning. Blend for about 30 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and blend again until smooth.
Transfer the chickpea mixture to a bowl. Add vital wheat gluten. Use a spatula to stir the ingredients together.
To make sure it's all equally distributed, use your hands to gently "knead" the mixture in the bowl, only until just combined and none of the powdery vital wheat gluten is visible.
Turn the dough out onto a cutting board. Shape it into an oval loaf. Cut it into four pieces. Wrap the pieces in foil and use tongs to place in the heated oven. Bake for 45–50 minutes.
Once they're done, use tongs to remove them from the oven. Leave them in the foil and set them aside to cool.
Once cool enough to handle, remove the foil. Place on a cutting board and cut each down the middle, lengthwise, to create 8 fillets. You can refrigerate the fillets for up to 4 days or freeze them for up to 2 to 3 months.

For the Garlic Herb Sauce

To serve, add 1 tablespoon of vegan butter to a skillet over medium heat. Once the butter melts, add fillets and saute for about 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Use tongs to remove fillets from the skillet. Transfer to a plate.
Add remaining vegan butter to the skillet. Add minced garlic and cook for about a minute, until the garlic is tender. Add water, bouillon, lemon juice, and lemon zest. You can also add optional thin lemon slices too. Stir to combine. Cook for 2–3 minutes. Sprinkle flour over the top and use a spatula to stir it into the sauce. Cook and stir over medium heat until the sauce thickens.
Add vegan fillets back to the skillet, spooning the sauce over the top. Cook for a few minutes until the fillets are heated through. Serve fillets warm. Sprinkle with chives.

Recommended Equipment

Food Processor

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Notes

Bouillion: You can substitute vegetarian Better than Bouillon Base or soy sauce.

The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Did you make this recipe?

Leave a rating below then tag @namelymarly on Instagram and hashtag it #namelymarly. I love seeing your creations!