If you live in the Hampton Roads, VA area, then you know all about the amazingly delicious, crispy chicken of Farm Fresh. This chicken has been a long time favorite of mine, and has been greatly missed since my diet change. The incredible Southern-taste of the chicken has the additive flavors that make you question through each bite, what crack they have put in the batter. It's that good.
Recently, the chain of supermarkets known as Kroeger, bought Farm Fresh supermarkets. That being the case, the number questions among Farm Fresh fans has been, "what about the chicken?!". If you would like the posted Farm Fresh chicken recipe, you may view it here.
With the release of the recipe on social media, I knew I had to find a way to make the recipe my own. But how does one make vegan fried chicken, you ask? Check out the recipe below:
Chickun Meat:
1 cup vital wheat gluten
2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
3/4 cup vegetable broth (I used Better than Bouillon Vegetable Broth)
2 tbsp. tahini
2-3 cups vegetable broth (I used Better than Bouillon Vegetable Broth)
The original inspiration for this recipe can be found here, courtesy of the Edgy Veg.
Batter:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 1/2 smoked paprika
3/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (crushed)
3/4 tsp. black peppercorn
1 tsp. sea salt
1 vegan egg ( I used Red Mill Egg Replacer)
1/2 cup unsweetened regular almond milk
Additional ingredients:
4-6 cups vegetable oil
Directions:
In a medium sized bowl, combine all the dry ingredients for the chickun mixture. Mix well. In a small bowl, whisk the tahini and the 3/4 cup vegetable broth. Whisk until smooth. Slowly add wet mixture to the dry mixture. Combine until all dry ingredients dissolve. Add water by the tablespoon if it's still too dry, but not too much!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Take the chickun dough mixture and pull into small pieces and shape them however you would like them to keep shape. The pieces will expand, so keep them on the smaller side. Place all the chickun pieces in a deep baking dish. Pour the 2-3 cups of vegetable broth in the dish to cover the pieces. Cover and cook at 350 F for 1 hour, flipping 45 minutes of the way through (When I did this, I could only flip the top pieces. The others were completely covered, so it was fine). After 1 hour, remove from heat and cool. Drain and set aside.
While the chickun is baking in the oven, prep the batter. In a medium sized bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Mix well. In a small bowl, whisk the vegan egg (prepped-follow the directions on the bag!) and the almond milk, until well mixed.
One piece at a time, coat the chickun in flour on both sides. Dip in the almond milk mixture, then back into the flour to coat.
Place the vegetable oil in a large pot on high.
Coat all the chickun pieces and set aside.
Once the oil is hot, carefully drop the chickun pieces into the hot oil. Remove when chickun is light and golden brown. DO NOT BURN! You will need to keep an eye on these, because they brown very quickly.
Drain on a plate with a paper towel lining. Serve warm.
After making these, I will say the texture and the taste is pretty on-point! I will be making these again!
Give them a try yourself and let me know how they turn out for you!
I hope you all did something fun this Sunday~