Vegan Roast Chicken

A hearty vegan roast chicken that is ultra tender, sliceable and full of flavour. If you thought going vegan meant giving up on meals like this, think again. This recipe is perfect for any winter feast, and leftovers are great in sandwiches too!

What the Heck Is Vegan Roast Chicken?

This vegan roast is essentially roasted seitan in balsamic marinade, served with roasted seasonal vegetables. If you’ve never made seitan from scratch before, there’s nothing to fear.

Most ready-made vegan meat substitutes available to buy are seitan-based, but it’s actually a lot more cost-efficient and healthy to make your own, where you get to control every ingredient you include. Seitan is made with vital wheat gluten, which is super high in plant protein and gives meat substitutes a very realistic look and texture.

All you need to do is prepare a dough and then knead it to develop the gluten structure. It’s actually all very similar to making bread. Once kneaded, seitan dough can be cooked by either steaming, baking or simmering in water.

Ingredients You’ll Need to Make Vegan Roast Chicken

Tofu – extra firm tofu works best. It makes the seitan more tender and less chewy than some traditional recipes, which is what we’re going for here.

Vegetable oil

Nutritional yeast – adds depth of flavour but it doesn’t make the chicken taste cheesy.

Onion powder, garlic powder, salt and poultry seasoning – for added flavour.

Vegetable broth – for flavour and moisture. You can also use no-chicken broth (or a similar vegan alternative), which will give the roast even more chicken flavour.

Vital wheat gluten

Yuba or rice paper 

What Is Vital Wheat Gluten?

Vital wheat gluten, sometimes called gluten flour, is a naturally occurring protein found in wheat. It’s essentially wheat flour stripped of everything except the gluten, such as starch.

You can easily find it in health stores or the healthy/vegan section of some shops. Or, you can order it on Amazon. Depending on your location, there should be a variety of brands to choose from.

Please note, if you suffer from Celiac disease or have gluten allergies, then you must avoid consuming gluten in any form.

What Is Yuba (and do I really need it)?

Tofu skin, Yuba, beancurd skin, beancurd sheet, or beancurd robes is a soy product made by boiling soy milk in an open shallow pan until a film or skin composed primarily of a soy protein-lipid complex forms on the liquid surface. The skin is then skimmed off and allowed to dry. 

It will give the “chicken breasts” a nice skin. Plus, it’s packed with nutrients.

You can find it in Chinese shops, some superstores have it in their Asian section,  or you can order it on Amazon.

How to Make Vegan Roast Chicken

STEP ONE – PREPARE THE SEITAN

Place the vital wheat gluten in a large bowl and set aside.

Crumble the tofu into a blender. Add water, oil, nutritional yeast, onion and garlic powder, and poultry seasoning, and process until perfectly smooth.

Scoop the mixture into the vital wheat gluten. Combine with a spatula until a ball of dough begins to form.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead vigorously for 4-5 minutes. This is crucial to develop the gluten (see notes above). You can test the dough by stretching it. If it tears easily, more kneading is required.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and shape each of them into a small oval “chicken breast” fillet.

Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper on a clean surface and place a roughly crumpled piece of yuba, slightly larger than the fillet, in the centre. Place the fillet on top of the yuba, smooth side down so it’s in contact with the yuba. Fold the sides of the greaseproof paper over and wrap tightly. Repeat with all the remaining seitan.

Place the tightly wrapped seitan chicken “breasts” into a steamer. A bamboo or an electric steamer will work fine. Steam for 1 hour.

Once steamed, remove the seitan chicken breasts from the steamer and without unwrapping, leave to cool for at least 20 minutes. While the seitan chicken cools, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and make the marinade.

STEP TWO – MARINATE

Place all the ingredients in a blender with 4 tablespoon water. Blend on high speed for 10 seconds.

Unwrap the cooled seitan chicken breasts and place in a bowl or roasting tin. Pour over half of the marinade. Carefully stir to make sure the marinade covers all of the seitan cover and leave to marinate while you roast the vegetables.

STEP THREE – ROAST

Place the vegetables in a medium bowl. Pour over half of the remaining marinade. Toss to coat the vegetables. Transfer the prepared vegetables and herbs into a roasting tin or a cast iron skillet. Place in the preheated oven and roast for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the seitan chicken breasts from the marinade. Remove the vegetables form the oven, give them a stir and top them with the marinated seitan chicken. Place in the oven and continue to roast for a further 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, check on the vegetables and seitan. The seitan chicken should be nicely browned on the surface. Use a pastry brush to apply more of the remaining marinade to the seitan and return everything to the oven for a final 5 minutes.

Vegan Roast Chicken FAQs

How many servings does this make?

This recipe makes 4 vegan chicken fillets, which serves about 8 people.

How to Store It

This recipe is best enjoyed right away. You can store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days; leftover slices are great in a sandwich.

How to Serve It

Serve as you would serve regular roast chicken, with roasted veggies, gravy and all the trimmings.

Tips to Make Sure This Turns Out Well

Don’t skip the kneading. Like with making bread, kneading the seitan dough activates the gluten and makes the “meat” nice and chewy. If you don’t knead long enough, seitan can have an “old boot texture” and that’s a very unpleasant experience, especially if this is your first time making a vegan meat substitute from scratch. The kneading can be a bit tedious, but I promise you it’s worth it.

Turn the “chicken breasts” halfway through steaming. This ensures they cook evenly on both sides.

Make sure you don’t skip the cooling bit once the breasts are steamed.

More Vegan Meats to Try Out 

• Meatless Meatballs with Sauerkraut
• Vegan Shrimp
• Authentic Vegan Schnitzel 
• Vegan Pulled Pork Sandwiches
• Vegan Fish Fingers