Realistic VEGAN fried chicken?!

See, he's pushing the bar to the next level. KFC up nine, I do ten. You've been to ten a reef, I've been to eleven a reef. It's no secret that people love Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I was one of those people before going vegan six years ago. The crispy coating, the succulent centre, all those herbs and spices. It was an amazing treat. And since going vegan, I've tried to recreate it loads of times. And restaurants all around the world, vegan restaurants have also made their versions of fried chicken. Today's video is going to be a little bit different to my usual recipe videos. This is going to be an experiment. I'm going to test out a few different plant-based ingredients to see which one makes the best Kentucky Fried Chicken vegan replacement. I got a panel of friends and family, vegans and non-vegans, to taste my creations and to tell you which one they like the most so that you can recreate it at home. We're going to be making... Go on. Yeah, yeah, sorry. We're going to be making that extra special herb and spice blend to make the best coating, even a vegan buttermilk. Plus, obviously, that succulent centre, which is replicating the chicken. Let's get to the kitchen and do this bloody experiment. So the four ingredients I'm going to be experimenting with are oyster mushrooms, tofu, jackfruit and seitan. The first one we're going to be doing is that wheat gluten seitan chicken. Trust me, when you make this, you will never ever want to buy a vegan meat alternative again, because when you make it yourself, you see exactly what goes into it and you can really tinker the flavours to your palate. Wheat gluten, aka seitan, originated in China and is popular in East and South Asian cuisine. It has been widely used as a meat substitute since the 6th century, especially among Buddhist monks who don't eat meat. It is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch granules are removed. However, nowadays it comes in a convenient powder called vital wheat gluten, which is what I buy and use. In the past, I've made steaks, burgers, turkey, chicken, pepperoni and so much more using wheat gluten. And still to this day, I'm so impressed by the meaty texture I'm able to achieve. Seitan is also super high in plant-based protein. So for that really flavoursome wet mixture, I'm going to be adding to a blender some dried onion, some ground garlic, some ground white pepper, some vegetable stock, some firm tofu, which I've just patted dry, some white miso paste for that umaminess, some tahini, some celery salt, dried sage. Future Tom, drop in office reference, big, tiny cup, cafe disco episode. I think I'm growing into a giant because look at this normal size coffee cup. Looks so tiny in my giant hand now. You can just put that in actually, that's funny. Dried sage, some dried thyme, squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of sea salt. So that is some powerful ingredients in there. The reason why you need the powerful ingredients is because vital wheat gluten, aka seitan, this stuff here, does have a sort of subtle flavour to it that you want to completely overpower, otherwise it doesn't taste good. And to help that and to help this taste even more meaty, we're going to call upon our old friends again, mushrooms. These are dried porcini mushrooms, but you can add any dried mushrooms you can get your hands on. And we're going to get them in as well. Don't need to rehydrate them, they're going to rehydrate in this mixture. And I'm also going to be adding some non-dairy milk, some soy milk here, or whatever non-dairy milk you want, and that'll keep the colour white. Blitz it until completely smooth. Guys, honestly, this is so intense. There's so many powerful flavours in here and that's exactly what we need to overpower the flavour of the vital wheat gluten. You get what I mean. Anyway, the vital wheat gluten now goes into my mixer. I'm going to add this wet mixture. We're going to mix it all up. We're going to knead it for about eight minutes in the mixer on a medium speed. In the meantime, we'll get our broth on the go. So just into a saucepan of vegetable stock, I'm going to add some miso paste, an onion just chopped in half, some rosemary, a bay leaf and half a lemon. So we've got this really flavoursome broth heating up to a simmer. I'm going to get the seitan now that it's been kneaded and cut it into some bite-sized chunks. It does expand when it's cooking so just cut it or break it into smaller pieces than you want basically. When the broth is simmering, add the seitan chunks. So my shmeet is in the broth now. It needs to be in there for about 70 to 75 minutes. Pop a lid on. Just make sure that it doesn't bubble rapidly. Just want it to bubble lightly. When the vegan chicken is firm to the touch, remove it from the saucepan and set it aside for at least two hours to firm up. It can be left overnight in the fridge and it'll get even meatier. Before we crack on with the tofu, the jackfruit and the mushrooms, I can't resist giving this a little taste test because it does look so meaty. Look at that. That's firm to the touch. That is unbelievable and it's going to get firmer as it sets and cools basically. Any leftover chicken can be stored in the fridge for up to seven days or in the freezer for up to three months. Throw it into curries, into stir fries, into stews, whatever you want. It's super high in protein too. The next chicken alternative we are going to prepare is tofu. We don't have to do much to it because this is extra firm tofu. Look how meaty that is. This has been pressed with hydraulic presses in the factory and it results in this really meaty product. High in protein as well. I'm going to tear this into chunks and uneven pieces so that my coating really crisps up around it and just creates this lovely texture. For the jackfruit, I've just got some chunks from a can and I'm going to pat them dry as firmly as I can with a clean tea towel. Just squeeze as much of this water out. Usually, I would wring it out if I was making a different type of dish but for the crispy fried chicken, I want the whole pieces to be intact and that will make it really meaty. And as you can see, it's very fibrous which I think will create a lovely texture inside the coating. So here's the oyster mushrooms. This is the fourth element and look at these beautiful clusters here. This is how you should buy oyster mushrooms. This is a big piece so I'm going to break something this size in half but if your mushroom clusters are this size, that's perfect. And if there's any hard bits in the center, just cut those out. As you know, I love growing my own food and recently, I had a go at growing my own oyster mushrooms. For more details, check out my Instagram or TikTok. So before I went vegan, KFC and fried chicken was something that I had as a treat every now and then. I did really enjoy it but the thing I enjoyed most about it was the crispy coating. Now, KFC have keep it... Now, KFC have keepen... Now, KFC have kept their secret recipe under wraps for a long time but I did some searching, I did some research and I put together what I think is very similar and having done various experiments, this is my favorite version of a spice mix for the crispy coating. So into a bowl with some plain flour, some all-purpose flour and some corn flour, I'm going to add the following herbs and spices. We have got some cracked black pepper, some ground ginger, some cayenne pepper, some dried oregano, some smoked paprika, some garlic granules, some onion granules, some dried basil, some dried thyme and some celery salt. I'm also going to add a couple teaspoons of sugar as well because that mixture of the spiciness with the sweetness is very good and that is going to add that boom that we need for our crispy coating. I'm also going to be making my own buttermilk too. We're going to be mixing some soy milk with some vinegar or some lemon juice and that's going to curdle a little, get thicker, add some acidity and that's going to be a nice batter klingaronna. That's what I'm going to call that, a batter klingaronna. That was 10 spices, KFC only have 9. Wow, see I've gone one up, one above. See, I'm pushing the bar to the next level. KFC have 9, I do 10. You've been to 10 a reef, I've been to 11 a reef. So the important thing is when you're making this batter is that there's enough flavouring running through the flour. If you can't see many speckles then you haven't got enough seasoning in there. Get more herbs and spices in if that's the case. We're all set now, buttermilk is done. Spice mix is done. We just need to coat up the four different chicken replacements and then get them fried and then the all-important taste test. So when you're coating a vegan chicken, it's exactly the same process for each ingredient. First up, you want to dip into the dry flour mix, then into the buttermilk, then back into the dry flour spice mix. Then put it on a plate and we can get it fried once we've coated everything. Occasionally, I may double dip or double coat the ingredients just to get extra coating in the crevices. So when you've coated your vegan chicken, it's time to get it cooked. I'm so excited for this. Now you can bake it for an oil-free version. Just pop it in your oven for 35 to 45 minutes and you can even store this at this point. Put it in a sandwich bag, into your freezer, it'll last months and just take it out as and when. But I'm going to fry it. Of course, this is a treat. I don't have it often and I'm going to do it properly if I'm going to have vegan fried chicken. So into a pan of hot oil to test if it's hot enough, just drop a few crumbs of the batter into the oil. If it bubbles, your oil is hot enough. Let's get cooking. So on first glance, the mushroom one looks most realistic. It's because of all those crevices. I told you, I knew it would be like that. Look at that. Wow. And you want to cook this until the batter is super golden because obviously the mushrooms need to cook, jackfruit needs to cook, tofu needs to firm up and the seitan needs to just warm through to the centre. The seitan is my least sort of spectacular looking one at the moment because there's not enough crevices on it. Maybe you can tear the seitan, but I wanted a nice big thick piece. Look at that. What the hell. As soon as they come out of the oil, season with salt to keep them crisp and to season them up. We've got a big old bucket of vegan fried chicken. Let's see what one is the best. All right guys, here it goes. I don't know which one is which now. I know which one the mushroom is though. I'm tempted to try that one first. So let's go. Look at that. That coating is real good. The mushrooms are flaky. It's almost like a thigh of chicken. I know that sounds quite bad, gruesome, but it's like chicken thigh. The crispy coating has got inside all of those crevices and those layers of mushrooms, so it runs right through which is amazing and the mushroom is very juicy. It's almost fatty. The mushrooms are going to take some serious beating because that was unbelievable. That coating, the spices. Oh my God. Okay, let's go for this one. This is actually finger licking good. I don't know which one this is. It could be tofu or seitan. I'm going to break it. It's tofu. Let's bite into this. It's good. It's more chicken nuggety. It's not as fatty and as succulent. It's just like a nice breaded sort of nugget, I guess. That's why I call it a tofu nugget. I think these jackfruit nuggets here are great for kids, especially if you were to bake them and not fry them and not put as much spice in. So let's give these a taste. Wow. That texture there. See the fibers? The fibers give it a real sort of meat-like texture and that was surprising. I thought that would be too moist. This is really good. The jackfruit is surprisingly good and you can't taste the sweetness too much. The flavor of the spice mix has really worked well with jackfruit actually. Okay, the seitan. Let's try this. Look at that. That is very meaty. But there isn't as many crevices as there are in the mushrooms. So it's not as crispy. But as I said, you can tear it to make more crevices for sure. This is giving me a different kind of fried chicken vibe. This is giving me maybe, like this could be perfect inside a burger with some mayonnaise and lettuce, you know, like a proper chicken sandwich kind of vibe. The taste of the seitan is amazing. I think I need to find out what the crew and my mum think before we can make a final decision on which one is the best for a vegan fried chicken alternative. All right, guys. This is finger licking good. I need to know what you think is the best one. So tuck in. Save major opinions for the end. Oliver, which do you think is the best vegan chicken alternative out of the ones you tried today? I think almost hands down the mushroom, like mushroom gang just representing once again. It's the most chicken-like out of all three. They're different, but just enjoy on their own. The mushroom, I think, wins. I think the other three are really good, but like you said, in stuff like sandwiches or maybe with like dips or something. Yeah. Just on its own. Yeah, mushroom. Cool. Nada, which is your favorite? I'd say the mushroom as well. Mushroom. But I was very surprised with the jackfruit. Okay. I didn't expect it to be as nice as it was, but it really goes well, especially with that coating. Lovely texture. But I must say the seitan and the tofu were both lovely as well. But mushrooms in the lead. Mushrooms in the lead. Okay. So Tom, your favorite? A fourth opinion? Has to be the mushroom, man. Mushrooms. Yeah. All the textures and crevices, and the fattiness, as you said, with the juices. It just tasted so good. There we have it. Mushrooms are the winner for vegan fried chicken. If you're going to make vegan fried chicken, you must use oyster mushrooms. They were unbelievable. And I actually paired them with some vegan waffles to make chicken and waffles. Look how good that looks. If you want to make it, head over to my website. The link's below this video. And you can also find the recipe for the jackfruit, the tofu, and the seitan on there too. So head over there. You'll find loads of amazing vegan recipes. Don't forget to share this video, subscribe, like it. All that good stuff, please. It really helps the channel grow. And we've got some epic videos coming your way from our trip to Mexico, where we've actually made a whole food documentary. It's coming your way soon. So don't miss it. Click subscribe. All that stuff. See you soon. Not gonna do it.