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Meal prep is so much easier with this Vegan Chicken in the fridge! This high-protein, homemade seitan recipe is juicy, succulent, and surprisingly easy to make. If you've never had seitan before, it's a chewy, meaty vegan chicken substitute that tastes way better than anything store-bought. Make a batch ahead of time and keep it in the fridge or freezer for quick, satisfying meals all week.
FEATURED COMMENT:
This is the BEST seitan I've ever had and I make this recipe frequently. I freeze the tenders in packs of two and make a different marinade for each pack. - Saraswati ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
After the popularity of my Vegan Seitan Steak, which ended up starting a love of making seitan, I got a lot of requests for a seitan version of a vegan chicken recipe. Well, ask and you shall receive. I introduce to you my Vegan Chicken! ...And yes, it does taste like chicken. Ba dum dum tsk!
What is Seitan?
Seitan (pronounced say-tan) is a high-protein, meat-like food made from vital wheat gluten, the protein-rich part of wheat. When mixed with liquid and cooked, it becomes chewy, firm, and savory, making it one of the best vegan meat alternatives out there.
It's been used for centuries in Asian cuisines and is sometimes called wheat meat or mock duck. In this recipe, we turn it into juicy, tender vegan chicken you can use in everything from stir-fries to sandwiches to sheet pan dinners.
Bonus: It's budget-friendly, freezer-friendly, protein-packed and WAY more delicious than most store-bought options.
Why You'll Love This Vegan Chicken Recipe
Store-bought vegan chicken is often rubbery, bland, or packed with additives, and it's pricey. This homemade version is juicy, tender, packed with flavor, and budget-friendly.
- Juicy and succulent. No dry spongey seitan here! I've balanced the ingredients and flavors in this vegan chicken recipe so it turned out tender and delicious.
- Easy to make. Just 8 ingredients, and most of the work is hands off. I love batch cooking this and stocking my freezer full of plant-based chicken!
- Great for meal prep. This recipe can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge for several days, or in the freezer so you can have vegan chicken on hand whenever you like.
- Perfect swap for any chicken recipe. Once steamed and cooled, you can swap this into any of your favorite chicken recipes. My favorite way to enjoy it? Marinate the tenders overnight, then pan-fry until golden. Chef's kiss.
- A wholesome alternative. 1 batch makes 6 cutlets and each one contains 156 calories, 8g carbohydrates, 26g protein, and 2g fat.
Ingredients:
- Vital wheat gluten: Vital wheat gluten is wheat flour with most of the starch removed (leaving behind almost pure wheat protein)! It is an ancient process, and this wheat protein is what makes seitan have that meaty texture. Unfortunately, there is no substitute. And that means this recipe cannot be made gluten-free. For a vegan gluten-free chicken-inspired recipe try my Baked Tofu Bites.
- Soft or silken tofu: This gives the seitan a juicy, tender texture. Be sure to measure carefully and use the right tofu type, firm or extra-firm will make the seitan too dense.
- Seasonings: Nutritional yeast, onion powder, vegetable broth powder or bouillon, garlic powder, and salt make it taste like chicken. (Do I need to change the name of my blog now?)
How To Make Vegan Chicken
- Combine: Add all of the ingredients to a food processor.
- Process: Turn on the food processor and mix the dough until it forms a ball.
- Shape: Turn the dough out onto a surface lightly floured with vital wheat gluten. Divide into 6 pieces and shape each into an oval.
- Steam: Add the vegan chicken to a greased steamer basket set over simmering water. Cover and steam for 25 minutes, flipping halfway through the cooking time.
- Cool. Allow the vegan chicken to cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerate for an hour before using; if you'd like, you can chill it in a marinade for extra flavor. (Check out my recipes for 12 Seitan or Tofu Marinades for endless flavor combos!)
- Cook. The world is your oyster! Use this vegan chicken any way you'd use chicken breast. In these photos, I fried them in a bit of vegan butter, and seasoned with salt, black pepper, parsley, and a squeeze of lemon. This makes the outside crispy and the inside stays tender and juicy.
Tips for Perfect Seitan Chicken
- No food processor? Use a bowl. It takes a little more work, but it's still easy! Just the ingredients to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough forms a ball.
- Make any shape you like. You can shape the seitan into small bites or nuggets, make the seitan into a big slab to slice and pan-fry, whatever! Just keep in mind that shapes that are thicker will take more time to steam.
- Cook in batches if needed. Seitan expands while steaming, so leave space in the basket or cook in batches.
- Make them extra chicken-y. You can mix poultry seasoning into the seitan mixture and/or use a vegan chicken bouillon instead of vegetable. (Poultry seasoning doesn't actually contain any poultry, it just has herbs and spices often used with chicken!)
How to Use This Vegan Chicken
Think of this like your plant-based chicken breast, you can marinate it, grill it, fry it, roast it, or slice it into your favorite recipes. Try it in stir-fries, sandwiches, tacos, salads, pasta dishes, or even breaded as vegan nuggets. I personally love it pan-fried with one of these marinades (my favorite is the sweet & smoky), or chopped up in my Vegan Chicken Caesar Salad.
How to Store
- Refrigerator: Refrigerate this vegan chicken in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- Freezer: To freeze the seitan, let it cool completely and then transfer it an airtight freezer bag or container. If you'd like, you can freeze it in a marinade.
More Vegan Chicken Recipes You Might Like:
- Buttermilk Fried Oyster Mushrooms
- The Quickest and Easiest Seitan Recipe (Vegan Chicken)
- Vegan Chicken (Washed Flour Seitan)
- Vegan Chicken Wings
- Vegan Orange Chicken
If you try this vegan chicken recipe, let us know by leaving a comment, rating it, and don't forget to tag @itdoesnttastelikechicken on Instagram.
Bon appetegan!
Sam Turnbull.
(click stars to vote)
Vegan Chicken (Seitan)
This homemade Vegan Chicken is juicy, flavorful and easy to make. It's a meal prep staple you can use in so many different ways!
Servings:
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Ingredients
For the vegan seitan tenders:
- 1 ½ cups vital wheat gluten, plus more for dusting
- 1 block (10.6oz/ 300g) soft or silken tofu, (1 ¼ cups)
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons vegetable broth powder, vegetable instant stock mix powder, or 1 vegetable bouillon cube
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add the vital wheat gluten, tofu, water, nutritional yeast, onion powder, vegetable broth powder, garlic powder, and salt to a food processor and pulse to combine until everything is well mixed and the dough forms a ball. *Alternatively, if you do not have a food processor in a large bowl mash the tofu using a potato masher until smooth. Add the water, nutritional yeast, onion powder, vegetable broth powder, garlic powder, and salt and mix. Lastly, mix in the vital wheat gluten to form a dough.
- Lightly dust a clean work surfaces with a bit of the vital wheat gluten. Turn the dough ball onto the surface and lightly dust the top with a little more vital wheat gluten. The dough will be soft and very sticky so this will help it from sticking to your hands. Do not knead the dough, kneading it will make it tough. Cut the dough ball into 6 pieces and use the tips of your fingers to press each piece of dough into an oval shape about 5" x 6".
- Add several inches of water to a large pot with a steamer basket and bring to a gentle simmer. Lightly grease the steamer basket and lay the tenders in the basket. If the tenders need to overlap each other, spray the tenders with a bit of oil to stop them from sticking together. Cover and steam at a gentle simmer for 25 minutes, flipping halfway through or until the seitan's internal temperature reaches at least 160°F (71°C) when tested with an instant-read thermometer. If the temperature goes higher, that's perfectly fine-you can't really oversteam seitan.
- Once steamed, remove the tenders and let cool. Cover or put in an airtight container and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour, or for up to 3 - 4 days. You can either chill the tenders without any additional seasoning, or you could toss the tenders in your favourite marinade. The tenders shrink and firm up a bit when chilled and this results in the best texture.
- Once chilled, the tenders are fully cooked and edible, but you can now treat them as you would raw chicken -season and cook them as you desire. The cooking time can be short as they only need to be heated through but prepare them any way that you might prepare a chicken breast. Pan fry or grill them, bread or crust them, slice them for salad, pasta, or stirfry, cut them into nuggets, add them to burritos, tacos, or sandwiches. The options are endless!* Learn my secret tricks to making perfect seitan in my free masterclass. Click here to learn more and register.
Notes
Shape of tenders: if the end appearance of the tenders is important to you, make sure to allow lots of room around each tender to expand. You may want to steam the tenders in batches as when they overlap each other they can sometimes end up as weird shapes. This won't matter if you plan on slicing them, but you can consider it if you plan to serve the tenders whole.
Oil-free: for oil-free you can skip greasing the steamer basket and tenders. The tenders will expand and stick together when steaming and may tear when you try to separate them, but the end result will still be equally delicious. 🙂
Freezing: to freeze the tenders, let them cool completely before freezing. Freeze in an airtight freezer bag or container. You can freeze them plain or in the marinade of your choice.
Vital wheat gluten is essential to this recipe, and there is no substitute. Therefore this recipe cannot be made gluten-free. For a vegan gluten-free chicken inspired recipe try my Baked Tofu Bites recipe.
Steaming tips: you need to steam the seitan tenders before using them. I recommend getting a steamer pot if you plan to make seitan often, or you can use a DIY method if you do not have a steamer.
Cleaning tips: vital wheat gluten is very sticky and can destroy dish brushes and cloths. So what I like to do is save old clothes, sheets, or towels that are too shabby to donate, and cut them into rags. I use these rags to clean up after preparing a seitan recipe and discard the rag once finished.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 serving (recipe makes 6 servings) | Calories: 159kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 0.3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Sodium: 486mg | Potassium: 187mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 63mg | Iron: 2mg
⭐ Did You Make This Recipe?
I'd love if you left a rating and comment, it helps others find the recipe and makes my day! 💕
Jules says
These were absolutely phenomenal and so easy. I made a double batch and froze half.
I marinated the unfrozen ones using a variation of the lemon dijon marinade. I added dried rosemary, granulated shallots, and pepper and left out the agave. When I fried them up, they were perfect.
This will become a staple seitan for us, just like the quick and easy version from here.
It's exciting to have something I can serve up as a "meat" & 3!
Alison says
This recipe really didn't work for me. It came out grainy. I would use silken tofu only, not soft tofu. I would mix all ingredients and then add the gluten flour, even if using a blender.
Dan says
Do you have any idea how much vital wheat gluten you're using here in grams? It's a pretty dense ingredient but I'd like to maximize my chances of success via precision!
Dan says
Oh if I switch to metric it shows me! Oops.
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Great! We hope it worked out well for you!
ST says
I found because we don't knead this at all, the seitan doesn't have anything fibrous about it to resemble chicken. It's super soft in an off-putting way, what I remember fat being like 🙁 I've been cutting it up into tiny cubes and crisping it to try to get through this batch, but not sure what to do differently next time.
Sam Turnbull says
Just knead/blend it in the food processor longer.
Jane says
This is my first time trying these. I steamed them for about 25 minutes but they still seem super soft and doughy. I know it says to also chill for a minimum of an hour. Is that the ticket, or should I steam them for longer next time?
I've only made Seitan once and it was a long time ago, so trying to get back into it and hoping to love this recipe b/c it was super simple to prepare. Just not sure if I'm going to be eating soft dough. That's better than chewing gum chicken like someone else posted, but want to get it right.
Thank you!
Sam Turnbull says
Hi Jane, Seitan cannot be over steamed so if you feel like it needs another 10 or so minutes, there is no harm in trying that. In order for seitan to be fully cooked the internal temperature must reach at least 160F so if you have an instant read thermometor that would help you! I hope that helps 🙂 Also if you are interested in learning more about how to make perfect seitan everytime, I just launch my new cooking course Seitan School and it is currently 25% off for the next few days. Click here to learn more if that interests you.
Claudette says
OMG! This is THE BEST recipe for VWG chicken we have ever had! I made them exactly as written and used the Coconut Curry Marinade on them. So, so good. I made 2 batches and made different sauces for each and I put them in the freezer so I can pull out a bag whenever I need them. I can't wait to try all the marinades out. I did use my bamboo steamer with Parchment paper with holes in it to steam them and they turned out perfect. Thank you so much for this delicious recipe and the great idea to freeze them in the different marinades. My husband and will definitely be making these on repeat!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Amazing! We are so thrilled you loved it so much. That coconut curry marinade is terrific!
Moxie says
Would give more than 5 stars if I could! This is crazy delicious! I read the other reviews, so mixed everything except the vital wheat gluten, then added it at the end. Pulsed a few times till incorporated, then removed from the food processor. Pulled off bits to make nuggets, and steamed as directed. Pan fried them when cooled. SOOOOO good! This will become a regular go to recipe going forward.
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Terrific! We're so happy to hear it!
Lucille Alouah says
can I substitute chicken bouillon for vegetable
Steve Armistead says
Wow, this is a wonderful taste and texture, thank you so much! I blew my first effort at this, yesterday, when the dough obviously kneaded too much in the processor. The tenders tasted okay but talk about rubbery ... I thought I'd made chicken flavored chewing gum 😉
Today's effort was much more successful; I followed others' recommendation to run everything but the VWG through the food processor, then hand mix in the VWG. Amazing difference! It made a slightly shaggy dough that I very quickly shaped into a ball, with no kneading. I pulled chunks off and shaped into tenders, then steamed.
Very, very good seitan, Sam. Thank you! I've ordered your cookbooks and look forward to crafting many more tasty meals. I started this comment with a "Wow" and will end it with the same sentiment - WOW!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Double Wow! That's high praise and we thank you!
Belenda says
Thank you for this info. Mine also came out pretty rubbery. I’ll make another batch mixing in the VWG after processing everything else in the food processor.
Megan says
I have been making these weekly for the last few months and absolutely love them! So glad I found this recipe
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Yay!
Susan says
I'm so happy with how this turned out! For the first meal I marinated it overnight with teriyaki sauce and prepped it like chicken teriyaki, but I found the flavour much too subtle. Not at all bad, good texture, but not enough teriyaki taste. The second meal was fried (KFC style) and man, was it great! Taste and texture would fool many chicken eaters. And no bones! We are having it again this weekend with potato salad and coleslaw! Thanks for this recipe!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
That's wonderful! We're so happy you enjoyed it!
Shannon says
Hi Sam I would like to make this recipe but I have a bamboo steamer and you say to spray with oil. Could I just line it with napa cabbage or parchment paper instead? Or another leafy veg? Thanks!
Shannon says
I used green cabbage to line the steamer and that worked perfect. I am eating the mock chicken with some whole wheat linguine and homemade pesto, it is so good. I love the texture of this one. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us!!!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Oh thanks for the update, that's great!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
It hasn't been tested in a bamboo steamer but that should work well. Other readers have had success.
Katie says
I love this recipe. Super simple, few ingredients and comes out perfect.
Gillian says
I don’t know what I did wrong! I mixed by hand and didn’t want to overwork it but it was really soft and wet. There were also clumps of bouillon even though I crumbled it up as much as I could. They didn’t really hold together well when steamed and broke into pieces easily. Are you supposed to press the tofu first? I drained as much water as I could but didn’t press it. I don’t have a food processor but I have a Ninja blender and Kitchenaid mixer. Could I use the hook on the mixer or would the blender be better? I’m still going to wait and see how it tastes and what the texture ends up being once it cools down.
Celeste says
Before I had a large enough food processor I used to make seitan in my stand mixer with the dough hook. I always make the ones with chickpea flour instead of tofu though. Maybe blend up the tofu before you do it in a stand mixer so it’s more of a liquid and will incorporate.
KM says
I get everything but the gluten whizzed up to a good texture in a nutribullet then transfer it to a bowl, add the gluten, and mix by hand. Turns out a perfect texture every time.
I think your ninja would likely do this perfectly! This stuff is good enough that it’s worth another try. Good luck!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Great tips!
KM says
Another awesome seitan recipe. Thanks Sam!
I marinaded it in the Italian marinade for “chicken” alfredo and chicken Caesar salads. Happily, after removing 300g of tofu for this recipe from the blocks I use, I have enough left over to make a small batch of tofu bacon for bacon bits, too.
I use extra firm tofu as that’s what I have on hand, I just add enough water to it in a nutribullet to make it roughly the texture of silken tofu. Works a charm.
Amanda says
Thanks for the great tip - I only had extra firm tofu on hand and wasn't going to make the recipe until I read your comment! It turned out beautifully!
laura says
Really good recipe, we all enjoyed these and I love how quick and simple they are to make. I added a bit of paprika to ours and used them in stir fry, veggie pie and fajitas!
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
Yum! Thanks for sharing, Laura!
Sally Reed says
love the ease of this recipe. I made it exactly as directed first time. second time I added a tablespoon of smoked paprika and a 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke. this gave a great meaty flavor. thanks for all your wonderful recipes. I own your 2 cookbooks and use them often!
Chris says
I tried this finally and it didn’t turn out great- very rubbery texture. Is this likely because I had it in the food processor too long or too short? The patties wouldn’t hold their shape well when I tried to flatten them out. It may be worth noting I substituted better than bouillon for the bouillon cube, but everything else was the same. Please help!
KM says
Overworking gluten makes it rubbery - and it does it surprisingly quickly!
To avoid that, I don’t add the gluten to the food processor. Not sure why but it never comes together for me in the processor so I always end up overworking my dough if I do it that way.
I process everything but the gluten in the processor then dump it into a mixing bowl. Then I add the gluten to the bowl while stirring. I stir just til it comes together, give it one or two quick kneads to bring it together into a ball. Never fails.
I hope this helps!
Chris says
Thanks for the response. I’ve successfully made this recipe 3 times since this comment- I just pulse it for waaay less time. Like just barely mixed. It’s been delicious each time, and the Italian marinade is my favorite so far.
Tris says
Can this recipe be made without tofu? We avoid soy/tofu products as often as possible, however, this recipe looks delish.
Jess @ IDTLC Support says
You may be interested in the seitan steak recipe, which uses lentils instead of tofu: https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-seitan-steak/
Kelly says
I am gluten intolerant. What can use instead of the gluten
DS says
Did you read the discussion before the recipe?
DS says
* notes after the recipe...