Thursday, March 25, 2010

Un-Chicken in the City

Lately I've been craving comfort food - those things I ate from childhood that now that I'm vegetarian just aren't going to fly. When I was growing up we used to eat this wildly weird thing called city chicken. It was pork - on a stick, breaded, then either baked or fried (my mother was a fan of frying). Why was it called chicken? I have no idea. But I remember loving it.

So yesterday I decided the craving was strong enough for me to come up with a vegetarian alternative. I made my own seitan (you don't have to - just buy your favorite) and the result is this:

City Un-Chicken
Up to 1 lb of seitan (or a package of your favorite brand), cubed
1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbl. turkey rub (if it's against your sensibilities to buy this, just mix up a combination of paprika, sage, thyme, garlic salt, pepper. rosemary, and onion powder)
salt and pepper to taste
Egg replacer for dipping
Wooden skewers
Olive oil for frying

In a shallow dish, mix up your egg replacer. On a dinner plate, mix together the dry ingredient. Thread seitan cubes onto wooden skewers. Roll them first into the egg replacer, then into the flour mixture. In a large skillet, fry them in a scant amount of olive oil (don't use canola - it just stinks something awful) or spray a nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Fry until seitan is brown, turning until all sides are cooked, about four minutes each.

2 comments:

Joanne Olivieri said...

Although I try so hard to stay away from fried foods, this recipe is sure tempting. Sometimes we just have to give in to those cravings. Thanks, Lori.

Lori said...

Joanne, you could do what I did, which was to coat a nonstick pan with a small amount of spray. Just don't use water - it will make the breading too soggy.