Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets (Chicken of the Woods Recipe)
Baked (not fried), mushrooms (not poultry) for these vegetarian chicken nuggets. But despite that, they have all the dippable, soft and crispy texture, and chicken flavor of your classic nugget! This recipe uses foraged chicken of the woods mushrooms and vital wheat gluten to make a chicken of the woods seitan, which is then steamed, breaded, and baked. Dip in your favorite sauces, from ketchup, honey-less mustard, or ranch and munch away!
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Too Much Chicken of the Woods
Yes, there is a thing as too much chickens of the woods. In June and July (when chickens are less common, and just coming out for the year), every chicken of the woods I find brings great excitement. But by September, I’ve started just walking past perfectly good chickens because I’ve just eaten enough of them for the next couple months. That’s where this recipe comes in- it’s a chicken of the woods recipe, but it’s not quite as intense as eating a big ol’ chunk of chicken of the woods. They’re perfectly dippable, snackable, munchable, and don’t overpower with their chicken of the woods-ness. They just give you a happy little chicken of the woods flavor.
I’m not going to write about identifying chicken of the woods this time, but you can read more about it in this earlier post.
Looking for Chicken of the Woods Recipes? Try one of these!
- Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Picatta
- Butter Chicken of the Woods (Vegan Butter Chicken)
- Vegan Chicken of the Woods Pad Kee Mao
- Cream of Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Soup
What on Earth is a Chicken Nugget?!?
I’ve been a vegetarian since a very young age, and found out when I was making this post that I actually had no idea what a chicken nugget was. I had always sort of assumed that chicken nuggets where small chunks of chicken, breaded and deep-fried, with a resulting somewhat stringy chicken texture. And apparently this is what some chicken nuggets are, but not most of them. After my first batch, when I tried to keep the pieces a little larger and the result was a fairly chewy, tough seitan, my boyfriend pointed out to me that most nuggets where a lot softer and pretty processed. I was surprised- more processed? Like, blend up my mushrooms processed? I was pretty apprehensive, but gave it a shot- and it was great! All that lovely chicken of the woods flavor, but in a soft, delicious nugget. Added bonus- while we added some ingredients for better flavor (like onion powder and soy sauce), our ingredient list is has nothing on the long and confusing one of the fast food favorite!
Making Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets
Now lets get down to the (not) meat of the issue- how to make these nuggets. It all starts by cleaning your mushrooms and then giving them a quick steam- precooking them helps to makes sure they’re safe to eat, and makes them blend a little easier. Next it’s into the food processor, and process your chicken up until it is smooth. Throw in all the other ingredients for the seitan and form a dough. Make sure not to over-process it now, or knead it too much, as it will get tougher when you do so. Shape the dough into nuggets, and give them a good steam. Once they’re steamed, if you want you can refrigerate them and bread them later. I think they would probably freeze well too, although I haven’t tried it myself. The final step is to bread and bake your nuggets- I find the breading sticks fine if you just get the nuggets a little wet. There is just one more step- devour!
Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets (Chicken of the Woods Recipe)
Ingredients
- ¾ lb. fresh chicken of the woods mushroom
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. onion powder
- Optional: ½ tsp. seasoning blend (I used this one)
- 1 cup vital wheat gluten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Set up a steamer. Clean your mushrooms, and then steam them for 15 minutes. Transfer to your food processor, and blend until very smooth. Add the soy sauce, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, seasoning blend, and 3 tablespoons of water and pulse to incorporate. Add the vital wheat gluten and process, until it forms a smooth dough (you can add a little more water if needed).
- Transfer the dough to a clean work surface, and knead 15-20 times, so the dough is smooth and even. Using a bench scraper, divide your dough into 16 pieces (this can be easily done by dividing your dough into half, and dividing each piece into half three more times). Shape them into a rough chicken nugget shape.
- Set up your steamer again, and place each nugget inside with plenty of space around them (you may need to work in batches). Steam each batch for around 30 minutes and remove from the oven. Allow them to cool while you preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Gently brush a nugget with a little water and dip in the breadcrumbs to coat (if the nuggets are still fairly wet from the steamer, you can skip the water). Place on an unlined baking sheet, and repeat with the remaining nuggets. Spray or drizzle with a little oil, and cook for 15 minutes before flipping and returning to the oven for another 10. Serve warm with your favorite dipping sauce.
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