Who needs Chick-fil-a when you can make your own vegetarian chicken biscuits at home! With a Quorn base, these taste just like the restaurant!
Chick-fil-a Copycat Biscuits
Look, when I was younger and unaware of how Chick-fil-a is an awful company who actively donates to companies against my existence as a queer person, I liked their chicken. Now, I can’t even eat their fried chicken because of the gluten. But we all know when you can’t have something, the cravings grow! So I have figured out the perfect way to hit the spot with these gluten free and vegetarian chicken biscuits! I’ve got the biscuits in another post I’ll link here.
Vegetarian Chicken Biscuits Ingredients
Some of the ingredients I use are specifically to try to recreate the flavor of chick-fil-a’s chicken, so if you don’t have them or don’t want to buy them, I’ll give you some substitution options.
Quorn meatless fillets are my base because they are my favorite meet substitute. The problem with Quorn is that they have a line of products that are gluten free made with egg, and they have a vegan line made with wheat. I really appreciate that they kept their GF options, but if you are a vegan and GF, this isn’t an option for you. Everything else in the recipe is vegan, so you could sub in a different meat substitute, or use some seared tofu slices for you base to get a GF AND vegan option.
Pickle juice is an odd ingredient, but it actually is a great marinade for adding some tang and saltiness. All you have to do is save the juice after you finish a jar of pickles and save it for the next time you want to marinade something. You can skip this step if you aren’t a huge pickle fan, but the base of your nugget won’t be as flavorful.
Peanut oil is what chick-fil-a fries their food in. It doesn’t have a large effect on the final flavor, but it is a great oil or high-temperature frying. Obviously, this can be subbed out if you have a nut allergy. Really if you don’t have peanut oil, you can just use vegetable oil and get the same overall flavor, maybe just a little less nutty.
Let’s Talk about Dredging
Dredging is the process of coating something in flour usually before you fry it. When you fry flour, you get the delicious crispy coating that makes fried food so good! Let’s talk about some tips to dredging the Quorn to fry.
First, you need to remove the Quorn from the marinade and pat it dry. If you start out with a wet piece of protein, then everything is going to kind of slide off it.
Next, you’ll want to set up your wet bowl and your dry bowl. Often protein is dipped in an egg wash or in buttermilk to make the flour stick. Here our vegan alternative is watered down dijon mustard. This has a texture similar to an egg because mustard is also an emulsifier.
The dry bowl will have the flour and all the seasonings in it. While marinating the protein gives it some flavor, you also want to season your flour so that the final nugget will be flavorful! To dredge, set up a line with your protein, the wet bowl, the dry bowl, and a place to land them. Then try to keep one had wet, and one had for dry to avoid some mess. If your hands get too messy, stop and wash them. Otherwise you’ll end up mixing your bowls up too much and make a giant sticky mess.
Frying and Assembling
Frying is not as intimidating as it sounds, but it can be a bit messy. Make sure your oil is hot before you put anything in. The hot oil will begin to simmer and move when it’s ready. If the oil is sputtering, then turn down the heat. Slowly drop in a piece so the hot oil doesn’t splash. You can also use a slotted spoon to lower in the pieces if you’d like. Then flip the pieces half way through. You want them to be a golden brown. When they are finished, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate with a paper towel to absorb excess oil.
These nuggets taste great on their own or dipped in some Chick-fil-a sauce. Or, if you made some mini biscuits from the recipe here, then you can cut the biscuits in half and serve up your vegetarian chicken biscuits! You can half the biscuit recipe and cut the squares smaller, or you can have some leftover biscuits which isn’t the worst thing!
Fried Quorn Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 Quorn Meatless fillets
- 1 cup pickle juice
- 1 cup peanut oil
- 1 cup dijon mustard
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Add the pickle juice to a ziplock back or a container and put the fillets in to marinade. Place in the fridge so the fillets will defrost, and let it marinade overnight or for about 8 hours.
- Heat the peanut oil in a skillet over medium heat while you prepare the pieces to fry. Look for the oil to shimmer to know it’s hot.
- To prepare to bread the fillets, pat the fillets dry and cut them into about 4 nugget-sized pieces.
- For dredging, in one bowl mix the dijon and water to thin out the mustard to act as the wet part. You may need more of this mix depending on how the dredging goes.
- In another bowl, add the flour, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder, salt, and pepper. Mix to combine.
- To dredge the Quorn, first coat a piece in the dijon mix, and then add then put into the flour mix. Pat the piece to make sure it’s fully covered. Then, repeat in the wet ingredients and dry ingredients for two layers. Make sure you pat the flour into the nugget well.
- When the pieces are breaded, add to the hot oil. If you put a piece in and it does not sizzle, pull the piece out and wait until the oil is hotter. If the oil is sputtering too much, turn down the heat.
- Add the piece, and cook about 3 minutes on each size until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pieces from the oil and place on a plate to cool.
- Serve immediately on biscuits or alone.
Notes
Vegan Biscuits
Ingredients
- 610 g flour plus more for adjusting texture
- 10 g baking soda
- 4 g baking powder
- 6 g salt
- 10 g sugar
- 230+2 g frozen plant butter divided
- 14 oz. plant milk
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- In a bowl, weigh out the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Stir to combine.
- In a measuring cup, add the plant milk and lemon juice. Set aside to let the milk acidify.
- In a food processor or by hand, add the chopped plant butter. Pulse the food processor until the butter is incorporated. If using a pastry cutter, fork or your fingers, chop the butter into the flour until combined. The texture should be crumbly, but hold its shape when squeezed in your hand.
- Return the mixture from the food processor back into the bowl, and make a well in the middle. Pour the milk into the well, and use a fork to slowly mix the flour into the milk . When the dough is shaggy, turn out the dough onto a floured surface, and kneed until just combined.
- Depending on the type of butter you use, you may need to add more flour. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour slowly until it forms into a ball and is no longer sticky. You should be able to roll out the dough on a floured surface without it falling apart.
- Roll the dough into a rough rectangle, and fold the dough in thirds. Roll the folded dough out again. Again, fold in thirds in the other direction and roll out to about 1 inch thickness.
- Use a bench cutter to cut the dough into squares. You can also use a round cutter, but do not re-kneed the dough between cuts. Just push the dough back together and cut again.
- Place the biscuits on a baking sheet. Melt the remaining about 2g of plant butter and brush on top of the biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes and serve warm.
Notes
