Originally published at: The best vegan chicken nuggets | Boing Boing
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Someone have a good recipe they like? Can you butcher and deep fry a tofurky for reasonable results?
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I rather enjoy pressing extra firm tofu, cutting to generous planks, marinating(generally soy based but you have a wide canvas to choose from), and then doing a fairly standard deep-fry, starch>egg>panko>oil bath at 350F till GBD>sprinkled with salt on a cooling rack.
It’s not a chicken nugget, but it is delicious.
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That sounds good. I do similar, pressing firm tofu, dredging in corn starch, and then toasting in the toaster oven sprinkled with sesame oil, about 20-30 minutes. Comes out crispy, but likely not as crispy as your version.
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Source: Me. Photo of our homemade seitan, thawed after being removed from the deep freeze, 2022 09 19. Resized at https://www.reduceimages.com/We make it in batches and freeze some in the deep freeze for a quick protein to build a dinner around.
Make your own seitan¹! I’m not going to post a recipe, because my spouse makes it and I don’t have access to them right now, but if it isn’t a wishy-washy recipe that my spouse intuits from the great vegan gods, then I’ll post it. I don’t think ours is particularly special, less when we flavor it, and that is really by taste and practice, and likely divined from lay-lines, wisps of smoke and cloud, but more likely decades of practice. If you want to make nugget shapes that have the chewiness and some grain to them, then this is the way I would go.
1.) Wikipedia link provided for those that don’t know what it is. Edit to remove possibly snarky thoughts on Tofurky and fix image. As we tell our kids regarding food, “don’t yuck somebody’s else’s yum”, in this case mock somebodies else’s mock meat. Also edited to fix verbiage and formatting.
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Having tried damn near every one out there over the last 20 years, fully agree with Simple Truth and Impossible being the best non-dinosaur shaped nuggets 
Other brands…
Yummy Dino Buddies - F yeah dinosaurs! Winner!
Gardine - Ok if cooked right, I’m not a fan of the oats
Nuggs - I was decidedly “meh” on these.
Daring - I appreciate that they’re trying fake skin on their wings, but if not cooked just right they get really gross. Nuggets are too spongy.
IncogMeato - updated Morningstar, better than they were 10y ago
Quorn - Eat as soon as you purchase otherwise they freezer burn fast, not horrible otherwise (not vegan iirc)
@DeadWriter +1 to make your own seitan, we use the recipe from Chicago Diner cookbook.
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Hail Seitan! 
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What about “whiskey nuggets”? As a species, we need whiskey nuggets.
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Those are called “shots.”
And are delicious/dangerous.
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I recommend trying a combination of gochujang (Korean chile paste) with soy sauce, a dab of peanut butter or a tablespoon of tahini, and some ketchup.
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The Quorn nuggets are actually my favorite of the bunch. They don’t taste much like chicken, but the myco-proteins have an awesome umami savoriness. That said, I am the ONLY person in my family that likes the Quorn nuggets at all, so clearly it’s not a universally loved taste.
I ordered the Impossible nuggets from Dog Haus last week and was excited to try them – the Impossible Burger pretty solidly knocks my socks off. But the “mushy” texture they mention in the article was pretty strong for me, and not very appealing. I assumed at the time that they hadn’t cooked them sufficiently. Maybe that’s just the way they are. I also wasn’t very impressed with the Impossible Pork I managed to hunt down at a Starbucks.
Has anyone found a vegetarian bacon that’s actually decent? Benevolent Bacon reminds me more of a sort of cheap, overly sauced brisket. Morningstar turns into cardboard if you cook it much and, again, doesn’t taste much like bacon. Hoping someday there will be a good enough substitute to throw a hunk into some freshly harvested green beans as they cook to replicate that awesomeness.
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I just did this with Lightlife Smokey tempeh strips and though they don’t have the unctuous texture, they did impart a really nice flavor and chew to the finished dish. I’m into this style of green bean and totally dug this preparation.
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i make these pretty regularly, and they are awesome. chickpeas rule. you can of course modify and add spices, etc., or make them into patties for sandwiches, too:
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Ah, the English language. Are they vegan chickens? And when we say “nuggets”, what exactly could that mean? /s
Impossible Nuggets are perfectly flavored and textured. But you’ve got to cook them precisely or they do turn to mush.
I tried SIMULATE Chicken Nuggs, and found them a bit dry.
I’m super happy that food scientists have lost the obsession with turning pink goo into tastier burgers, and are working on plant based meat alternatives.
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How did they pick the brands to test? I am a frequent buyer and eater of fake chicken nuggets and I have only heard of two of these brands, Impossible and Quorn. My favorite is Gardein and I am pretty sure the Wegmans house brand “Don’t be Chicken” are the same nuggets. The Wegmans nuggets come in a big family pack which is a pretty good deal. Aldi’s Earth Grown store brand nuggets are also decent and they have a breaded chik’n patty that makes a pretty good sandwich.
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Gardein, Morningstar, and Quorn are the only brands I can get at a standard grocery store here. (Fortunately, I like all three, and my family is fine with either of the first two.) If I venture into Whole Foods, there are more options, but there are vanishingly few things I want enough to make a separate trip to Whole Foods worth the time and cost.
I like this one ok but YMMV.
https://www.uptonsnaturals.com/products/bacon-seitan
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That’s what we use for BLTs, which we consider to be a perfectly cromulent family dinner in the summer during tomato season!
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