Ingredients

For the seitan 'chicken' fillets

250g

vital wheat gluten

onion

garlic cloves

300g

cooked white beans (equivalent to 1 tin)

1 tbsp

white wine vinegar

1 tbsp

sunflower or rapeseed oil (or other neutral oil, NOT coconut)

1 tbsp

white miso

1 tsp

sea salt

350ml

water (to make up 700ml liquid in total. Add more or less according to what you need)

For the marinade

3 tbsp

Steenbergs Piri Piri seasoning

lemon, juiced

2 tbsp

white wine vinegar

2 tbsp

coconut palm sugar or caster sugar

garlic cloves

"This Piri Piri Seitan Chicken will be talk of the BBQ. Grill it up, and serve over some salad, and simply wow everyone who eats it. They won't believe that it's 100% vegan! The Piri Piri marinade for this ‘meaty’ (and almost secretly vegan!) dish is easy-peasy to make using Steenbergs Piri Piri seasoning."

Thanks to The Vegan Larder for the delicious recipe.

Notes

This whole dish freezes really well. Just portion it up and put in the freezer!

The basic seitan chicken freezes very well too, so if a serving of 8 seems too much, just pop the plain seitan chicken into your freezer until you're ready to make something else with it. Maybe use Steenbergs Jerk Seasoning for a vegan jerk chicken!

The tahini lemon dressing pictured is a simple mix of tahini, lemon juice, salt and a little water!

Method

For the Seitan Chicken Fillets

First whizz up all the ingredients except for the Vital Wheat Gluten in a blender until smooth and creamy. You want 700ml of liquid total, so if it is a bit less once the beans and onions are processed, add a little more.
In a large bowl, gently combine the liquid and the Vital Wheat Gluten.
Mix and leave to rest for 15-20 minutes to allow the liquid to absorb into the gluten properly (this forms better strands).
Now knead the dough in a mixer or food processor (or by hand) until you have smooth, very stringy elastic dough. About 15 minutes.
Form the dough into 15-20 cm fillet sized pieces. Then lightly wrap each individual fillet in foil.
Steam the seitan in a large pot with a trivet, or using a bamboo steamer, or any other steamer, for 1.5 hours (be careful not to let the pot boil dry).
Once steamed, let the fillets cool in the foil. Even better, let them rest overnight in the fridge for the best texture!

To Marinate and cook the Peri Peri Seitan Chicken

Finely chop the garlic.
In a tupperware or tightly lidded container that will fit all your seitan fillets in, mix up the marinade ingredients.
Remove the foil from the vegan seitan chicken and break the fillets open a bit (to let more marinade in!).
Smoosh each fillet into the marinade to ensure they are evenly covered, before squishing them all into the tupperware container. Close the lid & invert it a bit to let more marinade get to all the fillets!
Leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours. Try and remember to give the container a mix whenever you peer into the fridge looking for snacks.
When ready to grill, brush your BBQ or griddle with some oil & get it nice and hot.
Grill the BBQ Piri Piri Seitan Chicken fillets (do some sweetcorn too, while you're at it!)
While grilling, brush a little extra marinade over the top for extra flavour.
Serve with salad, your favourite dressing (we like tahini lemon dressing) and love.