Washed Flour Seitan Recipe from Start to Finish | Viral TikTok Vegan Chicken

have you been trying to make that viral wheat chicken recipe and failed making chicken from flour is easier than you think if you follow this video all the way through i'll show you how i make vegan chicken and share my techniques to get it right every single time hello pot stickers if you've been eating plant-based for a while you've most likely heard of saitan saitan is a meat substitute made from wheat protein it has its roots way back centuries in asia now you can buy vital wheat gluten as a dry flour to make saitan it is a processed form of wheat you can also extract your own protein from flour using what is called the wash flower method this is what has become the viral videos that you're seeing on tick tock and youtube this method of preparing sai time is a little bit more work than using the processed vital wheat gluten but it can provide a better texture and flavor in the final product some people find that the processed gluten has an unpleasant aftertaste because of the popularity of the wash flower saitan right now i've been seeing people on social media trying to follow those 30 second videos and ending up with saitam that isn't quite as advertised it takes longer than 30 seconds to show the techniques to make this right i made this video so you can see the process to make saitan from start to finish using the wash flower method this video is a little bit longer so that you can see how the colors and the textures change as we go from a wheat dough ball to finished seitan chicken so grab a cup of coffee and join me as i show you how to make seitan chicken from start to finish our first step is to prepare the dough i have four cups of flour in my bowl and i'm gonna add anywhere from two to two and a half cups of water [Music] you wanna mix this together until it forms a soft dough ball here i'm trying to pull together all of that loose flour first and then i'm going to place this on the countertop and get on with the kneading our goal is to have a dough that's soft but not too sticky and i think needing to develop the gluten in this step is critical for achieving the best meat like texture in the end so you really want to knead it well like you would for any bread recipe it'll take anywhere from five to ten minutes once this is needed we want to let the dough rest completely covered in water this lets the gluten fully relax and hydrate and the starch will absorb the water and make it easier to wash out from the protein later this should rest for at least one hour but i prefer to let it go for two hours or more sometimes i'll even let this rest overnight on the counter here's the dough after two hours and you can see that is nice and soft the gluten has relaxed and you can even see some of the starch whisping off of that dough into the water drain this and then cover it again with fresh clean water we want to start massaging this underneath the water [Music] so here i'm just covering it with water and i'm squeezing the dough between my fingers it'll feel a little bit slippery at this point due to all that starch but keep massaging it you can see that the water is starting to become cloudy because the starch is coming out of the dough [Music] after three to four minutes your water will become thicker and milky as that starch comes out go ahead and drain this i'm actually saving this starch water from the first few washings to use in other recipes so i'm collecting it in a bowl [Music] cover the dough with clean water and then continue for your second wash there's still a lot of starch that's going to come out of this dough massage it knead it squeeze it between your fingers again you want to knead this for two to three minutes at least notice the texture of the dough after the second wash it looks like it's falling apart into a stringy mess don't worry about that this is what it should look like trust me it's going to come back together as we continue washing and massaging [Music] continue with the third wash keep massaging and squeezing out the starch [Music] [Music] so i'm going to strain this one through a colander the dough is still sort of shaggy at this point and you can see that there are still clumps of starch in the dough we aren't done yet i'm going to save the starch water from this third wash as well and use it for other recipes like this amazing crispy vegan bacon that i recently made i'm working on that video now so make sure you come back to check it out okay here's our fourth wash and you can see that the dough is still releasing some starch but the wash water is not getting as thick and milky as the first washes it's much thinner at this point notice the texture of the dough the gluten is starting to stick together a little bit more and you can see that there are less clumps that are pronounced in the dough drain the water add some more clean water and continue for wash number five here is the sixth and final wash i'm gonna do you can see the dough has really changed from white to a more beige color because the starch is mostly gone notice that the water is much more clear than previous washings this is where i like to stop the washing process [Music] note the texture it has a sort of a soft rubbery feel to the dough and the gluten proteins stick together more i think if you try this a few times this feel will become familiar to you so you know when to stop washing the dough i'm going to cover this and let it rest for about 10 minutes to let the protein relax some more while the gluten rests i'm going to mix together a seasoned broth to simmer the gluten in i have four cups of water and i'm adding some onion powder garlic powder smoked paprika white pepper some vegan chicken flavored bullion maggie seasoning and soy sauce these are both being added for the salt and the color if you can't find maggie seasoning you can always add more soy to this as a matter of fact you can flavor this broth however you like if you want to kick up the umami flavors add some miso paste or anything else you want i'm going to pop this onto the stove and heat it to boiling to make the gluten take on the texture of meat we need to stretch the proteins in one direction to mimic the fibers of the meat i'm going to do this by stretching braiding and tying the dough into knots first i'm stretching the gluten out into a flat rectangle and i'm going to cut this into three strips leaving them connected at the top while pulling and stretching these arms i'm going to braid them together into as tight of a braid as i can notice that i'm gently pulling and stretching on those to try to elongate them as much as possible once it's braided out as far as i can go i'll just tuck the ends into the braid to close it up [Music] notice how the gluten fibers resist me as i gently stretch out the braid this is starting to take on the form of muscle fibers you can gently stretch this out into a rope the next thing i want to do is to knot the gluten this will continue to elongate the fibers of the protein as well as tighten it up to prevent it from expanding too much while simmering many seitan recipes made from vital wheat gluten have you wrap it up tightly in foil before steaming or simmering to keep the gluten from expanding too much and becoming doughy knotting it tightly also helps to keep it tight and minimize the puffing during the simmering i've started dotting this in the middle of the rope and i'm pulling it together tightly i'm stretching and tying as many knots as i can get into this just like i did after braiding i'm tucking the ends into the knots to keep it all contained [Music] now we have a nice tight compact bundle of gluten fibers ready for the first cooking place the gluten into your simmering broth and let it gently simmer for about an hour halfway through the cooking i like to turn it over to make sure that it gets seasoned and all sides get some color on it after an hour you want to take it off the heat and let it rest before using in your chicken recipe i like to chill it overnight in the fridge covered with the braising liquid [Music] here is my seitan after chilling overnight in the refrigerator you can see it has become quite firm and any little amount of puffing that happened during the cooking of it has condensed back down [Music] the gluten fibers have stiffened and as i start to tweeze this apart you can see the texture has become very much like meat it should not be doughy at all this is the result you should get if the dough is properly washed and you braided and knotted it tightly i'm going to continue to shred this by hand pulling apart the fibers into bite-size pieces for the dish i want to make you could also slice this into thin slices or cut it into chunks for whatever recipe you're going to use it in [Music] the simmering broth has given it a base flavor of seasoned chicken when you use it in your recipe you'll be cooking and seasoning it some more and the texture should become more moist and softer than it is now after simmering and chilling i mean look at that it really looks like shredded chicken you can season this with mexican chili sauce to make tacos you could cut it into pieces for a stir fry or even bread it and deep fry it for seitan chicken nuggets i sauteed these with onions and barbecue sauce to make a really delicious barbecue chicken wrap stay tuned as i'll be bringing that recipe to you soon there it is my process for making saitan chicken with absolutely great flavor and texture every single time i would consider this a basic recipe for saitama that can be expanded in many different directions there are a lot of variations you can make along the way to create different flavors and different textures so that you can mimic different kinds of meat products as i experiment and explore more recipes using sciton i'll be sharing those recipes right here for you thank you for watching and we'll see you next time as the pot thickens if you follow this video all the way if you follow this video all the way if you follow this video all the way through

Channel: The Pot Thickens

Views: 1,417,130

Keywords: Vegan, Plant Based, washed flour seitan recipe, how to make seitan at home, Vegan Chicken, washed flour seitan, how to make vegan meat from scratch, vegan protein, how to make seitan chicken, seitan chicken recipe, seitan recipe tiktok, washed flour seitan method, washed flour seitan protein

Id: yY2YN6krVtk

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021