Seitan Wings

The other night, for St. Patrick's Day, I decided to mix up some seitan so I could make a proper Irish stew, complete with stout. As I was cutting pieces off the seitan to throw into some simmering broth, I recalled the wonderful seitan wings I had had a few times at the Benson Brewery. I decided instantly that I needed to turn half of the seitan into some wings, and I'm forever grateful for that decision. My husband says I need to make ten pounds of these from now on. 

We covered half of them in homemade buffalo sauce (for my husband) and the other half in bbq sauce (for me). We served both styles with FYH's vegan Blue Cheese dressing. It was amazingly delicious and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be making these often. 

Vegan Seitan Wings

Ingredients:

1 1/3 c. vital wheat gluten

1 t. each of granulated garlic, granulated onion, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper

1 T. each of parsley and steak seasoning

1 c. warm water

6 c. vegetable stock

1/2 c. flour (any kind) for dredging

oil for frying

sauces of choice for coating

sauce of choice for dipping

Instructions:

1. Put the vegetable stock in a large pan and set it on the stove over medium-high heat.

2. Mix the vital wheat gluten, spices, and warm water in a mixing bowl. Mix well with hands and continue using your hands to knead/massage the dough for a minute. Let the dough rest for a minute.

3. After the dough has rested, either tear off chunks or cut chunks off the dough with a clean pair of scissors. I use the latter. Keep in mind that the pieces will expand quite a bit in the broth so keep the pieces fairly small, but not too small.

4. Add the seitan pieces to the broth and gentle boil until all the pieces have doubled in size and are floating at the top. Remove the pan from heat and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

5. Remove the seitan pieces from the broth and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to cool and dry for a few minutes.

6. Add the dredging flour to a bowl and add the seitan pieces, lightly coating each completely with flour.

7. Add some oil to a frying pan on medium-high heat. You don't have to add a ton, just enough to be able to fry the seitan pieces on one side. You can turn each piece a few times to achieve a crispy crust on all sides. 

8. Add the seitan pieces, in batches if needed as you don't want the pieces touching each other, and fry on all sides until crispy.

9. When the wings are completely fried on all sides transfer to a paper towel-lined plate for just a minute (long enough to drain some of the outside oil). 

10. Transfer wings to a bowl and add your favorite sauce, enough to coat each wing well. If you want to have more than one kind, just make sure to add each sauce and wings to different bowls.

11. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

12. Enjoy!