Country Fried Seitan

Country Fried Seitan

This isn't the healthiest of vegan meals, what with the frying and all, but it is fully awesome. I used some of the batch of seitan I made and froze a few weeks ago and served it with roasted brussels sprouts (omit the cheese to make it vegan). It was very good and excellent comfort food. The seitan was juicy and savory; the breading crunchy and peppery. It would've been full-on decadent if I had made a gravy for it, but it was a bit of a last minute dinner decision (I had planned to just pan fry it) and I didn't really have the ingredients for gravy. Maybe next time.

Recipe after the jump:

Country Fried Seitan
(inspired by this recipe)
Yield: 4-6 cutlets

Seitan cutlets (store-bought seitan would work as well)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
up to 1/2 tsp. pepper (I used a bit less)
1/4 c. water
1 tbl. dijon mustard
1 tbl. baking powder
1 c. Panko (or other bread crumbs)
vegetable oil for frying

Step one: Prepare the seitan. Since I had some frozen seitan, I first defrosted it in a ziplock bag in a bowl of hot water (I got impatient after awhile and finished defrosting/heating in the microwave), then cut the seitan into cutlets.

Step two: Prepare batter and breading for frying in two shallow, flat-bottomed dishes. Mix the flour, salt, and pepper in one dish. Mix water and dijon mustard in the other dish. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the water/mustard mixture to make a thin batter. Add the baking powder and panko to the flour mixture.

Step three: Heat enough oil in a deep saucepan over med. to med-high heat to half-cover the cutlets (test for temperature by dropping a little piece of seitan into the oil--when it sizzles, it's hot enough).

Step four: Coat the cutlets in the batter, then dredge in the flour/panko mixture. Add the breaded cutlets to the oil in batches and fry for about 2 min. on each side--until nicely browned. Drain on paper towels.