IMO the best vegan substitute for chicken nuggets is breaded and fried lion’s mane mushrooms. They are absolutely perfect in taste and texture for this purpose, and the best part is that they can be grown very easily and cheaply.
Meat alternatives are getting good, but for fuck’s sake, stop frying them in the same oil as fish/chicken or grilling them where the burgers cooked. They have to figure that dilemma out if they ever want vegetarians and vegans to buy this shit. I’ll eat it because I’m into eating whatever. But my wife (lifelong vegetarian and vegan for a few of her years) who loves Beyond products has yet to try a single fast food version because it’s always the same situation. Prepared exactly where the meat is, and often comes out tasting like fish.
This is what the actual marketing photo looks like btw
Most other pictures of the inside also look like this, I think the other photo sliced them with a sharp knife
Have yall actually looked at the inside of a shitty fast food chicken nugget? They dont look that much better.
chicken nuggets look much worse
But marketing images tend to dress the food up more, spraying some cooking oil and getting a bright light would make the image a lot better.
You guys were all propagandized, these were pretty good.
They don’t even look like animal torture 😔
This isn’t about how good they actually are, but how good they look.
Considering people were just fine buying bubbly pink meat chicken nuggets from McD’s until the press decided it was their clickbait du jour I don’t think it would be a problem. I buy Impossible nuggets fairly often, they’re great. Wish they were a little cheaper.
I get Beyond Burgers often, and they at least have some texture on the inside. Not exactly like hamburger, but it looks appetizing. The above image is just white paste on the inside. They could certainly do better.
Vegan here. I’ve had soy chicken nuggets and they’re actually really good. Soy is closest to chicken from the get-go so its the easiest thing for it to replicate, in my opinion.
So I have no idea what happened here, this looks foul. Wtf
You mean this looks fowl?
… I’ll see myself out
claps slowly as you exit the room
As a curious non-vegan who tried to cook soy meat at home: do you have any tips and tricks to make it actually resemble chicken?
From what I tried, I could not reach anything resembling meat. Yet, I’d love to give it a spin.
As a non-vegan who has replaced most chicken with tofu, I’d be glad to tell you some of what I’ve learned! Others can definitely chime in because I’m new to this as well and might have better suggestions:
- Always use extra firm tofu. Since tofu naturally has a sort of eggy consistency, getting a denser product leads to a more meaty mouth feel.
- You need a tofu press. Along with getting water out of the tofu, it helps make the tofu more dense, leading to better texture as well. I’m glad to recommend the one I use if need be :) The longer time you press it, the more dense it gets.
- I used an air fryer recipe to start my journey to prepare it. I’ve moved on to making some of my own adjustments as well:
- in this recipe, they tell you to mix everything together into a paste and then try to fold the tofu pieces in to get them coated. I have had a better time placing the tofu pieces, oil, and soy sauce into a liquid-tight container with a lid, shaking it to coat everything in the liquid, then opening the lid and adding the drys, then closing and shaking again to coat.
- I add more seasonings like onion powder, paprika and MSG to help it taste more meaty. I’ll also add a little corn starch to help the coating be a little more crispy.
- I use the above pieces as a 1:1 replacement for any recipes calling for chicken pieces, like pastas. I really think tofu works best in smaller pieces like this, as the mouth feel seems about the same as small chicken pieces. I do not recommend trying to use tofu the same as an entire chicken breast since the texture and taste differences will be very noticable.
- This tofu fajitas recipe is what I used to help transition my SO and I over to eating more tofu.
Please let me know if I can provide more info!
I’m glad to recommend the one I use if need be
Please do! I never pressed tofu before, only ate it as is, and yes, it isn’t dense enough to my taste indeed.
Looked up the air fryer recipe, nutritional yeast sounds like an obvious thing I didn’t try! Also, as mentioned in a different response, onion powder is an obvious thing I didn’t add.
Will also look into fajitas. Thanks!
For sure! We use the this press. I like it because I can keep it in the fridge for the day while it presses for dinner, and the liquid is contained in the unit.
Hope this helps! :)
That’s some serious advertising for a plastic container with extra steps 😄
Will look into it, though!
I’ll admit I don’t know how to best make it resemble anything ^^ When I went vegan I came to realize that most of the flavour of meat is in the seasoning, but I never cared if the tofu or whatever actually resembled the meat it was seasoned like.
Now you may ask how to season it properly, and I’d love to tell you, but I’m such a new cook that I can’t. Names of spices elude me, which is part of the reason I need strict recipes to remember how to do shit. I enjoy cooking, I just can’t remember any of it lmao
Tldr: I’d love to help you, but you happened to ask the most useless person for that advice hahaha I’m sorry
It’s fine lol, most of the time I use something like the mysterious “chicken spices” or something :D
But what you did tell me confirms some of my own insights. Thank you!
I cut my tofu into tiny cubes and air fry them. I’ll add them into things like udon or stir fry, which has its own seasoning; haven’t tried seasoning the tofu directly. But considering you’re non-vegan, you could go with chicken bullion and you’d get most of the way there. Otherwise, a healthy amount of garlic and onion powder will do you well, maybe some beer can chicken spice.
Thanks! Didn’t try garlic and onion, despite it being an obvious choice!
Not a vegan but Butler’s brand soy curls in a stir fry or with pasta or whatever is a very tasty substitution.
I’ll see if I can get something of the kind in my area. Thanks!
Loved it when Panda Express had their Beyond Original Orange Chicken. Hadn’t had that food for years before they brought in a vegan protein option.
Need more vegan protein options everywhere!
I generally like beyond products (they’re pretty much the only soy-free commercial vegan protein option), but that just looks…bad.
I’d be surprised if this isn’t photoshopped
I agree. If it looks like that on the inside, why show the cross section?
and why would it look like that? Making it an attractive shape is not difficult and that’s the whole point of fast food joints!
If this is even remotely real i’ll eat my tiny comedy fondant hat that i always wear.
It’s not soy ? What is it then?
Also what’s wrong with soy? I’m assuming there’s some health restriction I’m not aware here.
Beyond uses chickpea protein. Soy allergies are pretty common.
Why not just eat falafel at that point
If it was readily available in grocery stores where I live, I would. Same for seitan.
Like the other commenter said, it’s chickpea and mung beans and some other stuff.
I have a soy allergy and am intolerant of red meat, so Beyond burgers are the next best option for me. I can sometimes find pre-made bean patties but those are rarer. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Quorn are bigger and better I think.
Not all Quorn products are vegan though, which is dumb.
What!? TIL. Fuck man
I’m not vegetarian, but I like Quorn nuggets more than chicken nuggets.
Quorn has always been pretty nasty in my experience.
I’d still put it in my mouth
Huh? This would be stupidly much better; I live near a KFC and the cockroaches outside, the dead animal smell and just the grease in the surrounding area is atrocious. I wish they’d knock that shit down and sell real food rather than the mechanically separated, likely tortured animal carcasses they dump on the public. How morally bankrupt or tuned out do you have to be to eat in these places?
Wild how different fast food chains are in different countries. Never had that smell or have seen cockroaches anywhere near a German KFC. Though I’d discourrage anyone from trying Hamburg Central Station KFC
I’m an American but used to have roommates from all over the world and I’ll never forget how absolutely disappointed they were with McDonalds, Burger King, etc.
Though I’m in Los Angeles so there are plenty of incredible hamburger places (far too many) if you’re seeking it out.
Though I’d discourrage anyone from trying Hamburg Central Station
KFCHaha yeah, but that cannot be avoided at times
It’s the way they dispose of grease, I believe. I think there are less regulations in the US than elsewhere. That or the minimum wage workers just don’t give a shit.
I don’t think KFC is mechanically separated, the bones are still inside most of their products,how could it be mechanically separated? Then again I don’t know how KFC is in US
Beyond is sub par to impossible, however, get it. Impossible nuggets are so close to actual chicken nuggets in flavour and texture that my vegetarian wife won’t eat them. They may as well be chicken so if you don’t eat meat they can be a bit too close.
I had a smoked salmon substitute like that. The textural resemblance was unsettling
Do you remember what brand it was?
Bizarrely, it was the store brand from Rewe, if you’re in Germany
huh. that’s a worthwhile recommendation to me. i don’t eat chicken for reasons, but every once in a while i crave KFC. usually i just go to a german restaurant and order (or go home and make) some pork schnitzel and that does it for me, but i will have to try these impossible nuggets.
Impossible to get in the EU haha
I found the flavor too be very close but the texture to not quite be right. A little off-putting. I’m hoping they continue to improve because I think they could get there.
i mean really, just bog standard grocery store vegan nuggets made from wheat protein or whatever are perfectly fine. Not identical to chicken nuggets by any means, but with some fries and dip i certainly don’t care about the difference and i very much appreciate the massive amount of fibre they contain.
I like eat me at, they’re a bit too close for my liking too. Idk if you can get it anywhere else though. Haven’t tried making nuggets out of it yet
I was frustrated when they were discontinued because they were actually quite good. There’s not many other options for me beyond mac n cheese and green beans so I rarely go back now.
I remember as a kid my mom used to buy this one brand of cheap chicken nuggets that was essentially a slurry of birds that was breaded. Being the fatass I was growing up, I found out through impatience that undermicrowaving it by a minute meant the filling wasn’t fully hardened and you could slurp the “chicken” out of the nugget like that big brain bug from starship troopers lol
Anyway - all this to say is that the photo of the filling in these reminds me of those.
Not just fried erasers, but breaded fried erasers. You’re welcome.
Well yeah. The breading soaks up grease which is needed to help it slide down. Otherwise the eraser would get stuck.
You don’t have to do all them to me anymore, I’m already on board!
What did you expect? It says “beyond fried” right there, as in “so far past fried that it’s condensed into rubber”. (I’m sorry, Beyond; I love you, and you’re perfect.)
Why is Noam Chomsky on the logo?
