As much as I adore seitan, it can sometimes be hard on my digestive system and make me feel bloaty. So when I get a nice big bag of oyster mushrooms, I like to make myself a vegan fried chicken cutlet. Your vegan fried chicken cutlet can be as big or as small as you like. I like to make them the size of burger patties so I can make double-stack burgers with them. But you can also create them in any shape you like!
The best part of this recipe is the rice paper wrapping which melts into a chewy ‘skin’ that gives the perfect pull when you chew it. There is really not much to the recipe. You can choose to use my Vegan Fried Not-Chicken (VFC) batter or use store-bought season n’ fry mix, it’s all good.
If you are not sure about the right consistency for the batter, check out my TikTok video. I got distracted taking video clips and forgot to take some photos, sorry!
Save the mushroom ends and use them in other dishes such as Steamed Soft Tofu with Mince | 肉末蒸嫩豆腐.
Tips
- Wet the rice paper until malleable but not soft, otherwise it will too sticky to handle.
- The mushrooms will shrink after being cooked so try to stuff as much as you can in each parcel.
- After you’ve wrapped each parcel, give it a good squeeze to get rid of the air. This is to prevent the trapped air expanding and exploding oil at you during the deep-fry process. There might still be some small air bubbles but that’s unavoidable.
- Add chilli powder and pepper in the batter if you want it spicy.
- Make sure the oil is proper hot before putting your cutlets in.
- In the battering process, use one ‘wet hand’ for the flour batter and one ‘dry hand’ for the breadcrumbs to simplify the process.
Ingredients
- Batter
Instructions
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Tear the oyster mushrooms into small bunches, leaving them connected if possible. But if there are thick and hard ends, cut them off and save for other dishes.
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Wet your rice paper rolls until just soft enough to work with but not too soft!
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Layer the oyster mushrooms in the middle, pushing them down.
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Wrap tightly with the rice paper.
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Push it down firmly, getting rid of as much trapped air as possible.
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Mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add the milk / water and whisk until evenly mixed. The consistency should be kind of runny, like this.
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Heat about 800ml or four fingers depth of oil in a large and deep sauce pan. You want it proper deep so the oil doesn't come out and attack you later. Drip a small amount of batter into the oil, if the batter cooks and rises immediately, the oil is hot enough.
- Dip the cutlets in the batter, drip any excess off, then cover in breadcrumbs. In the battering process, use one 'wet hand' for the flour batter and one 'dry hand' for the breadcrumbs to simplify the process.
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Add to the hot oil and deep-fry until golden, turning as required.
- Once golden, remove from oil and drain on kitchen paper.
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Serve as burger patties or with mash and coleslaw!
