KFC-style vegan fried chicken

I know it’s junk food but once in a while I do miss KFC. Maybe I don’t really miss the chicken that much but the unique, crunchy, tasty batter, and I am sure I am not the only one. So…. I thought why not make a copycat veganised KFC-style “chicken”… Here we go!!!!!

First, wash and dry the oyster mushrooms. If the mushroom is too big, tear it in half by hand.

Combine all the spice mix ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix well.

Place 80g of the spice mixture into the other bowl, add 200 ml of unsweetened soy milk and 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast, whisk gently until you get a smooth batter.

Assembly time, let’s organise our worktop a little bit.

You should have a plate of oyster mushrooms, a liquid and a dry mixture like the picture.

Dip each piece of mushroom into the liquid mixture, let it soak for a few seconds and absorb the batter. Then roll it into the dry mixture until completely coated.

Repeat the same process for each piece, place them onto a tray/plate to let the coating sit for a few minutes.

Heat up the oil in a small non-stick saucepan and carefully add the mushroom piece-by-piece into the oil. Depending on how big your saucepan is, try to not overcrowd too many pieces in at once. Deep fry until it is a beautiful golden colour all around and floating on the oil.

Place the deep-fried mushrooms on a tray with oil-absorbing cooking paper or kitchen towel and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Serve with freshly squeezed lime juice and your preferred flavour of sauce (sweet chilli sauce, curry sauce or sweet & sour sauce… etc).

For this recipe, I’ve tried tofu, seitan, tempeh, cauliflower and other ingredients, but out of them all I think the oyster mushroom is the winner, it’s not just tender but juicy and flavourful too. You also get this tearable texture like a real chicken but completely 100% plant-based.

This is a must-try recipe, it is an incredibly tasty, beer-pair food for Friday night.

You may also be interested in checking out my other meat/fish craving recipe – deep fried vegan calamari. It is made from oyster mushrooms as well.

If you’ve followed and made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment and take a picture, tagging it with #k33_kitchen and share it on Instagram! I’d be very excited to see what you come up with. Cheers, hope you enjoy my recipes!