Tastes like chicken
Husband and I went to the vegan butcher shop yesterday and picked up a few things. I'd never been there and I had to suppress my urge to buy one of everything. We had planned on just picking up some sandwiches after checking on a friend's cats, but ended up buying some vegan chicken and brats in addition to the sandwiches. I had already decided to make Chicken Divan, one of my childhood favorites, and we'd been wanting to try their fake meats in different recipes. I used Paula Deen's Chicken Divan recipe and adjusted to our taste.
The vegan chicken was pretty good, but it did not taste like chicken. It had a similar texture and taste as tofu. It was $12.99 a pound, which is fairly expensive to me, so I think we'd absolutely have to love it for me to buy it again. It's also highly processed and kind of Frankenfood, something I'm trying ( and failing) to cut down on. I bought 3/4 a pound to keep costs down and added a can of mushrooms to bulk up the casserole. I used vermouth instead of the white wine, a trick I learned from a Julia Child cookbook. I used the juice of a whole lemon because it was looking very sad and desperately needed to be used up. I also tossed in some green onions I had lingering in the fridge from when we made Singapore noodles. I used up the last some Greek yogurt and thrilled we'd finished off a couple more things rather than let them go bad. I doubled the curry powder. Mine was getting a little old and I wanted to make sure sauce had flavor. Especially since the vegan chicken wasn't nearly as flavorful as real chicken.
I wouldn't rate this as a frugal meal. We'll be eating this for at least two more meals, but I'm not as excited about it as I would be if it were with real chicken. I did take it to work today and it reheated beautifully and was quite satisfying. Overall, a good experiment.
The vegan chicken was pretty good, but it did not taste like chicken. It had a similar texture and taste as tofu. It was $12.99 a pound, which is fairly expensive to me, so I think we'd absolutely have to love it for me to buy it again. It's also highly processed and kind of Frankenfood, something I'm trying ( and failing) to cut down on. I bought 3/4 a pound to keep costs down and added a can of mushrooms to bulk up the casserole. I used vermouth instead of the white wine, a trick I learned from a Julia Child cookbook. I used the juice of a whole lemon because it was looking very sad and desperately needed to be used up. I also tossed in some green onions I had lingering in the fridge from when we made Singapore noodles. I used up the last some Greek yogurt and thrilled we'd finished off a couple more things rather than let them go bad. I doubled the curry powder. Mine was getting a little old and I wanted to make sure sauce had flavor. Especially since the vegan chicken wasn't nearly as flavorful as real chicken.
I wouldn't rate this as a frugal meal. We'll be eating this for at least two more meals, but I'm not as excited about it as I would be if it were with real chicken. I did take it to work today and it reheated beautifully and was quite satisfying. Overall, a good experiment.
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