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This VEGAN “Chicken” and Waffles is comfort food at its finest! Everything can be prepped ahead of time for maximum brunch-ing ease and everyone will absolutely fall in love with this dish. It’s fully plant based but still completely delicious!
Early this year I posted a vegan waffles recipe and then a few months later put up a vegan nuggets recipe. NATURALLY, they needed to combine forces to create this epic VEGAN Chicken and Waffles recipe. It’s simple. It’s fully plant based. It’s all VERY delicious!
One of the things that I love about this recipe is that the waffles AND the nuggets can be prepped and then frozen ahead of time. Simply heat everything up when ready to eat. It makes for the easiest and most delicious weekend brunching :) You know you want to!
I have the full recipe written out below for you but it’s honestly a lot all written together like that. If you find it easier, you can always open up the individual recipes in 2 separate tabs.
HERE is the recipe for the vegan waffles
Here is the recipe for the vegan chicken nuggets
And despite this recipe being a good number of steps, they’re all pretty simple and straightforward. I’ve made this whole meal on my own several times and it comes together surprisingly quick. HOWEVER, if you have multiple hands on deck, I suggest assigning one person to the waffles and another for the nuggets and you’ll find that it’s all done around the same time.
EASY peasy brunch of dreams!
As usual, please let me know if you end up making this dish and how you like it. You can come back here to leave a comment or snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @foodwithfeeling! I always love to see what y’all are making from the blog!
Vegan Chicken and Waffles
Ingredients
waffles:
- 1 tablespoon flax seed meal/ ground flaxseed
- 2 tablespoons warm water
- 2 cups dairy free milk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed preferred
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons vegan butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Tofu nuggets:
- 2 blocks of tofu, pressed*
- Vegetable oil for frying
MARINADE:
- 1 ¼ cup of veggie broth
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
BUTTERMILK:
- 2 cups of plant based milk
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of golden flaxseed meal
- Optional ¼–½ cup of hot sauce
BREADING:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 –2 teaspoons of black pepper
Instructions
To make the waffles:
- Make the Flax Egg: Combine the ground flax seeds and water in a small bowl and set it aside until ready to use.
- Make the Vegan Buttermilk: Combine the milk and lemon juice and in a small bowl and set it aside for five minutes.
- Preheat your waffle iron according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flax egg, vegan buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined– make sure not to over-mix! A few lumps are okay.
- Spray your waffle iron with nonstick spray and add enough batter to fill the waffle iron, leaving about 1” around the edge. In my 8” waffle iron, I use 1 cup of batter. Cook the batter until the waffle is golden brown and crisp around the edges– about 3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining waffles.
To make the tofu chicken:
- Drain and press tofu according to these DIRECTIONS. Once pressed, break the tofu into large chunks. See video for reference but aim for them to be roughly the size of average chicken nuggets. You want them to be a little rough around the edges so it doesn’t need to be perfect.
- In a shallow dish, whisk together marinade ingredients. Add in the tofu and let marinate for 15 minute or even overnight overnight.
- In a large bowl, mix together the ingredients for the buttermilk and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove the tofu from the marinade (squeezing very lightly to release excess liquid- a little is totally fine and you don’t need to remove all of it) and add it into the buttermilk mixture (you can do this in stages as desired). Let sit for a few minutes while you make the breading.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, heat enough oil so that it will come up roughly halfway up your pieces of tofu (about 1/2 an inch of oil).
- In a shallow dish, whisk together all of the breading ingredients. Dip a piece of the buttermilk soaked tofu into the breading, covering on all sides. Dip it back in the buttermilk and then again cover it in the breading.
- Place the breaded tofu pieces directly into the hot oil and cook for 3 minutes. Flip and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes so that the nuggets are a nice golden brown color all around. Once done, place on a paper towel lined plate to soak up excess oil. Serve and ENJOY!*
