Pan Roasted Chicken with Sweet Sausage and Peppers (page 20)

For our main course we made a vegan version of pan roasted chicken and sausage with peppers. This dish was a little more involved than the others since we were making two types of seitan and the pepper dish in addition to combining components and cooking them.

We started by making the pepper dish since it took the longest, then we made the cutlets and seitan sausage. When they were all finished we combined the ingredients and baked the dish while we ate the first course (cauliflower soup).

I will start with the recipe for the Peppers Rustica, which was given separately in the book.

Peppers Rustica
Makes approximately 6 cups

Ingredients:

12 red peppers, halved stems and seeds removed
¼ cup fresh tomato, finely diced
½ small red onion, finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic minced
1 1/3 cups vegetable stock
dash of cayenne
¾ teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced (for garnish - optional)

Directions:

Clean red peppers and cut in half. Place on baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes until skins are charred. After peppers are done, wrap in foil and let sit for about 15 minutes to steam. Remove pepper from foil and peel away the skin. Pull peppers into strips about ¼” wide. Put peppers in large saucepan.

While peppers are roasting, dice tomato, garlic and red onion. Let garlic rest for 10 minutes before heating so the allicin can develop. Put ingredients in pan and water sauté until softened. Add vegetable stock and cook very slowly until very soft. Add spices to mixture.

Add the pepper strips to the onion and tomato mixture and heat through.

Seitan Cutlets and Sausages
Makes 8 cutlets and 8 sausages

Ingredients for both the chicken and sausage seitan:

1 medium sized onion diced
3 cloves garlic
4 cups filtered water
pinch salt

Ingredients for Seitan Sausages only:

2 cups whole wheat breadcrumbs
2 teaspoon wet hots
2 cups vital wheat gluten
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
pinch crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon ketchup

Ingredients for Seitan Cutlets only:

2 cups whole wheat breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon fennel seed
½ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon rosemary
2 cups vital wheat gluten
1 teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Make breadcrumbs in food processor. Place 2 cups each of two mixing bowls (half for cutlets and half for sausages).

Dice an onion and mince garlic. Place in pan to water sauté. When ingredients are soft, place in blender with enough water to make 4 cups of liquid and blend until pureed. Put 2 cups of the wet ingredients in each bowl with breadcrumbs.

Add the seasoning mixture (from above) to the bowl for the cutlets. Allow the breadcrumbs to absorb the liquid for 5 to 10 minutes before adding the gluten.

In a separate bowl add the seasoning for the sausages. Allow that bread to absorb the liquid for 5 to 10 minutes.

Add 2 cups of vital wheat gluten to each bowl.

Chicken cutlets: Divide chicken seitan into 8 portions and pat into a cutlet shape. Brown chicken cutlets in a lightly oiled cast iron skillet. Place in roasting pan with ½ cup of water and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Take cutlets out of the oven, turn the pan around (to ensure even cooking) add an additional ½ cup water and bake another 20 minutes.

Sausages: Cut seitan into 8 pieces and roll into sausage shape. Wrap in foil and place in pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 15 minutes.

Allow the cutlets and sausages to cool before slicing them into bite size pieces. We sliced the cutlet into thin strips as though we were making Chinese food. The sausages were sliced into ¼ inch thick rounds.

Place the seitan in a roasting pan and top with peppers rustica. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes to heat everything through.

Serve hot topped with a little fresh parsley (optional).

Nutritional Information (assumes 12 servings):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 300.37
Calories From Fat (8%) - 22.59
Total Fat - 2.52g
Saturated Fat- 0.44g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 210.25mg
Potassium - 487.28mg
Total Carbohydrates - 32.13g
Fiber - 6.26g
Sugar- 9.09g
Protein - 37.81g

Comments:

This was our version of a very traditional meat meal. By combining two different forms of seitan (the cutlet and sausage) we were able to achieve different textures and flavors in the dish. By combining the seitan and peppers at the end the seitan retained its chewy meat-like texture.

All four of us enjoyed this recipe. It is a good source of vegetarian protein and a nice dish for anyone that is new vegetarianism since it is so similar to a standard American meal.

Final Thoughts:

The first thing we learned from our first marathon cooking session using the book is that the author has a much larger idea of serving sizes than we do. Next time we are going to cut the servings down to a more manageable amount.

We liked the presentation of his dishes but found that some of the dishes required steps that we aren’t certain are necessary (or workable during a weeknight).

We spent $45 dollars for all the food we cooked this time which we both thought was fabulous.  It is amazing how little it costs to feed a family when you makes things from scratch.

Overall we thought the first cooking session went well and we are planning our next one for later this week. We are finalizing the menu now. As soon as we hammer out the details I will post the recipes we will be making and the grocery list.