Chicken Club

Day 347

Chicken Club

Chicken Club for Vegetarians

When you're a vegetarian and craving that familiar old sandwich, just go ahead and make one. We had to use a couple substitutes, but it was, for all intents and purposes, a chicken club.

I know the question everyone wants to know is what is used for "chicken"?  And, what of the bacon? Ahhh, yes, What, indeed?

The "Chicken"

Atlantic SuperStore sells a great soy version of vegetarian chicken that we really like. It looks like chicken and it tastes a lot like chicken, although you can tell it's not really chicken. It's a good substitute, especially for a sandwich, or a barbequed chicken burger.

Unfortunately I don't remember the brand we buy, since we always throw the enormous box out and store the interior bag in the freezer.

Vegetarian chicken

The "Bacon"

Original recipe
We've tried a few versions of "bacon" since we gave up eating meat but we agree that coconut bacon is the best. Yes, you can slightly taste coconut, but it's really more of an aftertaste or a faint underlying flavor. The main flavors of bacon are all there - sweet, salty and smoky - as well as the meaty texture. We use this recipe but tweak it a bit. We order our coconut online, 4 or 5 bags at a time.

Coconut bacon

It only takes about 25 minutes to make it, and that includes the 20 minutes to cook it.

Our recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups coconut
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp liquid smoke
1 tsp smoked paprika

Directions
Mix last four ingredients and gently toss with the coconut. Spread over parchment-covered baking sheet and cook at 300 F for 20 minutes. Check on it and turn at least twice if not thrice during cooking because it burns quickly.

Chicken Clubs

We did get to use tomatoes and late lettuce from the garden for these tonight. Laura's so smart to plant lettuce all summer.

"Chicken" strips
"Bacon"
Tomato slices (we had German Strawberry & Kellogg's Breakfast varieties)
Avocado
Lettuce
Flax seed bread
Compliments salad dressing
Butter

Tomatoes & avocado

Beautiful homegrown lettuce

We used a third slice of bread just to make them more clubby, but I suspect it would have been a substantial enough sandwich with only two.

Chicken club sandwich

Reviews/Comments

I have to give it a 10. It was delicious and fresh and satiated my craving for a toothsome sandwich. Laura gives it a 12.