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These vegan seitan pork chops are easy to make and incredibly versatile. The fatty layer really puts them over the top! Pan sear and then bake in a flavorful broth for the meatiest, juiciest chop ever!
I had a few revelations while testing these chops that really elevated the end result:
1. As long as I have been making seitan, I have been operating under the reasoning that it improves with a good rest after cooking. It’s solid reasoning. I’ve had plenty of mushy seitan that truly firms up after a slumber of no less than 6 hours in the fridge. But in this case I was hungry. I broke the rules. These chops were PERFECT once cooled for only a little over an hour at room temperature. That's not to say you can't make them ahead and let them rest, but according to my husband, they had the “most meaty texture of all the seitan you’ve ever made.”
2. I have been experimenting for many of these same years with ways to create a fat layer like the one I remember. You know—that juicy, gelatinous, almost a little gross kind of texture? Welp, I think I finally achieved with these chops. It holds up when cooked in broth yet still has that melt-in-your mouth quality. I think it's AMAZING and hope you do, too!
3. The favorite of these tests came surprisingly from baking the chops. (Well, surprising to me, at least, because I tend to prefer any other cooking method.) They absorbed a bunch of broth and I thought for sure they were going to turn into porous, squishy, monstrous things just in time for Halloween. Instead, they took on all the broth flavor and shrunk back down with just a little time at room temp. They turned out equally delicious and still plenty meaty by cooking on a low simmer, but were just a little softer than in the oven.
So now I can only hope you enjoy these seitan chops as much as we do. If you do, please let me know, and rate them! If you don’t, please let me know why! I am continuously working to improve my seitan “chops” hehe… and your feedback is invaluable!
See some additional tips below.
Ingredients
Directions
Start by adding about 2 1/2 cups of water and mix it into your flour. If it's not forming into a dough, add a little more. It's easier to wash if it's a little bit sticky as opposed to dry and crumbly, but too much water can make it fall apart when washing. Make sure the water is fully incorporated. You can either knead it into a ball or simply let it rest in the bowl like this for 15 minutes. Then cover it with cool water and let it rest again for about an hour.
Wash that flour! If you're new to flour-washing, check out this step-by-step tutorial here. For this I washed until there was about 5-10% starch left, and in the final wash the water was cloudy/hazy.
Don't forget to save that starch! So many things you can do with it!
Once washed, drain your ball of gluten for at least 20-30 minutes.* If you haven't already, now's a great time to mix together the Porqy Powder. Add the drained gluten to a food processor with the Porqy Powder and blitz. If you don't have a processor, you can use a knife or kitchen scissors to cut the seasoning into the gluten.
Separate the seasoned gluten into two portions, one for the fat which should be 20% of the total, and the other for the meat at 80%.** Leave the large portion on a cutting board and put the small portion back into the processor with the vegan butter, rice flour, and agar and blitz until well mixed. Put the fat dough in the fridge to rest so the butter doesn't leach out. If using the red food dye, add the large portion back to the processor and blend in the color.
Keep the two portions separate and allow time to rest, about 30 mins - 1 hr. Once the gluten is strong enough in the meat dough, stretch it into a long rope and cut it in half. Then stack the two halves on top of one another, and repeat. This makes the "meat grains." Finally shape into a compact cylinder, and rest again until it's reformed.
Take the fat dough from the fridge and stretch it into a rectangular shape, the same length as the meat dough and wide enough to wrap around it (but not over the sides). You can simply wrap the fat around the outside, but for the full effect, I wrap it more like a spiral, curling into the meat dough and shaping the final so it has an indented curve. Give it a little time once more so the fat has a chance to stick to the meat.***
Slice the log into 4 large chops. (You can go thinner but you may not have room to cook them all together.) Flatten them a little, making sure they are all about the same thickness, and refine the shapes into chops a little more if you prefer.
Preheat your oven to 325F. Heat oil in a large, oven-proof skillet until shimmering. Lightly coat both sides of the raw chops with the dijon mustard, if using. Place them in the hot oil and cook for about two minutes on each side, or until lightly browned, sprinkling both sides with the salt, pepper, and some dry thyme as they cook. Once browned, let them sit in the pan for a couple minutes more with the heat off to avoid splattering.
Pour the broth into the skillet and add whatever ingredients like fresh herbs, garlic, etc, that will compliment and boost the flavor of however you plan to finish the dish. You can even split the broth with a portion of barbecue sauce, cider, etc. From here the possibilities for flavor are wide open!
Put the chops in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, covered loosely with a sheet of foil. They should look a bit swelled when you check on them, and that's ok. If there's less than half the broth left, add just a little more. Flip the chops and cook them for another 30 mins, this time with the foil off. By the end of cooking they will likely have absorbed most of the broth, but shouldn't look dry.
Pull the skillet out of the oven and let them rest for about an hour at room temperature. The chops should still be warm for serving and you can reheat them if you prefer, they may just soften a little bit. One suggestion is to cover them with a piping hot gravy or sauce to warm them back through. Enjoy!
*After washing and draining, I typically store the gluten in a sealed container in the fridge. In fact, I rarely ever wash flour and cook it in the same day anymore. Breaking up the process makes it much easier for me, I always have washed gluten ready in the fridge (or freezer) when I want it, and the extra rest time improves the texture. Win-Win-Win.
**For those of you looking to create a larger amount of fat dough for other purposes—or who simply prefer knowing the weights—my washed, drained, and rested gluten weighed about 560g pre-seasoning, and about 600g post. So I added the butter, agar, and glutinous rice flour to 120g of seasoned dough.
***If you've got some time to ignore these chops—now's a great time to use it. You can simply pop the seasoned, assembled cylinder in a sealed container in the fridge until you're ready to slice and cook. The same way most seitan texture improves with a rest after cooking, this will do the same now. It'll still be fantastic if you need to finish it all in one day, though, no worries!
More Porq & Vegan Comfort Food
Ingredients
Directions
Start by adding about 2 1/2 cups of water and mix it into your flour. If it's not forming into a dough, add a little more. It's easier to wash if it's a little bit sticky as opposed to dry and crumbly, but too much water can make it fall apart when washing. Make sure the water is fully incorporated. You can either knead it into a ball or simply let it rest in the bowl like this for 15 minutes. Then cover it with cool water and let it rest again for about an hour.
Wash that flour! If you're new to flour-washing, check out this step-by-step tutorial here. For this I washed until there was about 5-10% starch left, and in the final wash the water was cloudy/hazy.
Don't forget to save that starch! So many things you can do with it!
Once washed, drain your ball of gluten for at least 20-30 minutes.* If you haven't already, now's a great time to mix together the Porqy Powder. Add the drained gluten to a food processor with the Porqy Powder and blitz. If you don't have a processor, you can use a knife or kitchen scissors to cut the seasoning into the gluten.
Separate the seasoned gluten into two portions, one for the fat which should be 20% of the total, and the other for the meat at 80%.** Leave the large portion on a cutting board and put the small portion back into the processor with the vegan butter, rice flour, and agar and blitz until well mixed. Put the fat dough in the fridge to rest so the butter doesn't leach out. If using the red food dye, add the large portion back to the processor and blend in the color.
Keep the two portions separate and allow time to rest, about 30 mins - 1 hr. Once the gluten is strong enough in the meat dough, stretch it into a long rope and cut it in half. Then stack the two halves on top of one another, and repeat. This makes the "meat grains." Finally shape into a compact cylinder, and rest again until it's reformed.
Take the fat dough from the fridge and stretch it into a rectangular shape, the same length as the meat dough and wide enough to wrap around it (but not over the sides). You can simply wrap the fat around the outside, but for the full effect, I wrap it more like a spiral, curling into the meat dough and shaping the final so it has an indented curve. Give it a little time once more so the fat has a chance to stick to the meat.***
Slice the log into 4 large chops. (You can go thinner but you may not have room to cook them all together.) Flatten them a little, making sure they are all about the same thickness, and refine the shapes into chops a little more if you prefer.
Preheat your oven to 325F. Heat oil in a large, oven-proof skillet until shimmering. Lightly coat both sides of the raw chops with the dijon mustard, if using. Place them in the hot oil and cook for about two minutes on each side, or until lightly browned, sprinkling both sides with the salt, pepper, and some dry thyme as they cook. Once browned, let them sit in the pan for a couple minutes more with the heat off to avoid splattering.
Pour the broth into the skillet and add whatever ingredients like fresh herbs, garlic, etc, that will compliment and boost the flavor of however you plan to finish the dish. You can even split the broth with a portion of barbecue sauce, cider, etc. From here the possibilities for flavor are wide open!
Put the chops in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, covered loosely with a sheet of foil. They should look a bit swelled when you check on them, and that's ok. If there's less than half the broth left, add just a little more. Flip the chops and cook them for another 30 mins, this time with the foil off. By the end of cooking they will likely have absorbed most of the broth, but shouldn't look dry.
Pull the skillet out of the oven and let them rest for about an hour at room temperature. The chops should still be warm for serving and you can reheat them if you prefer, they may just soften a little bit. One suggestion is to cover them with a piping hot gravy or sauce to warm them back through. Enjoy!
I absolutely loved this recipe. The instructions were great and the texture was so unbelievably similar to meat, with the grains thanks to the folding and cutting. I will probably cut the msg a bit because I wanted a blander chop with the mess of sauerkraut and apples I added. Can’t wait to make it again.
Thanks for your message and I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
When you stretch the gluten, are you also twisting it like a rope? How long should the cylinder shape be? I really wish there were pictures of the process. I want mine to turn out as good as yours did.
I hope to add more images or perhaps a video of the process soon. For these, no, I didn’t twist. Just stretch and stack so the grains were all going in the same direction. The cylinder can be about 6-8 inches long, making each chop 1 1/2-2 inches when you cut it.
Decided to try making these on a whim yesterday and realised (after already washing the flour 😂) that I’d no agar or rice flour. So I’ve subbed them for konjac powder and cornstarch. I’ll update with how it goes!