Have been almost completly vegetarian for the last 4 and a half years and was pretty much a carnivore before that, so I feel this is as unbiased of an opinion as is possible.
The Beyond, Gardien, Impossible, etc fake chicken have more flavor, nearly indistinguishable texture, are just as juicy, and aren’t greasy. At this point, I consider them better than regular chicken with the sole exception of fried chicken which was never my favorite but I can see the appeal of it.
I’ll concede that the beef substitutes have a ways to go (I like them and they’re not bad but they’re not fooling anyone, either) but they’re not the subject of this opinion.
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I prefer my chicken meatless too. Honestly the bones and feathers are my favourite part.
I just drink the blood and throw out the rest.
If you don’t juice the whole bird with one of these things you’re missing out on vital nutrients.
Umm that’s obviously for ducks. We are talking chickens here
Now now now wait, a lot of eldritch entities actually don’t want the blood when you sacrifice the chicken. You’re wasting a good demonic opportunity here pal!
Just picturing OP savagely gnawing on the bones and growling at anyone that comes close.
What I do in my free time is not for you all to judge. 😆
The worst part is that you have to eat the beak
It’s you again
Ew their beak is their nose 🤢
I have tried a number of the substitutes available in Australia, our products aren’t even close. My missus is vegetarian and she hates them as well, there is some sort of underlying chemical taste to most of the products over here.
Impossible mince has entirely replaced beef in our pasta sauces and Mexican dishes. Soaks up the flavours around it well and has that familiar chew/bounce of minced beef. But it really can’t stand on its own. My mum even made some impossible meat pies for us and they were excellent.
As for the chicken substitutes in Australia, no real winners yet. Best we’ve had is rissoles that are 50% chicken.
Impossible mince has entirely replaced beef in our pasta sauces and Mexican dishes. Soaks up the flavours around it well and has that familiar chew/bounce of minced beef.
Has a different name in the US so had to look it up, but yeah, it’s great for sauces and spiced dishes. I also have had good results with the “meatless crumbles” which are just ground/minced beef-like textured vegetable protein as they also soak up flavor like nobody’s business and have similar chew/bounce
some sort of underlying chemical taste
I notice that with the beef substitutes (they vaguely smell like canned dog food lol) but finally just got used to it. All the chicken-like products, though, taste like, well, chicken lol.
Been a minute, but I want to say it was Impossible where some friends and I realized it had that aspertaine/diet coke after taste. Beyond was okay though.
But yeah. Anyone who claims the meat substitutes are “better” either haven’t eaten meat in ages or never liked it to begin with. And vegetarian food needs to stop emulating meat and instead focus on its actual strengths (mostly sauce absorption).
Except for black bean burgers. Prepped right and I would totally consider those better than beef burgers (way better than turkey burgers).
No, just because it isn’t replicating meat perfectly doesn’t mean it isn’t better. That’s an opinion. I could say “if you like your meat seasoned, you never really liked meat.” It’d be a pretty stupid opinion, but just as valid. It’s all an opinion based on personal preference.
I agree though, the key thing about meat substitutes is realizing they aren’t meat. They need to be treated a little differently. They can absolutely be better in some circumstances. You have to learn how to cook with them though, just as you did for meat.
Chicken is especially weird to care about emulating the flavor of. It’s ass by itself. What makes it good is the stuff you coat it in.
Cook a chicken properly and it is delicious. The issue is that people mostly eat nuggets (which are good but…) where it is just breading and a bland flavorless mass.
Or they trim it to death and then overcook it (an ex managed to dry out thighs…). Which, to be fair, is true of beef as well. A LOT of the ultra lean cuts are horrendous without excessive amounts of sauce and spices.
That is actually a good point. I only eat white meat because I don’t like the gristly gross parts of the rest of it. Maybe I just don’t like the flavor of chicken…
And that is perfectly fine. But:
White meat is a real challenge. Tenderloins and wings (and back meat if you are a culture that eats it) are pretty easy to cook up. But breasts, especially modern breasts, are a huge challenge.
In large part because you don’t want grizzle or dangly bits. That is what you SHOULD be trimming off. But you do want fat pockets and connective tissue in the meat itself. That melts/renders and keeps the meat juicy while also soaking it with a LOT of flavor. In thighs those are the little specs of white fat/“skin” that are left over on top of the meat itself even if you take the skin off. Trim those and you remove much of the flavor.
But for breasts? Most of that is going to come from the skin itself. A skinless breast is one where you better damned well have a good sauce (preferably marinade) because “dry brining” only goes so far. But, unless you (spatchcock and) roast it, getting that to a safe temperature (which is nowhere near as high as you think it is but…) without drying out large chunks of it is really difficult. Which is why people tend to butterfly and pound it to even things out. Which… means you no longer have the skin to flavor it.
I wonder to what kind of chicken you are comparing it though considering you mention fried chicken. Some minced chicken mixed with condiments? I can believe that. A high quality well roasted chicken with no condiments needed? I have doubts the substitutes are there.
Filets, cutlets, popcorn chicken, tenders, nuggets, strips (like you’d use for fajitas), as well as dishes made with those (chicken soups, cassseroles, etc). Haven’t seen a good “drumstick” or “wing” substitute unless you allow for boneless but those are basically nuggets lol. Same for rotisserie chickens.
The closest thing to a rotisserie chicken would be like a Tofurkey and while they can be good, they’re not fooling anyone.
You’re talking cuts of meat and the person you’re replying to is talking about seasoning the meat - does using just a small amount of salt and pepper create a noticeable difference in flavor between raised and generated meat?
My brother in owning tastebuds… On all cooking shows/challenges/etc, they always do side by side comparisons - which is the best tomato sauce? Blindfolds, side by side comparisons… You know why? Because NO ONE would be able to compare a sauce from today to a sauce from when we filmed last week, much less FOUR YEARS AGO.
This is a pet peeve of mine as my irl community is filled with vegans/vegetarians and I hear shit like this ALL THE TIME.
“No trust me it tastes exactly like XXXX”
“When’s the last time you had XXXX?”
“Highscool”
long sigh
Yeah, not to rag on vegans or vegetarians, but their palates are fucked from not eating certain foods for years. We’ve had friends take us out to “the best places in town” and they were raving while eating and it was bland garbage, my wife and I could barely stomach it. When you eat tasteless food for years your body tricks you into thinking that it has the same flavor because you wouldn’t want to live otherwise.
Like, my MiL thinks that salt makes food taste bad. SALT. She hardly uses any in her cooking and only does because we complain that she doesn’t use salt.
No salt (unless for health reasons) is some crazy fucking work lol
How is it chicken if it doesn’t have meat?
I call it Chicken’t
Ayy, me too. Bacon’t is another one I enjoy. Glad I’m not the only one with this daft sense of humor!
😆 I’m stealing this.
Unless it’s from the animal suffering and dying region, it’s just sparkling protein
When you buy “chicken” at the store, is it referring to the animal, or the flavor and texture?
EDIT: About the response I was expecting, and I think I agree in this instance. I was just curious to get others’ viewpoints. It might have been better to phrase it as “When you see the word ‘chicken’ on a product…”
Meat from the animal.
How do you buy “chicken flavour” or “chicken texture” at the store?
Absolutely the animal. There is no other meaning of the word chicken when buying chicken that means that it is not chicken.
Edit: unless it’s an adjective like “chicken substitute”
Same vibe as chicken without feathers. Still chicken tho
Hard agree, but that’s probably I’m only used to the ‘plofkip’ variety. ‘Plofkip’ is a Dutch word which roughly translate as ‘Exploding chicken’, which is chickens that are raised at an unnatural rate. After being um… processed, the meat is commonly injected with water as well. That stuff smells vile and the taste is mediocre at best. It is also almost physically impossible to burn it while cooking because of the water content.
I would not know what a chicken would taste like if it had had an actual life. I am told, it is a world of difference, but I would buy the vegetarian or vegan alternative anyway.
I raise my own meat chickens (cornish cross). They see sunlight and get fresh pasture at least two times per day (chicken tractor). They eat bugs, worms, frogs, and grass, and anything else they might encounter, as well as meat bird food.
They taste much better than the factory birds you can buy at grocery stores. I dont know that i would describe the taste as “a world of difference,” but definitely much better.
Plofkip sounds terrible.
That’s like saying cake is better than meatballs. “Vegan meat” has nothing to do with meat.
This is childish.
It’s literally a product designed to imitate and fill the role of meat.
It would be like saying that synthetic motor oil has nothing to do with motor oil.
Having strong opinions doesn’t always make you look smart.
Synthetic motor oil is chemically quite similar to conventional motor oil. Both are made from hydrocarbons. One is drilled from the ground, the other is made in a lab. Lab-grown meat vs. animal meat would be a much better comparison.
But you’re comparing apples to oranges. Vegan chicken that tastes exactly like chicken is as good as it can get. If it tastes better than actual chicken, then you’ve just created a new meat-like product with a chicken-ish taste.
It’s like a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest where Charlie Chaplin himself ranks sixth. You can say someone looks almost like Charlie Chaplin, but claiming they look more like him than he does himself doesn’t make any sense. At that point you’re just saying you prefer the way one thing looks (or tastes) over the other. So you could equally say cake is better than meatballs.
Having opposing opinions doesn’t mandate insulting the other party.
If it tastes better than actual chicken, then you’ve just created a new meat-like product with a chicken-ish taste.
It’s like a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest where Charlie Chaplin himself ranks sixth. You can say someone looks almost like Charlie Chaplin, but claiming they look more like him than he does himself doesn’t make any sense.
No, that is not a similar situation, since Charlie Chaplin is, by definition, a single entity with a single definition.
Chicken meat on the other hand, is a range of flavours and textures. Chicken nuggets feel nothing like roast chicken, which feels nothing like pulled chicken. White meat tastes different then dark meat, the and connective tissues add other flavours as well. Different species of chickens tastes different as do chickens on different diets, and the taste of chicken has changed over time. Hell, American chicken tastes notably worse than chicken in most other countries.
You are not dealing with a single defined thing, especially when dealing with the broad category of everything allowed to be called chicken at the grocery store, like chicken nuggets and burgers. It is entirely possible for a synthetic fake chicken product, to slot into this spectrum of options.
Great post :)
I can’t say I agree in detail, but I don’t disagree completely either.
I’d say that it depends on brand, preparation, and then personal taste (as in the variability of human taste as a sense, not preferences) as to whether a given substitute is going to be better, acceptable, or worse.
Texture wise, I’d agree that the usual options are on par. Slightly different, but not in a bad way. Juiciness, in my experience, is iffy. Definitely not as greasy; but for some dishes, that missing fat is a significant detriment. Flavor is more like texture; any given person is going to interpret the chemicals on their tongue slightly differently.
I think where the substitutes often fail for the most part is the smell, not the actual on-tongue taste. Even though most chicken meat isn’t going to smell a lot, it is there, and the nose is very important to perceived flavor. I’ve yet to smell any chicken substitutes that smell right at all, though none have smelled bad. Soups and stews that aren’t very chicken centric, that won’t matter. But other stuff, it can and will.
Something like chicken noodle soup though? That’s a hell no lol. You can’t currently get anything that will make a stock that actually tastes right. I’m not saying you can’t make good soup with chicken substitutes, just that it’s a totally different taste. Enough so that calling it by the same name would be a joke.
Where chicken substitutes shine is nugget size dishes that don’t rely on the chicken fats and soluble components for the flavor. I’ve had some sesame substitute that was as good or better than chicken. Stuff like that, with sauces, or even straight up breaded nuggets, that’s where even if the substitutes didn’t taste of anything at all, they’d be just fine.
Now me? I tend to be of the mind that for most dishes, you’re better off just abandoning the original meat based recipe entirely and just cook things that make veggies shine on their own.
Could be right on the smell, but TBH, I’ve never really associated chicken with a particular smell (except fried chicken) but I always liken that more to the cooking process than the meat itself.
I probably did leave out a fair number of dishes/use-cases since most of my chicken consumption that isn’t just snacking is in the form of sandwiches, cutlets, and casseroles: things that don’t don’t necessarily need the fat to make the dish. Same for things like quesadillas and fajitas. But at the end of the day, this post is my own personal opinion and not a blanket statement of fact lol.
I’m also not a strict vegetarian, so using chicken stock is acceptable when needed though I usually make due with oil/butter and spices.
Back when I smoked, I couldn’t pick up the smell of chicken. I always thought it was just bland, but it was that I didn’t get enough of the smell. Scent is a big part of perceived taste (as opposed to the actual detection that happens on the tongue only), and food has been so much better overall since I quit.
Since chicken, particularly breast meat, doesn’t have a very strong smell, it’s easy to not notice it even when one’s nose isn’t inhibited by something
Before I quit smoking ~11 years ago, I could eat literally anything because it all tasted like cardboard anyway. Don’t miss that one bit.
Amen to that!
Meatless chicken
You want only the bones??
The beyond steak tips are pretty good. I’ve been using it as a beef substitute in tacos and in Hamburger Helper. The Hamburger Helper meal is now my 5 year old’s favourite food.
Quorn is the best I’ve had. I don’t think it’s quite as tasty as real chicken, but it’s close enough for plenty of uses. It’s a touch dry. It has very good verisimilitude to slightly overcooked chicken.
I find Gardien’s beef crumbles to be equally enjoyable as beef for chili and tacos and overall better when considering convenience, putting aside the ethical argument.
Quorn is my favorite. That shit is tasty. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll fat bitch a plate of wings in a heartbeat, to stop said heartbeat, but I do prefer Quorn to nuggets or tendies.
Mainly, chicken breast is bland if unseasoned, and that’s what meatless chicken is emulating. So, any flavor tends to stand out more.
also, non-dairy ben&jerry’s >> regular b&j
For beef mince, textured vegetable protein (soy mince) perfectly captures the texture IMO, and you can make it taste any way you like. It’s actually more protein-dense than beef mince, too, and it’s completely shelf-stable. I bought a huge bag of it over a year ago. It’s very convenient. I use it to make a fucking incredible chilli recipe
Am not a vegetarian, but can confirm
While I still eat meat occasionally, I try to choose vegetarian/vegan stuff when I can. I have only tried one chicken alternative plant based something, and while I could definitely tell the difference, I really don’t mind it: it’s tasty, even if in a slightly different manner.
What I can totally switch to without skipping a beat is Beyond Meat “beef” patties. At least the ones I had back around 2021.
Back when I was a kid we raised our own chickens, so I’m still waiting for a proper substitute, but I haven’t tried everything yet.
What I can totally switch to without skipping a beat is Beyond Meat “beef” patties
Maybe I’m just cooking them wrong. We didn’t raise cattle growing up, but we always bought a side of beef from a neighbor, so that’s my benchmark. Maybe I’m the same way as you with chickens.
Oh, I could tell the difference with those, too : ). I just still love them. Like, a lot.
