Chicken-Fried Chickpea Cutlets based on the chickpea cutlets in Veganomicon. Photo by mollyjade. Licensed under creative commons

One of the best things about being vegan is not having to worry about doing things the traditional way. We’re not stuck with just chicken-fried steak or chicken-fried chicken. We can chicken-fry virtually anything.

I wrote a round-up of chicken-fried things recently, and I’ve had chicken-frying on the mind ever since. My husband is obsessed with the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. And somehow, the two just seemed right for each other.

To begin with, go read the recipe for chickpea cutlets. It should be part of every vegan’s repertoire (assuming they can eat wheat). For that matter, this cookbook should be in every vegan’s library.

So, to make chicken-fried chickpea cutlets, follow that recipe up until it’s time to form the cutlets. Make your cutlets thin since we’ll be breading them and you want them to cook all the way through.

Next, start heating your cast iron skillet to medium on the stove. Add a thin layer of neutral oil. We used canola.

Then get two flat-bottomed bowls. Cake pans actually work great for this. In one, combine a cup of flour, a large pinch of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. In the other, combine a 1/2 cup unsweetened plant milk and 1 1/2 teaspoons of egg replacer or cornstarch. Do not use sweetened or flavored milk. You will be sad.

Take each cutlet and dip it in the milk mixture. Then dip it in the flour mixture, making sure it gets covered with flour on every side. Then dip it back in the milk and back in the flour. The best way to do this without ending up with a dough-mitten on your hand is to designate one hand as your “wet hand” and one hand as your “dry hand”. The wet hand only touches the cutlet when it’s wet. The dry hand only touches the cutlet when it’s dry/floury.

Finally, fry each cutlet in oil for four minutes on each side, or until they’re golden brown. Place the cutlets on a cooling rack over paper towels, or directly on paper towels to let any excess oil drip off.

CFCC are best served with cream gravy. If you want to be really traditional, you can serve them with fried okra and mashed potatoes, too.