Vegan ‘Chicken’ Puffs

Puff pastry is a light flaky pastry made essentially with flour and butter. The dough is folded like a million times with butter to create the layers and light crunch that we so enjoy. Now it’s not necessarily the healthiest thing to have, but I believe in balance. A few years ago, I went to ‘La Madeleine’, which is a small French cafe here in the states, and I had their chicken puffs with a delicious mushroom sauce. The mix of the puff pastry filled with creamy and perfectly seasoned chicken served with the mushroom sauce stayed in my mind. So when I started experimenting with plant based food, I decided to recreate a vegan version of it: I had to make some vegan chicken puffs.

The Vegan ‘Chicken’

There are many vegan options, when it comes to substituting chicken. At first I thought of roasted and shredding some trumpet mushrooms like I did in my vegan brisket recipe. Now, I’m sure this was going to be a great recipe, but I didn’t have any trumpet mushrooms on hand. So my second best option was to use a mix of cremini mushrooms and young jackfruit. Young jackfruits are not sweet and therefore are perfect for shredding and sauteeing. I used them in my vegan pulled pork recipe as well. They are extremely versatile and taste like whatever you season them with. So they complemented the mushrooms perfectly.

Making the ‘Chicken Filling

Preheat Oven at 350F degrees.

Dice the onions and chop the garlic, sage, rosemary and thyme and set everything aside. Then Shred the jackfruit in medium pieces (I used Native Forest), but not too small to the point of losing texture. Set it aside.
Dice your mushrooms in medium to small pieces. Keep in mind the mushrooms will shrink as they cook, so don’t cut them too small.

Place a skillet on medium heat and add the coconut oil, onion, garlic, and herbs (sage, rosemary and thyme). Stir everything until the onions are translucent. Continue with the mushrooms and jackfruit and continue to stir to combine until the mushrooms are cooked.

Followed with garlic powder, salt and pepper, and homemade parmesan cheese and stir to incorporate everything. Add the coconut milk and mix for another 3 minutes until everything is creamy. Set it aside.

The Pastry

Now I briefly told you up there about how puff pastry is made, but I’m not bold enough (at least not yet) to tackle the huge task of making the dough myself. So I did what most lazy cooks do, I bought it frozen. The frozen puff pastry from PepperRidge worked great for this recipe.

Let the puff pastry completely defrost at room temperature for at least 1 hour before rolling it out.
Sprinkle some flour on your working surface and slightly roll out one sheet of puff pastry to extend it. Cut the sheet in 4 equal parts dividing it horizontally and vertically.

Take one piece at a time and using a rolling pin, spread the sheet slightly to extend it, but DO NOT overwork the dough, otherwise it’ll lose it’s layers.

Making the Vegan ‘Chicken’ Puffs

Once it’s the square sheet is the desired size, add the chicken mixture (about a tablespoon and a half for each sheet).

Use a fork to seal by pressing the fork on the edges. Continue this process until you run out of puff pastry sheet or chicken mixture.

Place each ‘chicken’ puff on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and apply the egg wash (mix the non-dairy milk with sugar).

Place the tray in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Feel free to let the ‘chicken’ puffs in the oven a little longer to let it brown to your liking. Out of the oven they should have a golden brown color with a glossy finish. 

Enjoy your ‘chicken’ puffs hot on their own or with a creamy mushroom sauce.