Lena I love chicken because it is super easy to prepare and very tasty. However, the best part about chicken is that you can still enjoy it as part of a plant-based diet – thanks to plant-based alternatives.
These Vegan Chicken Bites are one of my favorite recipes because the chicken becomes incredibly juicy and well-seasoned. You only need one baking dish and 10 minutes for preparation.
Can you replace vegan butter with margarine?
Vegan butter is a type of dairy-free margarine. Margarine is made by mixing vegetable oils with water, emulsifiers, and salt until it has the consistency of butter. However, margarine sometimes contains ingredients that classify it as non-vegan, such as buttermilk, whey, lactose, lecithin, and vitamin D.
The best way to make sure margarine is dairy-free is to read its label because every margarine has a slightly different blend of ingredients. So, even margarine with no vegan logo might be vegan.
This plant-based chicken makes incredibly juicy Vegan Chicken Bites
For this recipe, I used the “Original Chunks” from Heura Foods. Heura Foods is a Spanish startup focused on plant-based meat.
One significant advantage of Heura chicken is that it absorbs liquid very well and therefore becomes super juicy. A characteristic I am missing in other alternatives.
However, you are, of course, free to use the plant-based chicken of your preference. If you know any other plant-based chicken that can become super juicy, I would be delighted if you would let me know!
Let's get started
Vegan Chicken Bites
Ingredients
Chicken:
- 320 g plant-based chicken cut into chunks
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp vegan unsalted butter diced
Seasoning:
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
- ½ tsp smoked paprika
- ⅛ tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp onion powder
- 1 vegetable stock cube
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley
- 1 tbsp freshly chopped basil
- Freshly chopped parsley for garnish optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C fan oven.
- Combine all the ingredients from the seasoning in a small bowl.
- Place the chicken in a baking dish and sprinkle with the seasoning. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and stir to coat all sides with the seasoning. Spread the butter cubes across the chicken.
- Bake the chicken in the preheated oven for 15-18 min. After 8 min, stir the chicken with a spoon to bake evenly. In the last 2 minutes of baking, the chicken should be golden brown. Increase the temperature to 200°C fan oven at this moment. This will make the chicken bites extra crispy.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven. Let it rest for 5 min before serving. Optionally sprinkle the chicken with freshly chopped parsley. Serve the chicken bites with pasta or rice with a good drizzle of the sauce and a slice of lemon.
Notes
- Omit the salt if you don't have unsalted butter at home.
- Use the plant-based chicken of your choice. Just make sure it absorbs liquid very well.
Nutrition
For this recipe, I used the plant-based chicken from Heura Foods. Heura is a Spanish startup producing plant-based chicken and beef.
More info about Heura: https://www.heurafoods.com/
Here’s also a quick overview of the most interesting facts about Heura: 19 Facts You Didn’t Know about Heura
