Review: Fake Chicken

So, this is a quasi-review. I made a sort of sweet-and-sour dish the other day (not the one pictured, sadly — that was taken a while ago), and I was out of Quorn Tenders, so I had to make do with a Gardenburger Chik’n Grill. Don’t get me wrong — I like those, but it was just the wrong thing to use for the dish. So that got me thinking about the various fake chicken products I use on a regular basis and the best uses for each.
There are three I tend to stick to: Morningstar Farms’ Chik’n Strips, Gardenburger Chik’n Grills, and Quorn Tenders. These are my regulars partly due to price and partly availability. There are others, of course — I’ve never tried the LightLife variety (but I would love to, as everything else they make is great), and I’m only considering non-breaded fake chicken here. So this is how I would recommend each be used:
– Morningstar Farms’ Chik’n Strips: These are the chewiest of the three (there’s not much difference in texture between these and their ‘steak’ strips, actually), and they’re fairly heavily seasoned. The garlic and onion powders and the dehydrated bell pepper make them best used for dishes that would usually include those flavours anyway. They’re the perfect fajita filling. I also really like them on top of salads, and they aren’t too bad in wraps or mixed with BBQ sauce to make a sandwich (although that gets messy). Like all three products, I usually thaw them in the microwave and then sautee, but you do have to keep an eye on these, or they’ll dry out very quickly.
– Gardenburger Chik’n Grill: (I can’t find these on the Gardenburger website, although they’re still in stores near me. I hope they’re not being discontinued!) These are actually patties, whereas the other two are pieces. They’re the mushiest of the three, and they have a prominent ‘smoky’ flavour — it was that flavour that really made for a bad match with the sweet-and-sour dish. But they’re great covered in BBQ sauce in a bun (and less messy than the Morningstar strips), and I also enjoy them cut into cubes and added to salads and wraps. When they’re eaten as a patty, they really do benefit from cooking in a pan (vs just in the microwave), as that helps take away some of the mushiness.
– Quorn Tenders: These, I would say, are by far the most versatile. They don’t have a distinct flavour or seasoning, but they do absorb flavours amazingly well. I LOVE them in any sort of Asian dish, and they’re wonderful in curries. I think they also have the best texture (Quorn has always been good at getting creepily close to the real thing with its fake meats), and there’s that sort of ‘umami’ that isn’t quite achieved in the others (perhaps because it’s mushroom-based?). I do find them a little bland on their own; if I want to use them in a wrap, I first toss them with a bit of salt and garlic powder, which just seems to punch up the flavour without making them ‘salty’ or ‘garlicky’. While I was looking at the Quorn website for the link, I came across their new Turk’y Burgers, and I REALLY hope I get a chance to try these soon. Their Turk’y Roast is the highlight of my Thanksgiving each year; it would be great to have that in a more manageable, everyday form.
I know not everybody (vegetarian or not) is ‘into’ fake meats, but I really enjoy using them in my cooking. There are SO many options out there these days (which was not so during my first years of being vegetarian — maybe that’s why I get so excited about them), so hopefully you’ll find my thoughts handy for your own meal-planning!