Vegan Poulet Rôti

[Vegan Roast Chicken]

...Julia says...'You can always judge the quality of a cook or a restaurant by roast chicken.'

...I'm using this old recipe from my binder for the vegan seitan chick'n because I know it's good...

...so I got a big pot of stock and veggies going for the 'first' cooking of the seitan...

...mixed up the roast seitan...

...and tied it up in cheesecloth...

...cooked it in the broth for about 45 minutes...

...it expands a bit against the cloth wrapping...

...but even though it's 'done'...it pretty much looks the same...just a little bit larger...

...so to make the crispy 'skin'...I got out some rice paper...

...moistened it and stretched it over the seitan roast...

...then following Julia's instructions...I placed the chick'n breast up in the roasting pan...strew the vegetables around it, and set it on a rack in the middle of the preheated oven...

...and then every 15 minutes or so Julia says to baste rapidly, so oven does not cool off...I just used Earth Balance for that...

...and just out of the oven...the 'skin' is so crispy and the whole thing just smells so delicious...

...the Christmas Roast Chick'n...

...with a perfectly crispy 'skin'...

...it slices gorgeously...

...this was such a perfect Christmas Roast...and it was really not very difficult at all...

Substitutions:

Vegan seitan for the roast
Vegan butter...we used Earth Balance...

Mastering the Art of French Cooking (pp. 240-242)