Vegan Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich with Ranch Sauce

We enjoy a home-fried plant-based chicken breast. There are some pretty good grocery store-bought options, but they never seem as crisp, and if they are then they’re generally also dry.

We’ll make a batch of our own (not so secret) seasoned flour mixture that we created for our favourite vegan chicken recipe. Then smother our favourite vegan option for chicken breast, and fry it to get the perfect balance of crisp and moist, for our piece of fast food perfection.

We both also love a sandwich, and that’s why we’ve made this recipe for our favourite, vegan crispy chicken sandwich with ranch sauce. And if you’re looking for the perfect side you have to try these vegan buffalo cauliflower wings, they’re tangy, spicy and a delicious side.

Don’t be frightened off by the ingredients list, it’s mostly just a few pinches of this and a few of that for the seasoned crispy coating. But honestly, it’s all inexpensive stuff and it genuinely takes minutes to make. 

No word of a lie, you can make the coating and fry all the breasts in less than 15 minutes. We timed ourselves the first time we made this recipe, and that’s how long it took us from the first squeeze of a lemon to taking those delicious crispy plant-based chicken pieces out of the frying pan.

The same thing applies to the vegan ranch sauce ingredients, yeah it looks like a lot, but it’s a handful of things that you’re going to throw in a bowl and whisk together. This whole recipe needs you to whisk and fry, there are no hard no challenging cooking techniques here. 

Just remember that hot oil is…well…hot. The final part of this recipe requires you to build a sandwich. Which we have total confidence in your ability to do it, hey maybe it’ll even look better than ours.

We’ve called our website Easy Vegan Grub, we aim to make cooking vegan food easy, and we can promise you this is the simplistic way to cook yourself a vegan chicken sandwich with ranch sauce. The result is mouth-wateringly good, and you’ll love it. Serve warm with a side of fries or freshly boiled, vegan butter-soaked corn on the cob.

The chicken pieces will keep once fried we made some sliced bread lunch sandwiches with them the following day. We kept the breasts overnight in the fridge. They tasted great still the following day, but they are going to be less crispy. We made sure to let them cool before putting them into a ziplock to not condensate. 

We have considered trying to grill them next time to warm them up and re-crisp the outsides a bit. Either way, they’re still delicious the next day. Also don’t forget what we said about making the flour mix in bulk ahead of time, and you can do the same for the ranch. That way you can cook some breast fresh for a couple of nights in the week but with zero prep.

Vegan Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich Ingredients

Crispy Fried Plant-Based Buttermilk Chicken

360 g plant-based chicken breast (four breasts)

1 cup soy milk

1 Tbsp lemon juice

50 g self-raising flour (or all purpose flour with 1/2 tsp of baking powder)

50 g corn flour

1 Tbsp paprika

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp onion granules

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1 cup vegetable oil (or other neutral oil like canola oil)

Vegan Ranch Sauce

1 cup vegan mayo

1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tbsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp dried dill

1/2 tsp onion powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Vegan Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich

4 vegan brioche buns

Crinkle cut gherkins

Little Gem Lettuce

How to Make a Vegan Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich

Crispy Fried Plant-Based Buttermilk Chicken

To start with you should cut a whole lemon in half, and then squeeze out 1 tablespoon of fresh sour juice. Pour this into a measuring jug ready to make your vegan buttermilk substitute.

To make your dairy-free buttermilk, add enough soy milk to the lemon juice that you have 1 cup of the lemon and milk mix. Leave this on the side to curdle for at least 1 minute before using.

Measure out 50 g of self-raising (or plain with a 1/2 tsp baking powder) flour, as well as 50 g of corn flour. Gently mix these in a large bowl.

In a small bowl measure out all of the seasonings, which are all the remaining dry ingredients except for the oil, Mix these and then add them to the bowl of flour and combine everything.

In a large frying pan, big enough to lay down all your cuts of vegan chicken breast, add your preferred oil until it comes halfway up the sides of each breast piece. You don’t need to submerge them completely in oil, just one side at a time, we aren’t using a deep fryer.

Heat the oil over a medium high heat.

Pour the vegan buttermilk into a shallow dish and place each side of the vegan chicken pieces into the mixture, one side at a time.

On a plate or in another shallow dish, add the flour and seasoning mix, take each buttermilk-covered breast and coat it in the mixture, repeat this one at a time adding each one to the pan of hot oil as you go. Place your vegan chicken pieces into the hot oil and fry them for about 3 minutes per side, just enough until the flavour-packed coating has turned crisp and golden brown. Remove the hot chicken breasts from the pan once cooked and lay them down on a paper towel to absorb some of the excess oil they were fried in.

Vegan Ranch Sauce

So to make a deliciously creamy and tangy ranch sauce you first need to grab a mixing bowl and combine the unsweetened soy milk, the lemon juice and the vinegar. Just whisk them together with a fork and then set them aside for a couple of minutes. The mix will curdle slightly just like when you made the buttermilk for the crispy chicken breasts.

Once some time has passed and the milk has curdled, add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl and then take a whisk, and combine the buttermilk with the mayonnaise, mustard and all the seasonings. Continue mixing until you have a smooth creamy ranch sauce with all the herbs, salt and pepper evenly blended in.

Pick up a spoon and give your ranch sauce a taste. You can add more salt or pepper as desired, you can even mix in some more lemon or vinegar if you think that the sauce could do with a tangier flavour. Once you’re happy with it, set it aside and we will build your burger.

Vegan Crispy Fried Chicken Sandwich

Once you’ve made yourself a rich ranch sauce and fried some amazing vegan chicken, you are ready to build yourself a delicious sandwich. You can start by lightly toasting your vegan brioche buns, either in a toaster or under the grill, but no more than one minute in a toaster is perfect.

Next, on the bottom bun, load it up with ranch sauce, and add a handful of sliced pickles. Then for the star of the show, place your chicken breast on top of the pickles, followed by a few fresh lettuce leaves and some more ranch sauce. Then finally place on the top half of your lightly toasted brioche bun. Serve with a side of french fries, perfect for a Friday night, weekend night, or school night vegan dinner. Is there ever a bad time to eat a crispy fried (better than real chicken) sandwich?