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This is a bonkers delicious vegan drumstick recipe. But here is what it is NOT: It’s not a vegan drumstick that's so convincing, you have to double-check it's not a dead animal. I’m just not about that. It’s def. made out of plants, and honestly, that’s what makes it just downright delicious!
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What DO these have, you ask? Well, they have amazing texture, take less than 20 minutes to make, and are PACKED with plant-based protein. They also freeze great for a quick fix whenever you don’t feel like cooking. With some vegan buffalo sauce, these transform into the most gorgeous vegan buffalo wings that ever graced your vegan Super Bowl party. Serve with some Korean BBQ sauce or over some vegan kimchi fried rice. That’s a wonderfully easy, hyper-flavorful weeknight meal if I've ever heard of one.
Stop buying processed fake meat drumsticks from the store, and churn out vegan chicken that will make you, and chickens everywhere SO happy!
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🥰 Why this is the best vegan drumsticks recipe
🌟 Easy-Peasy Prep: No long ingredient lists or complicated steps here. This recipe keeps it simple and straight to the point, ensuring a stress-free cooking experience.
🕒 Quick Cooking Time: Whether you choose to pan-fry or air-fry, these vegan drumsticks are done in a flash, making them perfect for a quick dinner or a hassle-free addition to your meal prep lineup.
🌱 Actually Nutrition Packed: These are 100% unlike store-bought fake meat, which is usually a fairly indigestible mix of processed ingredients like TVP, soy protein isolate, and melted airplanes or whatever. Loaded with fiber and protein, this drumstick recipe is more than just delicious. Like all of my vegan meat recipes, they are a hearty and healthy choice that will keep you fueled and satisfied.
🍗 Ingredients for vegan chicken drumsticks
Jackfruit
Pulled young green jackfruit and chickpeas come together to form the perfect texture for these drumsticks, offering a hearty dose of fiber, protein, and minerals. When jackfruit is drained and squeezed, it has a meaty texture perfect for recipes like my ancho chili jackfruit tamales, kathal ki sabji, and adobong sitaw. Not into jackfruit? You can replace it in this recipe with 1 ½ cups of my vegan chicken, which has been shredded.
Vital wheat gluten
Vital wheat gluten is the secret ingredient that binds our drumsticks together, allowing them to maintain their shape and offering a chewy texture reminiscent of traditional meat drumsticks. If you buy a whole bag of the stuff and don’t know what else to do with it, it’s great for making vegan hot dogs, meatless pepperoni, and applewood-smoked vegan breakfast sausage.
Herbs and seasonings galore!
The combination of nutritional yeast, sage (which you can sub out for vegan poultry seasoning if you have some), oregano, and thyme brings a depth of flavor to the drumsticks, mimicking the savory notes of chicken. Nutritional yeast adds a nutty umami flavor, (which is why I also use it in my vegan Italian sausage and vegan nacho cheese sauce) along with a boost of B-vitamins, while the herbs contribute to the aromatic profile, making each bite a gosh darned flavor explosion.
Spice and Umami
Notice how there’s no regular ol' salt in this recipe? That’s because I make these salty WITH FLAVOR by using vegan chicken bouillon paste, and white miso instead. If you don't have miso, doenjang, taucu or regular ol' soy sauce can also work.
Rice Paper
Rice paper is the ingenious wrapper that crisps up beautifully, giving our drumsticks their signature crunch. It’s light, yet durable, perfect for holding in all the goodness of our filling while ensuring a delightful texture contrast. If you bought a whole pack for this recipe and don’t know what else to do with rice page make my vegan spring rolls, and Vietnamese rice paper salad.
No Vegan Bones About It:
Totally optional here, but adding something to act as the "bone" is kinda a nice touch. You can use a strip of raw parsnip, cauliflower stem, sugar cane stick, ice cream sticks, or wooden dowel. Just press the mixture evenly around your "bone" to support the structure of the vegan chicken drumsticks.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Korean BBQ Plant Based Drumsticks
After frying these, slather the heck outta them with my Korean BBQ sauce and roast, and eat them immediately over kimchi fried rice, or with spicy Korean cucumber salad. They also make a killer side to Korean tofu soup made with fresh vegan kimchi!
Spicy Thai vegan chicken drumsticks
Drizzle nam prik pao (Thailand’s famous chili “jam”) all over these, or serve them with Nam Jim Jaew, a hot raw condiment that’s almost like Thailand’s answer to salsa. Serve these Thai drumsticks over tom yum fried rice, vegan khao pad, or vegan pad see ew.
Vegan smoked drumsticks
Once pan fried, follow the same method I do in my vegan breakfast sausage recipe and smoke these in your oven inside of a dutch oven with smoldering applewood chips, then slather those babies up with salsa macha, or chili garlic sauce!
📖 How to make Vegan Drumsticks
You wanna see how these yummy little veggie wings get made? I gotcha. Follow this step-by-step photo guide, or just use the easy-to-print recipe card towards the bottom of this page.
Step One
Jackfruit Shredathon
Squeeze and pull the drained young green jackfruit apart until it takes on the look and feel of shredded meat.
Step Two
Chickpea Mash-Up
Next, it's time to give the chickpeas a good mash. Whether you're hands-on or using a potato masher, work them into the mix until they've lost their chickpea identity. You don’t need it to look like hummus or anything, you are just making sure there aren’t whole chickpeas visible in the mix.
Step Three
Add All the Yummy Stuff
Toss in the wheat gluten, onion, garlic, nutritional yeast, ground sage, oregano, thyme, coriander, black pepper, vegetarian chicken bouillon paste, and miso paste into your jackfruit-chickpea mixture. Get in there with your hands or a fork and stir until everything's thoroughly mixed up.
Step Four
Liquid Magic Mix
Whip up the rice paper-soaking liquid in another bowl by mixing the maple syrup, tamari, mustard, and hot water. This mixture will give the skin of your drumsticks a little of its own flavor.
✅ If you want to add other seasonings to the crispy skin layer, you can add things like onion powder, garlic powder, or even Old Bay seasoning to this warm liquid mix.
Step Five
Roll It Up
Working with no more than 3 rice papers at a time (it’s ok to do one at a time if you feel intimidated), soften your rice paper in the soaking liquid for just a moment, then lay it out on a flat clean work surface. Scoop about three tablespoons of the filling onto each soaked sheet, squeezing the filling into a drumstick shape that is thicker on one side. Roll them up tight, tucking in the edges to secure the filling inside, in a drumstick shape.
Keep going until your mixture is all rolled up.
✅If excess rice paper comes off the thin side of each drumstick, you can trim that off with a sharp pair of scissors and twist the ends to ensure oil doesn’t seep in while cooking.
✅If you want to use a "bone" press the filling mixture around a popsicle stick or a strip of sugar cane before wrapping it in the rice paper.
Step Six
Sizzle or Crisp
If pan frying: heat up the oil in a deep pan over medium-high heat. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, fry your drumsticks to golden perfection, for roughly 5-6 minutes, turning them every minute or so.
If air-frying, give your drumsticks a light oil massage and arrange them in the air fryer basket without crowding. Blast them at 390°F (200°C) until they're golden and crispy, about 10-15 minutes, flipping once halfway through.
✅ Don’t overcrowd your pan or air fryer basket. As the rice paper cooks, it can get really sticky until it firms up, so do your best to prevent the drumsticks from touching each other so the skins don’t tear or stick.
Step Seven
Cool Party
If you pan-fried your drumsticks, let them cool and drip dry on a wire rack for a few minutes.
✅I like this more than using paper towels, as it’s less wasteful, and heat doesn’t get trapped under the drumsticks which can make them get soggy.
Step Eight
Saucy Finish
Serve these beauties hot and choose your sauce - classic BBQ, plant based buffalo sauce, Japanese sesame dressing, or whatever your weirdo heart desires. You can roast them in a brown sugar bbq glaze to firm the sauce onto the outside.
🍯The best sauces for vegan chicken drumsticks
There are wayyyy too many yummy things to dip these bad boys into or toss them with to mention. But here are a few choice options:
If you like spicy stuff, it's a no-brainer to toss these in either homemade or store bought sriracha (here's my sriracha recipe), or Indonesian chili paste (here's my sambal oelek recipe). For even more serious heat, toss them in some fermented shatta, and then go wild finishing them off with zhoug sauce.
If you are serving these plan-based drumsticks as part of a Mexican dinner, a few BOMB salsas you can rock with them are habanero salsa, salsa roja, and tomatillo sauce. You can mix a little adobo sauce into the drumstick filling to complete that vibe, inside and out!
👉Top tips
- Moisture Control Master: Before getting started, make sure your jackfruit is as dry as possible after draining. Excess moisture can make the mixture too soggy, affecting the final texture of your drumsticks. Squeeze the living heck outta your jackfruit over a colander or wire mesh strainer before you pull it.
- Rice Paper Wrapping Technique: Handling rice paper can be tricky, especially for beginners. To avoid tearing, ensure the water you dip the sheets in is warm, not hot. This softens the sheets just enough to make them pliable without becoming too fragile. You want the rice paper to be soft enough to stretch tightly around the filling.
- Crafting the Perfect "Bone": For a more authentic drumstick experience, consider using a strip of raw parsnip, cauliflower stem, sugar cane, or a wooden dowel as your "bone." When forming your drumstick, gently shape the jackfruit and chickpea mixture around your chosen "bone," ensuring it's evenly covered for a realistic look and feel. This adds a fun element to your vegan drumsticks and makes them easier to hold and enjoy.
- Space It Out: Keep your pan or air fryer basket from getting too crowded. Rice paper becomes sticky as it cooks, needing room to firm up properly. Avoid drumsticks touching to prevent tearing or sticking of the skins.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Store the cooked vegan drumsticks in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days. Reheat in an oven, lightly oiled skillet, or air fryer to bring back the crispiness.
Yes, you can freeze vegan drumsticks. Once frozen individually on a baking tray or plate in your freezer, transfer them to an airtight container or a freezer-safe bag. They can be frozen for up to three months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
The recipe as given is not gluten-free due to the vital wheat gluten. For a gluten-free alternative, substitute wheat gluten with chickpea flour or another gluten-free binder, although the texture will be a bit different.
While jackfruit offers a texture most similar to meat, you can experiment with shredded oyster mushrooms (my go-to for vegan shawarma), pulled lion’s mane mushrooms (what I use to make vegan fajitas) or smashed artichoke hearts as a substitute.
✌️My faves to drizzle on these vegan chicken drumsticks:
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Learn to make plant-based meat from the seitan master himself, in this super-fun & informative class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Vegan Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 20 oz. young green jackfruit drained and squeezed dry
- ½ cup cooked chickpeas drained and rinsed
- ¼ cup vital wheat gluten
- ⅓ cup onion minced
- 2 teaspoons garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- ½ teaspoon oregano
- ½ teaspoon thyme
- ½ teaspoon coriander
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons vegan no-chicken bouillon paste
- 1 tablespoon miso paste
To Wrap:
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
- 1 ½ cups hot water
- 10-12 sheets rice paper
To pan fry (or air-fry):
- 3 tablespoons Canola oil vegetable oil, or sunflower oil to cook the drumsticks
Instructions
- In a large bowl, shred the jackfruit until it resembles the texture of pulled meat.
- Either by hand or by using a potato masher, smash the chickpeas and add them to the bowl with the pulled jackfruit. The main thing is that they should be broken up enough to no longer resemble chickpeas.
- Add the wheat gluten, minced onion, garlic, nutritional yeast, chickpeas, ground sage, oregano, thyme, black pepper, and miso paste to the shredded jackfruit. Use your hands or a fork to mix everything until well combined.
- In a wide bowl, mix together the maple syrup, tamari, mustard, hot water and black pepper.
- Next, take your rice paper sheets and quickly dip them in the liquid mixture to soften. Place about 3 tablespoons of the jackfruit mixture in the center of two overlapped softened rice paper sheets. Roll them tightly, folding in the sides to enclose the filling and form a drumstick shape. Repeat this process until all the mixture is used.
To cook, you have two options: frying or air-frying.
- For frying, heat the oil in a deep skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, carefully place the vegan drumsticks in the oil and pan fry until they're golden and crispy on all sides. This should take takes about 4-5 minutes. Remove them from the oil and drain on a wire rack.
- For air-frying, lightly brush or spray the vegan drumsticks with oil. Place them in the air fryer basket, ensuring they're not touching. Cook at 390°F (or according to your air fryer's instructions) until they are golden and crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes. You might need to turn them halfway through cooking.
- Serve these vegan drumsticks hot, coated in Korean bbq sauce, bbq sauce, nam prik pao, or just with your choice of dipping sauce.
Notes
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