Ingredient Tip: Mock Chicken Products

There are several good brands of mock chicken available in most supermarkets. Many have an appearance, taste, and texture very close to real chicken, and it's easy to adapt your favorite chicken recipes to use the vegetarian alternatives.

Patties and tenders and nuggets, oh my!

You can get unbreaded mock chicken breasts, tenders, and strips, as well as breaded mock chicken patties, tenders, and nuggets.

Here are some brands I recommend:

• Boca
• Gardein
• Lightlife
• Morningstar Farms

Use the unbreaded varieties as you would a fresh chicken breast (although the cooking time will generally be shorter.)

Use the breaded varieties in sandwiches, in Mock Chicken Patties Parmesan, or just lightly sauteed in some olive oil with a squeeze of lemon or a splash of white wine.

Seitan

Places like Whole Foods and some health food stores carry chicken-style seitan (wheat gluten) that works well in recipes that call for cooked chicken or turkey chunks, like casseroles, crepes, and pot pies.

Tastes like chicken

I've served all of these products to carnivores who thought I must have fallen off the vegetarian wagon, because the mock chicken seemed so much like the real thing.

Warning to vegans

Vegans are advised to read the ingredient labels, as some of these products contain egg whites.