This vegan BBQ chicken braid looks complicated, but it's quite easy and delicious! A homemade bread dough wrapped around vegan BBQ chicken.
Braided bread used to stress me out.
It looks complicated with all its twists and turns.
But in reality, it’s really pretty simple.
This vegan BBQ chicken braid is worth the braiding.
And I will walk you through it, if it’s your first time.
First, let's talk about this braid and why we love it.
The combination of the homemade bread and vegan chicken strips smothered in BBQ sauce and vegan cheese, I mean what's not to love.
We add red onions to ours if you don't like onions that's okay- leave them out.
The bread for these vegan bbq chicken braids is a quick and easy recipe.
It is very similar to my roll recipe, the long part is waiting for the bread to rise.
There is a fair amount of yeast in the recipe so it does raise a little quicker if your room temperature is on the warm side.
I often turn my oven on for a couple of minutes and then shut it off so it's just a little warm incubator.
Then I put my bread dough in a greased bowl with a clean towel on top.
This always yields a nice dough-growing environment.
The filling-
I do use vegan chicken strips in this.
You could use a more whole foods substitute if you wanted like a pre-seasoned jack fruit or soy curl. It will just add a little longer to the prep.
You do want to precook the vegan chicken strips, so add that to your time.
Once the vegan chicken strips are done, I chop them up, add whatever your favorite BBQ sauce is, chopped up red onions, and favorite vegan cheese.
Give those all a good mix, you could also add your vegan cheese to the top of the braid to make it a little more cheesy, but we find it's enough just mixed in.
What ingredients do I need for this vegan BBQ chicken braid?
Breading braid
- warm water
- white sugar
- yeast
- oil
- salt
- All purpose flour
Filling
- vegan chicken strips
- red onion
- vegan BBQ sauce
- Vegan Cheese *we like the Daiya cutting board series or Vio Life
How do you make this vegan braided pizza?
Start by taking your stand mixer fixed with the dough hook.
Add your warm water, yeast, and sugar- let this sit for 5-10 minutes, until bubbly.
Once it's bubbly add your oil, salt, and 3.5 cups of flour.
Mix this until it's one cohesive ball- it shouldn't be overly sticky- you will likely need to add more flour.
Add another ¼ cup if needed and keep adding in small increments until it's the right texture.
Knead the dough with the dough hook for 4 minutes.
Take a bowl, spray it with cooking spray put your dough ball in, cover it with a clean towel and let sit in a warm environment until doubled in size ( depending on the room temperature this will take 30-60 minutes).
While the dough is rising make your filling. Mix all your filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Once your dough is ready, punch it down.
Take your dough and split it into two even balls, set one back in the bowl covered while you work with the first ball.
Take a Silpat (it's much easier on a Silpat, so you can transfer your braid easily) or a flour powdered counter and roll your dough to about a 12X16 rectangle.
Now you want to make slits on each long side about 1 inch long- making sure your amount of slits is even on both sides, leaving about 3 inches in the middle of the dough.
Now take half of your filling and spread it evenly down the center of the dough.
Start to do your braid.
You can wrap your end and tuck your end under by pinching them into the bread. You then alternate sides of your braid, by pulling it over and crisscrossing them, pinching them to keep them together.
*Check the pictures in the post.
Once all braided cover the braid with a clean towel for 15 minutes. Repeat with the other dough ball and filling.
Bake your already resting braid for 15-20 minutes, until it's a nice golden brown.
Repeat with the other loaf.
Let cool down and enjoy!
Vegan BBQ Chicken Braid
Ingredients
Breading braid
- 1.5 cups water warm
- 2 TB white sugar
- 2 TB yeast
- 2 TB oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3.5 - 4 cups All purpose flour
Filling
- 2 cups cooked chopped vegan chicken strips
- ½ red onion chopped
- 1.5 cups BBQ sauce
- 1-2 cups Vegan Cheese *we like the Daiya cutting board series or Vio Life
Instructions
- Start by taking your stand mixer fixed with the dough hook. Add your warm water, yeast, and sugar- let this sit for 5-10 minutes until bubbly. Once it's bubbly, add your oil, salt, and 3.5 cups of flour. Mix this until it's one cohesive ball- it shouldn't be overly sticky- you will likely need to add more flour. Add another ¼ cup if needed and keep adding in small increments until it's the right texture. Knead the dough with the dough hook for 4 minutes. Take a bowl, spray it with cooking spray, put your dough ball in, cover it with a clean towel, and let it sit in a warm environment until doubled in size ( depending on the room temperature, this will take 30-60 minutes).
- While the dough is rising, make your filling. Mix all your filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Once your dough is ready, punch it down. Take your dough and split it into two even balls; set one back in the bowl covered while working with the first ball. Take a Silpat (it's much easier on a Silpat to transfer your braid easily) or a flour powdered counter and roll your dough to about a 12X16 rectangle. Now you want to make slits on each long side about 1 inch long- making sure your amount of slits is even on both sides, leaving about 3 inches in the middle of the dough. Now take half of your filling and spread it evenly down the center of the dough. Start to do your braid. You can wrap your end and tuck your end under by pinching them into the bread. You then alternate sides of your braid by pulling it over and crisscrossing them, pinching them to keep them together. *Check the pictures in the post. Once all braided, cover the braid with a clean towel for 15 minutes. Repeat with the other dough ball and filling. Bake your already resting braid for 15-20 minutes until it's a nice golden brown. Repeat with the other loaf. Let cool down and enjoy!
Nutrition
If you loved this recipe then give it a 5 star rating and leave a comment! I love to chat with you all. Please feel free to share on social media and tag #courtneyshomestead. I would love to see you over on Instagram or Facebook.
Want some other vegan dinner recipes?
Lisa Fehlman says
Can’t wait to try this. Have loved your other recipes. Thank you for sharing..
Courtneys Homestead says
Thanks so much! So glad you have loved them! Thanks for trying!❤
Lisa Fehlman says
Can’t wait to try this. Have loved your other recipes. Thank you for sharing..