Name: Vegan Not Chicken BBQ Chicken Braid
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1.5 cups water, warm; 2 TB white sugar; 2 TB yeast; 2 TB oil; 1 tsp salt; 3.5 - 4 cups All purpose flour; 2 cups cooked chopped vegan chicken strips; 1/2 red onion, chopped; 1.5 cups BBQ sauce; 1-2 cups Vegan Cheese *we like the Daiya cutting board series or Vio Life

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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 not 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 not chicken braid 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 in your time. Once the 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.

Vegan Not Chicken BBQ Chicken Braid

Yield: 2 loafs 12 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

This vegan not chicken BBQ chicken braid is crazy delicious. It' has vegan chicken drenched in BBQ sauce and wrapped with fresh french bread.

Ingredients

Breading braid

1.5 cups water, warm
2 TB white sugar
2 TB yeast
2 TB oil
1 tsp salt
3.5 - 4 cups All purpose flour

Filling

2 cups cooked chopped vegan chicken strips
1/2 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 1/4 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).
2. While the dough is rising make your filling. Mix all your filling ingredients up in a bowl and set aside.
3. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
4. 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 12X16 rectangle. Now you want to make slits on each long side about 1 inch long- making sure your amount of slits are 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 to 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 and enjoy!

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1 serving
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 592Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 745mgCarbohydrates: 106gFiber: 4gSugar: 14gProtein: 19g

The calories are computer generated and may not be 100% accurate.

If you made this vegan BBQ not chicken braid and loved it, let me know in the comments or #courtneyshomestead. Thanks so much for your support!

<3 Courtney