The term plant-based chicken sounds like a misnomer. In reality, we are referring to plant baked foods that use a combination of protein and texture sources to mimic real chicken. Typically, these items are battered and fried, resembling the look and texture of a fast food chicken nugget or patty.
Why Plant-based?
Our modern meat production systems are unsustainable for ongoing long-term growth. As the population rises, this creates too much demand on struggling infrastructure. Chickens require water and feed. The feed takes water as well. The land is used to grow crops, and also to raise chickens. The feed is transported into the chicken farms on trucks, and the chickens are trucked back out. This means the need for every supply, from water to gasoline, is doubled. Since you have to feed the chickens food, doesn’t it make more sense to just eat the food we feed them?
Beyond the logistical concerns, many people are upset over the cruelty involved in the consumption of meat. There are also several health and safety concerns, from the foodborne illness risks due to salmonella, to cholesterol. All of these factors together make switching to a plant-based diet make sense.
What Makes the Best Product?
Plant-based chicken is not something the average person can whip up in their home kitchen. Getting the right mix of texture and flavor to realistically mimic a chicken product is a lot more like a science experiment than a recipe. In fact, that is exactly what it is. The perfect place to create the best plant-based chicken substitute would run like a lab, not a kitchen.
The best plant-based chicken product would have gone through many revisions to improve, incorporating changes through trial and error to find the best formulation possible. These revisions would show trackable results of what was improved or removed, so they can continue to find the perfect mixture.
Many vegetarian chicken products use egg whites, whey protein powder, or other milk derivatives. Some of these ingredients are for taste, some for texture, some to help with batter formation. While these ingredients provide a bit of a crutch on the way to finding the perfect plant-based chicken product, they don’t resolve the issues at the heart of switching to a plant-based diet to begin with. The best plant-based products will be 100% plant-based, with no animal by-products.
Where Do You Find it?
Most grocery stores carry some variety of plant-based chicken options, so if you just want something to fill a need, you can probably find a product that will work at the story. Unfortunately, most stores don’t base their product selection on what is best. Typically, it is a combination of their cost, popular demand, and what their local distributors’ source.
This means that if you want to find the best plant based chicken product available, you need to turn to the power of the internet. Using the internet to search allows you to research everything there is to know about the products you are interested in. You can confirm ingredients, view sourcing, and science, and even read about the ethos of the company producing the products.
Typically, online sites will have a store locator to help you find out where to purchase their products, or they will have online ordering. The ability to order online means that you don’t have to worry about shopping from store to store to find the best plant-based chicken products. They will be delivered right to your door, saving you the hassle and the headache.