The best plant-based breaded chicken replacements.
It’s a tight race to the top when it comes to the breaded chicken replacements. With Fry’s, VFC, and Quorn all vying for a place on the podium, we’re generally quite impressed with this category of plant-based foods.
This is a list of the best plant based breaded chicken available. We have ranked them, as always, on taste, texture, value for money, packaging, and our PBFG Feel-Good Factor!
1. VFC, Vegan Fried Popcorn Chick*n
The texture of VFC's breaded chicken on a small scale is fantastic. It tastes great and the packaging is perfect - it’s a cardboard box and it looks cool too!
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Taste: 8
Texture: 8
Value for money: 4
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 6
2. Fry’s, Plant-based Stars & Moons
These are pretty good across the board. Taste is good, texture is good. They come in a cardboard box. The only thing is, they are a little thin/small, so the value for money score drops a little and it means they aren't quite as satisfying as others, but they are still quite cheap and overall a great option for young and old alike.
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Taste: 7
Texture: 6
Value for money: 6
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 6
3. Fry’s, Popcorn Chick’n
As is fairly typical with the breaded chicken substitutes there is a slightly odd after taste, but it is less apparent within these Fry's Popcorn pieces than in others. They became delightfully crispy once baked. The packaging is fun and recyclable cardboard.
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Taste: 7
Texture: 9
Value for money: 5
Packaging: 8
Feel Good Factor: 6
4. Quorn, Roarsomes
Pretty good, not great. Seems strange because I think anything in Quorn’s breaded chicken line is usually delicious. The coating is nice and crispy, but I think the Southern Fried style is slightly better. It picked up the full 10 points in the packaging category: perfect recyclable cardboard.
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Taste: 6
Texture: 6
Value for money: 8
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 5
5. Quorn, Southern Fried Burgers
Very similar to the Fry's chicken burger. Good taste, good texture, and good value for money (unsurprising, given Quorn's reputation). They come in a cardbox box. The only downsides really are that they are a little small, and contain both dairy and eggs.
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Taste: 7
Texture: 7
Value for money: 6
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 4
6. THIS, Isn’t Chicken Tenders
Perhaps I overcooked them, but the outside was so crunchy that these 'tenders' would be better described as 'toughs'. However, a crunchy coating is a good thing overall. The taste was recognisably THIS, which is a good thing, I think. It tasted just like their regular breast pieces but with a hard crunch around them. Definitely solid.
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Taste: 7
Texture: 6
Value for money: 2
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 8
7. Linda McCartney’s, Vegetarian Southern-Style Chicken Fillet Burgers
It's good. There is some funny aftertaste that isn't quite right... can't quite place my finger on it though. Just like the vegetarian chicken bucket from this brand. It gets nice and crispy when baked.
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Taste: 6
Texture: 8
Value for money: 3
Packaging: 10
Feel Good Factor: 6
8. Quorn, Crispy Nuggets
The taste of these nugs is as close to perfect as possible, without quite getting there. These are fantastic nuggets - they go with anything. They just taste so similar to your favourite chicken nugget brand. It's been a long time since I have had a proper chicken nugget, but I am sure most people would not be able to tell the difference between these Quorn nuggets and nuggets made with chicken. Unfortunately, they are let down by the plastic bag packaging. I know they are trying to emulate the chicken products, but really we should try to be better. And finally, these nugs aren’t vegan, which tanked their FGF score quite significantly.
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Taste: 9
Texture: 10
Value for money: 10
Packaging: 0
Feel Good Factor: 3
9. VFC, Vegan Fried Chick*n Fillets
Overall, this is a tasty and indulgent chicken replacement. There is a slightly strange flavour - just a hint mind you - but that does linger. However, when baked for a decent amount of time the burgers became very satisfying crispy.
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Taste: 7
Texture: 7
Value for money: 4
Packaging: 8
Feel Good Factor: 6
10. Oumph!, Spicy Drums
I was just expecting so much more. Oumph! are usually so tasty. These were fine, but they had a slightly strange after taste and for a product described as spicy were frankly bland. With their size and shape they are really just good for eating as a snack by themselves. While fully recyclable cardboard packaging usually scores a 10 in our books, I did have to wash it before tossing (grease and crumbs), so we docked it 2 points there.
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Taste: 6
Texture: 7
Value for money: 4
Packaging: 8
Feel Good Factor: 6
11. Linda McCartney’s, Vegetarian Chicken Bucket
Not bad, but definitely worse than buying the parts by themselves. The packaging was interesting to score in this case, as it is fun and cardboard, but lost some points because of the plastic film on top. We settled on a 7. There’s a somewhat strange taste that we can’t quite put our fingers on. It’s fine, but that aftertaste doesn’t do it any favours. Finger lickin’…okay? Maybe fun to pull out on a movie night for the novelty.
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Taste: 6
Texture: 8
Value for money: 2
Packaging: 7
Feel Good Factor: 7