The V.V. Vegan Fried Chicken Showdown 🍿, Battle 3: Clean Meals Brooklyn vs. Orchard Grocer

When vegan fried chicken opportunity arises, you take a bite. This was the case with Battle 3. Facing off would be an elusive pop-up with inconsistent social media posts and an inconsistent sandwich shop special. So when Clean Meals Brooklyn showed up at the Atlantic City Vegan Food Festival, I waited patiently on their line until they were ready to serve. Similarly, I stalked Orchard Grocer‘s instagram until a fried chicken special reared its head. Now, I compare crag to crag and choose a winner.

Contender 1: Clean Meals Brooklyn

Clean Meals Brooklyn specializes in delivering folks vegan meals, according to their outdated website. Their Instagram is a bit more informative. I caught wind of their super-craggy looking vegan fried chicken sandwich back when researching my original brackets and was so excited to one day hold it in front of my face.

Just look at those vegan fried chicken pieces! Crazy huh? They serve them sandwich style on a pretzel bun with some slaw and a mustardy sauce.

Now it is in front of my face. Ah the crag, my goodness.

It was a pleasure to sink my teeth into. But there was crag all atop of more crag, never giving way to a contrasting texture. The internal seitan was as thick and crunchy as the crust itself. It was really good, but a lot of the same texture to work through.

Seitan sandwiches are a bit difficult sometimes since they’re really like grain within grain–a bread sandwich. I am developing a preference for tofu as the vegan fried chicken base, both for the white interior, moisture level and texture contrast.

Contender 2: Orchard Grocer

I sent Orchard Grocer a DM inquiring whether their fried tofu sandwich had a regular schedule as a special to which I received a blunt “No.” And nothing else. It was weird, but these are the people skills of millennials maybe? At least that’s the stereotype. Not great customer service but again, this is about food and food only. Flash-forward to a post announcing a fried tofu chicken special and I was on my way to the Lower East Side, excited to close out this battle.

As you can see this was vegan fried chicken with a ton of other stuff on it:
fried tofu, veggie prosciutto, Numu mozzarella, tomato, pesto, balsamic, olive oil & mayo on a toasted roll. Personally I don’t have the size mouth for sandwiches this thick and would be pleased to lose some of the height somehow. #Firstworldproblem for sure.

It was really good. As I ate it I was very cognizant of tasting the typical fried chicken sandwich elements–the fried tofu mostly–and not focusing on the bells and whistles. The fried tofu was wonderfully crispy with an awesome breading that shed its crumbs on your fingers in a nostalgic fashion. The tofu had a great texture too. I can only imagine how much better it could taste with just a simple slaw and a tangy sauce.

I knew from first bite that it would reign this battle–the patty breading and texture is the most important component and it had me coming back bite after, omg this is huge, bite.

🍿 Winner-Winner Vegan Chicken Dinner: Orchard Grocer!

I can’t wait for their battle against Hartbreakers in Bushwick. I am hoping Orchard Grocer puts a less complicated fried tofu chicken sandwich up soon, so I may move onward to the second round of this showdown. 🥊

In the final battle of this round will be the West Village’s Urban vegan Kitchen versus the winner of the Bao Superbowl. Moving swiftly, I hope to finish this showdown up relatively soon!