I've never had the non-vegan original, but I'm willing to bet this is a brilliant doppelganger. It calls for Butler Soy Curls. I had to drive a bit out of my way to find them. In their dry form, they look a bit like french-fried onions or egg noodles. They are mixed in a dish with peas, onions, arrowroot, oil and a savory broth mix (recipe in the book, separately), thrown in a casserole dish with a tater tot topping, and baked.

The arrowroot did not dissolve very well, and I was anxious that the results would be lumpy or have an odd taste but they didn't. The guys who ate it are not vegan, and said they would have believed the soy curls were chicken. Like all junk food eaten at my age, it sat in my gut like a sluggish ball of lead and outraged porcupines. But it tasted good.

I REALLY wish that recipe writers would portion their ingredients for individual recipes. While I could have done that with the savory broth mix, it would have been somewhat onerous with the long list of ingredients (including garlic powder, sugar, turmeric, rosemary and nutritional yeast.) I now have a Tupperware container full of just the broth mix. The mix is good, but I didn't realize there would be so MUCH of it. Like most of us, I have a large number of cookbooks. I don't want to make specialized mixes, dressings etc. in bulk to use with each cookbook for a mere handful of recipes. I wish cookbook writers would get hip to that.

Equipment needed: 2 frying pans, blender (for the broth mix), 9x11 casserole dish, whisk