The England forward struck in the 24th minute, running onto Christian Fuchs’s pass and arrowing a shot past David de Gea to break a record he had previously shared with former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.
“I’m delighted to have got the goal,” Vardy, the league's top scorer with 14 goals, told BBC Sport. “It’s a bit disappointing the way we conceded their goal because it could have been three points.
“I’ve just been taking each game as it comes. The record was not in my mind. It would have affected my performance and the team’s, and that’s the last thing I wanted to do.”
Van Nistelrooy, whose record had stood since 2003, was quick to congratulate Vardy, writing on Twitter: “Well done @vardy7! You’re number one now and you deserved it. #11inarow.”
The record caps a remarkable rise for 28-year-old Vardy, who was playing non-league football in 2012 and had been playing in the seventh tier of English football as recently as 2010.
“Jamie made the record, it is fantastic for us,” said Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri.
“An incredible achievement. Five years ago he played in non-league. It is difficult to grow up so quickly and this fantastic man is not only our goalscorer, but he presses, he works hard, he is important.”
In an age when youngsters are recruited by leading clubs before they have even mastered the art of shoelace-tying, Vardy’s rise to prominence with Leicester is an exceptional story.
Five years ago, Vardy was playing amateur football for Stocksbridge Park Steels in England’s seventh tier and working part-time at a factory making medical splints.
Now he is an England international whose 14 goals have taken him clear of Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa and Wayne Rooney in the Premier League scoring charts and propelled Leicester to the top of the table.
“He’s an example to every aspiring young footballer,” former Leicester captain Steve Walsh said.
“Leicester is buzzing, and all because of Jamie Vardy and his record.”
Ranieri cited an 11-match scoring streak by Gabriel Batistuta for Fiorentina as the only precedent he can remember from personal experience.
Released by boyhood club Sheffield Wednesday aged 15 on the grounds that he was too small, Vardy cannot have imagined that he would one day be likened to Argentina’s all-time leading goal-scorer.
After leaving Wednesday he spent time away from football, studying sports science at a local college, before winding up at Stocksbridge, where he progressed through the youth ranks.
“He was always first for training and last out,” recalls Stocksbridge chairman Allen Bethel. “He was also the life and soul of the party, a Jack the lad.”
Vardy’s roguish streak occasionally caused him problems – he was sent off four times in his last season at Stocksbridge, deterring suitors Sheffield United – and he had trouble controlling his temper off the pitch.
A conviction for a late-night assault temporarily obliged him to wear an electronic tag and observe an 6:30pm curfew which would see him substituted midway through games so that he could get home in time.
Remembering one such mid-match dash, former Stocksbridge manager Gary Morrow said: “He jumped straight over the railings and into his parents’ car without even getting changed.”
Spectacularly prolific, the wiry striker joined Halifax Town from Stocksbridge and then moved on to Fleetwood Town, who sold him to Leicester for a non-league record £1 million (B53,913,115) in 2012.
Since then, the milestones have zipped past: 16 goals in Leicester’s Championship promotion campaign, five in his first season as a Premier League player (including one in a dizzy 5-3 win over Manchester United) and a first England cap last June.
August brought another forgettable episode when he was fined by Leicester after being caught on camera racially goading an Asian man at a casino, but after meeting the man to apologise, he quickly put the matter behind him.
Vardy follows players like Stuart Pearce, Chris Waddle and Ian Wright in rising from non-league to play for England and with each goal, he demonstrates that there is more than one route to the top.
“That non-league grounding has stood him in good stead,” adds Walsh, captain of Leicester’s 1997 League Cup-winning team.
“In his work-rate, closing people down, making it hard work for defenders, it’s non-stop effort.”
The player himself would not have done things any other way.
“I might have gone all the way through an academy and then this never happened,” Vardy told the Daily Telegraph earlier this year.
“That’s the joy of football. I’ve come my own way and it’s worked out the best for me.” AFP