We love this fried chicken style of tofu! It tastes best fresh, so we recommend you only make as much as you plan to eat. Extra tofu can sit in the marinade for a day or so if you want to fry in two batches or feel free to halve the recipe if you don’t want to eat everything at once.
One delicious way to serve it is with cholula, roasted broccoli, and rice; it’s nice to pour the remaining marinade over the broccoli and rice. Another great way to serve it is with roasted broccoli and pea-tatoes. Most recently, we ate it with a simple salad and a lot of cholula and that was delicious too!
Serves: 2
Time: 1 hr + marinating time
Ingredients
1 block of tofu
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp sweet paprika
generous sprinkle of salt
For the marinade:
1/3 cup of lime juice
1/3 cup tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
1/4 cup water
generous 1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
Cholula (for dipping)
Cut your block of tofu in half so you have two, one inch thick rectangles. Press the tofu between two kitchen towels, placing a cast iron pan, or something heavy on them to remove some of the liquid. This process can alternatively be done with a tofu press. While in some of our recipes you can get away with not pressing the tofu, in this recipe we found pressing the tofu is essential for it to come out well.
After pressing the tofu, tear each rectangle in half along the width. This will now resemble a tofu cutlet. Next, tear each of these 4 pieces into 5 smaller pieces leaving you with a total of 20 bite sized pieces. We tear the tofu instead of cutting so that there are more edges to get floured and fried.
Mix all the ‘for the marinade’ ingredients in a shallow dish. Add the tofu to the marinade, making sure all the tofu gets submerged, for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Remove the tofu and pat dry (if the towel used to press the tofu is still handy you can use this to pat the tofu dry). Again, it is important to pat the tofu dry. If you skip this step it will probably come out weird.
Combine the cornstarch, salt, and paprika and stir. Toss the tofu, a couple of pieces at a time, in the cornstarch mixture until coated on all sides. Heat 2 tbsp of neutral oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the tofu in batches on med-high making sure it gets golden brown on all sides. If you are unable to get color on your tofu, turn up the heat a little at a time until it browns after a few minutes. Be careful not to crowd the tofu as that will make it all stick together. We use tongs to turn each piece separately. It can be a bit harder to tell when this tofu is done, since the paprika makes it look slightly golden brown. If you are unsure taste one and if the breading is crisp, they are ready. When the paprika burns it doesn’t taste great so do some tests to establish a baseline.
Serve with cholula and enjoy!