We have had some crazy weather here over the last week! A cyclone came through the area and brought torrential rain, flash flooding and wild winds. Our house is on the top of a hill and pretty exposed, so we braced ourselves for the worse and had some water come in through the top of some windows which made a nice indoor waterfall! Things could have been a lot worse though, compared to what some other people had to deal with. We had power our for a solid 9 hours, and passed the time with monopoly – and running around throwing down towels and mopping up all day! Unfortunately we were too busy cleaning up to remember to take pictures.
The wild weather has finally passed, and its taken everyone a few days to clean up all the damage – and the unbelievable number of trees that were taken down.
I am so excited to share this recipe with you today! I’ve made this so many times over the past few weeks. This tofu chick’n recipe is so versatile. You can eat them on their own as popcorn chick’n or nuggets. You can put it in a wrap or a sandwich, on a pizza – so many possibilities! While these aren’t 100% healthy due to the oil/light frying factor, they are still better than any other fried chick’n/chicken recipe you will find, especially when eaten on a lettuce wrap.
- 350g / 13oz block firm or extra firm tofu
- ⅓ cup chickpea/garbanzo flour
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 1 Tbsp wet mustard (any kind: dijon, wholegrain etc)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp all season salt (try cajun or lemon pepper for different flavors)
- ½ tsp pepper
- ⅓ – ½ cup water
- 2-3 Tbsp grapeseed or olive oil
- Press tofu for about 10 minutes. Drain tofu, wrap in paper towels or clean tea towel, and place heavy items on top to press. I use a heavy chopping board with some weights on top.
- Meanwhile, prepare the coating.
- Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Slowly add the water, whisking as you go. The coating should be the consistency of pancake batter.
- Add mustard and mix.
- Break the tofu into big crumbles into the coating. You can also chop into ‘sticks’ or into nugget sized pieces. I prefer to do crumbles as its less fussy to cook and comes out just as good.
- Combine tofu and coating.
- Heat oil in a non stick pan.
- Pour the tofu mix into the pan and spread so the tofu is on a single layer.
- Cook on both sides until golden brown, adding oil as needed.
Use the code ZIV994 at iHerb and save $5 (orders less than $40) or $10 (orders more than $40) off your first order!
Ash and I have been working hard on our business lately, and decided to take the day off and drive to Byron Bay for the famers markets. Byron Bay is one of my favorite places in the world. The people are great, the vibe is amazing and there is a huge emphasis on health, organic, vegetarian and yoga there. There are so many vegan, vegetarian and organic places to eat. I am so excited to visit there because I actually have choices of restaurants to eat at. Choices!!
Here is the haul I brought back from the farmers market. Goodies include 1kg locally grown macadamias, mangoes, tomatoes, bananas, basil, plums, capsicum, passionfruit, mushrooms, chives, shallots.
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Ooh, yes please! I’ll have to try these soon.
These look delicious. I just have one wuestion.Do you mean dry mustard?
Oh good question! Wet mustard, so something like dijon or wholegrain. I will update the recipe. Thanks
Yum! I can’t wait to try these. Look soooo much better than the mock meats out there – thanks again for a great recipe
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I made these today and they’re pretty good!
I just made these and they were amazing! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe
Is the mustard vital? Is there anything I can substitute?
Hi Celeste, you can still make it without the mustard. I have forgotten it before and it’s still been really great. Just adds a slight tang.
OK, thanks! =) I wasn’t sure if it was more for flavor or texture.
I made this last night with a couple modifications and it was delicious (link in my name)! Thanks for the recipe =)
Yay, I’m glad it was successful!!
Do you have a suggestion for a substitute for the nutritional yeast? My boyfriends can’t stand the taste of it and I get migraines and it’s a huge trigger for me. It seems to limit us on so many great-sounding vegan recipes:(
Hi Chloe, I would try it without the nutritional yeast. I think it would still taste great
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Is the oil vital to this recipe? Can veg. broth or water be substituted?
Hi Jonathan, unfortunately it is. It makes it crisp up when you cook it. You could perhaps try baking it instead, but I’m not sure how that would go!
Tastes just like KFC, but without the cruelty and dead animal.
Yes!
Has anyone tried it with another flour? I don’t care for garbanzo flour, and I’m not sensitive to gluten. Thanks.
Hi, one other reader made it with normal flour with success (see here: http://compassionpassion.tumblr.com/post/42544270797/), and corn flour might also work. Good luck!
Going to make this tonight and I’m very excited about it. I’m just wondering… how did you cut your tofu? I’m not sure how thick or thin to make these. I would so appreciate a little direction in that area. I’m a novice when it comes to tofu. Thanks so much!
Oooops! Just saw read where you say to “break the tofu into big crumbles.” Sorry. Off to press my tofu! Thanks again.
i just made this and can’t believe how good it is and how much it really tastes like popcorn chicken! i made a dipping sauce out of veganese, sirracha and sweet chili sauce. perfect! thank you
Hi, so it mentions combining all of the dry ingredients followed by adding water but doesn’t mention when to add the wet mustard?
Add mustard after water. I will update the recipe now – thanks!
We tried it tonight. Pretty good. We used 2 tbsp grapeseed oil total to keep the oils down but it didn’t achieve enough crispiness. So we then put it on a baking pan, sprayed it with a thin layer of cooking spray and then put it under the broiler for several minutes.
Might try it again another time using vital wheat gluten (since we don’t need GF) to try and get more chewiness. Still trying to replicate Whole Foods’ vegan popcorn chicken and haven’t yet been successful…
Love this recipe! Made it once and tried frying it, I couldn’t get it crispy enough (likely due to my crummy frying pan…need a new one desperately) still ate it though and loved it. I baked it today on a parchment lined sheet at 400 for about 15 -20 mins… And it was amazing!!! I can see us making this once a week for sure!! Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
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So I just pour the dry ingredients with the tofu into the frying pan…I don’t take out the tofu from the dry mix first? If I did that with chicken it would cause the dry ingredients to burn….maybe I’m over thinking this….
Hi Beth, read steps 4 & 5 where you add water to make it a batter. Then add tofu. Hope that helps
Also, i couldnt get mine all nicely coated and crispy like the picture, any suggestions?
Hi Alice, you might need to make extra of the coating part if its not covering your tofu properly. Try adding 1 Tbsp of chickpea flour + 1 Tbsp of water until it’s coated enough. For the crispiness, the oil really helps there so make sure you are using enough of that.
This looks like a great recipe, can’t wait to try it!
Hi Shae, these look so good! Fake nuggets, or “fuggets” as my sister and I like to call them, are one of my favourite veg treats. However after I cut out processed sugar, and now gluten I found myself so disappointed when I read the ingredients more closely… your recipe is my savior! I can’t wait to try them. Thank you!
Finally tried this recipe today and it was really good! The tofu browned really well (I used olive oil), and leftovers especially, after refrigeration, taste alarmingly like fried chicken! I used a super firm tofu, and cut the down on the salt. Used some garlic salt with dried parsley, a bit of lemon pepper and some poultry seasoning. For mustard, I used a country Dijon. Yummy.
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Im eating this right now and this recipe will sabotage my raw vegan diet transition!!!! THIS IS SO GOOD. THANK YOU.
Hi Zoraida, haha sorry about that! Eat it in a wrap with salad and it’s not so bad
Made this today and the whole family LOVED it!
This looks delicious. I can’t wait to give this a try.