Get ready for the most delicious, most irresistible tofu you've ever tasted! These tofu chicken nuggets are the packed with juicy flavor and covered in crispy breading. They'll make a tofu lover out of anyone!
It's true what they say: tofu can be some pretty bland, mushy flavorless stuff. At least that's how it is right out of the package, and if you don't prepare it properly it wont get much better before it reaches your plate.
If you're new to cooking with tofu, I highly recommend you check out my comprehensive guide to tofu. But also, I suggest you get cooking with a really good tofu recipe. This crispy tofu "chicken" is a great place to start!
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Why This Recipe Works
This recipe will impart your tofu with both a texture and flavor akin to chicken.
For the texture component, we're freezing the tofu. Freezing tofu opens up it's structure, giving it a spongy, porous texture that's meatier than tofu straight from the package. It also creates little pockets for the tofu to soak up a super flavorful marinade, which is how we're adding savory flavor to our tofu.
But we're not stopping there! To add a crispy coating to the outside of our tofu nuggets, we'll be breading and frying them, just like the chicken nuggets you probably grew up eating.
Oh, and if you're not down with frying, I get it. That's why I've included some lighter options that skip (or reduce) the oil as well as the breading.
Ingredients You'll Need
- Tofu. This recipe works best with super-firm or extra-firm tofu, though you could probably make it work with soft or firm.
- Vegetable broth.
- Nutritional yeast flakes. Don't confuse this ingredient with baker's yeast, which is something totally different. Nutritional yeast will add savory flavor to your marinade. Look for them in the natural foods section of your supermarket.
- Soy sauce. Tamari or liquid aminos will also work.
- Spices. We're using ground cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
- Non-dairy milk. Any variety that's unsweetened and unflavored will work. Try soy milk, almond milk, or cashew milk.
- White vinegar. Apple cider vinegar works too.
- All-purpose flour. Whole wheat flour should work too.
- Ground flaxseed.
- Salt.
- Cornstarch.
- Canola oil. Just about any high-heat oil suitable for frying can be substituted, such as peanut oil, vegetable oil, or corn oil.
- Vegan barbecue sauce. This is just for serving! Feel free to substitute with your favorite dipping sauce. My husband likes his tofu chicken with vegan blue cheese dressing.
The Method
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
- Prepare the day ahead by freezing your tofu, then thawing it. It doesn't matter how long you freeze it, as long as the entire block becomes frozen solid. Tip: I like to keep a package of tofu in the freezer all the time for recipes like this. It can always be thawed quickly in the microwave using the defrost setting.
- Cut your tofu into cubes, then use a kitchen towel to gently apply pressure and blot up any water that comes out of the tofu. After you've done this you can place the tofu in a shallow dish.
- Mix up your marinade using broth, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, cumin, onion and garlic powders. Pour it over the tofu and let it soak in for a bit.
- Once you've given your tofu some time to marinade, mix up a bowl of batter using non-dairy milk, vinegar, flour, flaxseed, and salt. Mix a second bowl of breading using flour, cornstarch, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.
- Heat up some oil in a medium skillet. Be generous. You want the oil to be deep enough to come roughly halfway up the sides of your tofu cubes.
- Grab a tofu cube and dip it first in the breading, then in the batter, then back in the breading.
- Place your breaded tofu piece in the hot oil. Do this for a few more pieces of tofu, but don't crowd them — they'll stick together if they touch while cooking.
- Fry the tofu pieces for a few minutes on each side, until they're browned and crispy.
- Keep frying the tofu chicken cubes in batches until they're all done. You may need to add some oil to the skillet between batches.
- Serve them while they're hot and crispy!
Variations
You can reduce the fat and oil content in your tofu chicken by skipping the batter and breading, and pan-frying or baking the tofu. It won't be crispy, but it will still taste good.
For pan-fried tofu chicken, lightly coat the bottom of a nonstick skillet with oil, let it heat up, and cook the tofu cubes over medium heat for a few minutes on each side until they're lightly browned. I like to drizzle a bit of reserved marinade over my tofu cubes while they cook.
For baked tofu chicken, place the marinated tofu pieces on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake them for about 25 minutes at 400°F, flipping and basting them with some reserved marinade halfway through.
Leftovers & Storage
Store your tofu chicken nuggets in a sealed container in the refrigerator and they'll keep for 3 to 4 days. To reheat, place them under a broiler and broil them for a few minutes on each side until they become crispy again.
Frequently Asked Questions
You could make either of the batter and breading-free variations above, using gluten-free tamari in place of soy sauce. If you really want a breaded version you could try using an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend, though I haven't tested this, so no promises!
Yes, as long as it's less than 3 or so days old and you've stored it in an airtight container in the fridge.
It will! Your nuggets won't have quite the same texture, but they'll still have great flavor.
More Tofu Recipes
- Lemon & Herb Baked Tofu
- Grilled Tofu
- Tofu Stir-Fry with Garlic Sauce
- BBQ Baked Tofu
- Smoked Tofu
- Sesame Ginger Marinated Tofu
Like this recipe? If so, please stop back and leave me a review and rating below if you try it! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram, or subscribe to my newsletter for more recipes like this one!
📖 Recipe
Crispy Tofu Chicken Nuggets
Ingredients
- 1 (14 ounce or 400 gram) package extra-firm or super-firm tofu, frozen then thawed, then cut into 16 cubes
For the Marinade
- ¾ cup vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
For the Batter
- 1 cup unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Breading
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
For Frying
- â…“ cup canola oil, or more, as needed
For Serving
- Vegan barbecue sauce, or dipping sauce of choice
Instructions
- Place the tofu cubes on a kitchen towel and gently press them to squeeze out any excess water, then transfer them to a shallow dish.
- Stir the marinade ingredients together in a small container, then pour the marinade over the tofu. Let the tofu marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature, turning the pieces occasionally.
- Whisk the batter ingredients together in a small bowl, until smooth. Let the mixture sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
- While the batter sits, whisk the breading ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Pour at least â…› inch of oil into the bottom of a medium nonstick skillet and set the skillet over medium heat.
- Once the oil begins to shimmer, remove a tofu cube from the marinade (I like to give it one final roll in the marinade just before doing this, in order to soak up as much as possible). Place the tofu into the breading mixture and roll to get it evenly coated.
- Transfer the tofu cube to the batter and roll it around until coated.
- Remove the tofu from the batter and place it back into the breading mixture. Roll it around to cover it with a second coating of breading.
- Place the tofu cube into the hot oil.
- Repeat the battering and breading steps for as many tofu pieces as you can fit into the skillet without crowding. Cook them for about 4 minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy.
- Place the cooked tofu pieces on a paper towel-lined plate to drain, and continue cooking the remaining tofu pieces in batches, adding oil to the skillet as needed.
- Serve the tofu chicken nuggets with vegan barbecue sauce, or your favorite dipping sauce.
Notes
- For the pan-fried variation (no breading), prepare and marinate the tofu according to the recipe. Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a nonstick skillet, then pan-fry the tofu pieces for about 5 minutes on each side, drizzling them with a bit of excess marinade as they cook.
- For the baked variation (also without breading), bake the tofu cubes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet at 400°F for about 25 minutes, turning and basting them with some excess marinade about halfway through.
- This recipe is adapted from my chicken fried tofu sandwich recipe.
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I've made this twice and love it. Do you think these could be frozen after cooked and reheat in air fryer??
I'm so glad you like it! I haven't tried, but I think they'll freeze well. Freezing actually changes the texture of tofu and makes it more crumbly, but I think that texture would work really well for this particular recipe.
Looks great and we're trying this soon.
In a similar recipe I've found that substituting semolina flour for regular flour makes the tofu nuggets release from the pan more easily. They barely stick at all, which is awesome because I avoid nonstick pans.
Cheers!
This sounds great. Any idea how long and at what temp to air fry these?
Thank you! I'm really not sure how well they'd even turn out in an air-fryer. I always find flour-based breading stay powdery when there's not enough oil to saturate them. You could try using a panko breading like I did for this recipe: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/tofu-nuggets/ For those I'd try 15 minutes at 425.
I am going to try this 8n my air fryer and see how it turns out.