This Hack Takes Our Fried Tofu To Crispy Perfection

Delish

Pan-fried to crispy perfection and glazed in an irresistible sticky sweet and spicy glaze, these poppable tofu nuggets will become your new favorite weeknight dinner.

Transcript

00:00 Hey everyone, it's Tia in the Delish Kitchen studios.

00:03 I love fried tofu.

00:06 It is crunchy on the outside, it is creamy in the middle, and if you roll it in a sweet

00:10 and spicy glaze, it is out of this world.

00:14 We're gonna start by prepping our tofu.

00:15 So you have your extra firm tofu out of the package, and you're gonna start by slicing

00:20 it horizontally straight across, so you have two thinner slabs.

00:25 Then you're gonna take each of those thinner slabs and cut it into 12 equal pieces.

00:29 And this should be about 1 inch squares.

00:32 Once the tofu is chopped, place it in an 8x8 baking pan.

00:35 Before we fry the tofu, we need to remove as much moisture from it as possible.

00:40 Now here's the deal.

00:41 A lot of people like to do this by pressing the tofu, you know, putting paper towel on

00:46 it, putting a really heavy something or other on top of that.

00:50 But there is a better way.

00:52 We're actually going to take the moisture out of the tofu by pouring boiling water on

00:57 top of it.

00:58 So the boiling water actually forces the proteins in the tofu to contract.

01:04 And what that does is it forces all of the water out.

01:08 The other advantage of using the boiling water method is that you can actually season that

01:13 water with a lot of salt.

01:16 And what that does is as the tofu sits in the super salty water, it infuses the tofu

01:23 with that flavor.

01:24 And so you end up with tofu that's much better seasoned after you take it out.

01:29 These are going to soak for 30 minutes and then we'll be ready to fry.

01:34 Time to dry and dredge our tofu.

01:37 I like to just pick one cube up at a time, put it in a little paper towel nest, pat it,

01:44 and then put it down on a paper towel lined baking sheet.

01:48 You might be tempted to try to pour the water off instead of taking the cubes out one by

01:53 one because you might think it saves time.

01:56 But don't do that.

01:57 At this point the tofu is going to be super tender and if you do that I guarantee you

02:02 will rip up at least half of your tofu blocks and then you'll be really sad.

02:06 So one by one is the best way to go.

02:08 So you want your tofu to be very dry because number one, any moisture will splatter when

02:15 it goes into the oil.

02:16 And number two, when you dredge the tofu in the cornstarch, which we're about to do next,

02:22 when you dredge it, if it's too wet, it will cling, the tofu moisture will cause the cornstarch

02:30 to cling to it and clump and nobody wants a mouthful of cornstarch on their tofu.

02:36 Our dredge today is super simple.

02:38 Just cornstarch, garlic powder, and a little salt.

02:41 We're going to whisk that up until it's combined.

02:43 We're just going to roll the tofu cubes one at a time in the dredge and then put on a

02:46 clean baking sheet.

02:48 You might be tempted to actually just go straight from the dredge into the frying pan without

02:54 this intermediate step on the baking sheet, but that's a lot of pressure because once

02:59 you've got tofu in the pan, you don't want to be concerned about trying to watch it and

03:03 dredge at the same time.

03:04 Things will get kind of like freaky, panicky really fast and cooking should not be panicky.

03:10 So just take the time, do the intermediate step and then you can have a stress-free frying

03:14 experience.

03:16 To fry these, we've got a pan with enough oil in it to cover the bottom, heated to about

03:20 350 degrees.

03:21 You don't need to be super precise about this, but you do want it hot enough that when you

03:25 put the tofu in, it sizzles.

03:28 We're going to fry these babies for five to six minutes, just until they're nice and crispy.

03:33 The cornstarch doesn't really turn golden, so you can't necessarily go by sight here.

03:37 The timing is your best bet.

03:39 These look great.

03:40 We're going to take them out, put them on our sheet, and season them with salt immediately

03:44 so the salt sticks to them.

03:46 These tofu nuggets are great as they are, but we're going to take them up to the next

03:49 level by adding a sticky, sweet, spicy glaze.

03:53 Into a large skillet, we're going to add our honey, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and our

03:58 gochujang.

03:59 We are going to stir these ingredients on medium heat until they are smooth and combined.

04:05 And then we're going to add our crispy tofu nuggets and toss until they are coated in

04:09 that glaze.

04:11 It's crispy on the outside and it's soft and tender and a little bit chewy in the middle.

04:16 And that glaze on top is spicy, sweet, and it's just amazing.

04:22 Because we used the boiling salted water method, the tofu is really well seasoned all the way

04:27 through.

04:28 And that spicy, sticky glaze on top just tops it all off.

04:32 This tofu comes together so quickly.

04:35 I make it all the time.

04:37 For this and other weeknight favorites, stick around on delish.com.

04:40 [Music]

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