We have decided to bring back our Buffalo based Football Food for the playoffs (GO BILLS!). We are seriously hoping we get to make three more dishes, but for now, we’ll take it one game at a time. This particular meal seemed to be a good metaphor for the wildcard game, as the process of mashing and mangling the tofu felt a little like what the Bills later did to their opponent.
The idea for this came from my sous chef coming home from school the other day and saying he wanted to eat vegetarian for the week. So, we figured we’d make Buffalo Chicken Bites with Tofu filling in for the Chicken! We worked together to build this, and it was a big hit (and good luck to boot!).
Time: 30 Minutes
Ingredients (to make about 12 nuggets)
- One Block of Extra Firm Tofu
- One Egg
- Bread Crumbs
- Garlic Powder
- Black Pepper
- Salt
- Buffalo Sauce
- Blue Cheese Dressing
Method:
- Remove your tofu block from its container, and wrap it in paper towels or a tea towel to remove excess moisture.
- Use your hands to mash it into small pieces that almost look like the texture of scrambled eggs.
- Crack an egg, and put it in the bowl. Sprinkle on your salt, pepper, and garlic powder as well. Mash by hand to combine.
- Pour and mix in some bread crumbs to your tofu bowl. Keep doing this until your tofu is the consistency where it can stick together like a nugget.
- Cook! There are three main options you can go with:
- Air Fry. Spray the tops of your nuggets with a little oil, and air fry at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, flip, and cook for another 5-10 minutes. This is the method we used,
- Deep Fry. Deep fry until golden brown.
- Bake. Bake at 425 degrees F for around 15 minutes, flip, and continue to bake for another 5-10 minutes.
- Plate, pour your sauces overtop, devour, and enjoy!
I’ll be honest – I don’t like Tofu (or for that matter any basically flavorless foods that rely on cooks to season them into LIFE), but… to each their own, and many people do like Tofu or other foods that serve as a replacement for meat (Seitan comes to mind). Nonetheless, there’s a place for everything food somewhere, and I would try the Tofu chicken nugget, even if it was only once 🙂
Call me crazy, but I like the texture of various firmness tofu. And I enjoy the challenge of showing my kid that there is a myriad of ways to cook with an ingredient and find ways to make it fun…although, he will only eat my sister’s Brussels sprouts 😀