- Feels so weird compared to normal tofu.
(upbeat instrumental music)
Hey guys, it's Candice the Edgy Veg
and I wanted to see today if I
could make tofu taste like chicken.
Alright, there's a lot of hate out there
for tofu and personally, I love tofu.
I think it's delicious, I think it's high in protein,
I love putting it in stir fries or making,
I don't even know what, so many different things with it.
But I saw this method on Mary's Test Kitchen,
where she made her tofu have the same texture as chicken
and I wanted to test it out and see if it worked.
I've also seen this really bizarre
pineapple juice-based brine that people are saying
really helps break down the protein in the tofu
and makes it taste like chicken,
so we're gonna try that, as well.
Let's see if it works.
- [Man] Boom, okay.
(crunching)
- Let's get right into it.
The method for freezing the tofu.
So I've already done this, because it takes a few days,
so I did it ahead of time.
I took two blocks of tofu, I put them into the freezer.
So, literally went to the store, bought them,
brought them home, didn't touch them.
With the packaging and everything, put it into the freezer,
froze it overnight, put it out on the counter
and then the fridge to thaw it out, and then put it
back in the freezer overnight, and let it thaw,
and this helps take out a lot of the water, I believe.
So you get this stringy, almost break apart
like chicken texture in your tofu.
So I've gone ahead and done that,
and I'm going to fry one that's not marinated
and one that is marinated.
To make this marinade, we are going to need
half a cup of pineapple juice, right here,
two tablespoons of soy sauce or tamari,
because that's what I have, and then you just want to
put your tofu in there and water to cover.
Save it in the fridge for, save it in the fridge?
(beep)
Store it in the fridge for four hours.
Apparently, that's going to help break down the proteins
and marinate the tofu so it's not just that,
taste like nothing tofu flavor when you fry it.
How high the tofu's going to go,
so if I need more water I can add more water after.
Okay, let's see if this, oh it does have a,
like chicken-y, meaty texture to it.
So you want to just squeeze all the excess liquid out,
and then, you can throw it right into your marinade.
And do, like, wing-style pieces,
probably, or like bite-size.
You can do a couple different varieties of sizes,
or it falls apart, so don't make it too small,
(laughing) or else it'll fall apart.
Mary was onto something.
Right, get all that liquid out of there.
So make sure your tofu is covered in the marinade
and add a bit more water,
and then you wanna toss that in the fridge for four hours.
Now, we can't have fried chicken without a dredge,
that's also known as the breading or the coating.
So I'm going to do a 50% cornstarch
and a 50% regular flour, to get
a really crispy, nice breading.
So I'm adding half a cup of each into the bowl,
along with two tablespoons of nutritional yeast,
and my favorite spices.
I used one teaspoon salt, one teaspoon garlic powder,
one teaspoon onion powder, half of a teaspoon of paprika
and of course, a teaspoon of pepper.
(upbeat pop music)
You can use an egg replacer for this.
I find, sometimes, just soymilk works, as well.
If you want something to be extra thick and sticky,
you can definitely use an egg replacer,
or even reduce the soymilk on a stove
to get like a nice, thick soy paste.
I'm lazy sometimes, I'm trying to do this
the same way I would do it if I was making it for myself.
So, I'm just going to use soy milk,
because it is higher in protein,
so it'll add the nice thick coating,
and the next step is super easy.
We are going to take our tofu,
throw it into the dredging, put it into the soymilk,
and then put it back into the dredging, and fry it.
(upbeat pop music)
It's like pervert fingers. (laughing)
I don't know what that means.
So this is why I never get a manicure,
because there's no point, look at th--
(beep)
Okay, so you wanna heat up your oil to about 325.
I'm doing just a shallow fry, you can also
do this in a deep fryer, as well.
Mine is in storage, so we're just gonna go easy today,
and then we're going to throw the tofu
right into the hot oil and cook that for about four minutes.
(oil bubbling) (relaxed pop music)
Okay, so we have the marinated side here,
not marinated here, let's give it a taste test
and see which one tastes better.
Not even which one's better, just like,
does the freezing method work?
(relaxed pop music)
So, the normal one, it definitely works
from a texture perspective,
but the tofu itself, doesn't have a lot of flavor to it.
So all the breading has lots of salt
and it has the oil and a really nice mouth feel.
I feel like you definitely have to
season the tofu with something.
I mean, it's good, but I'm not blown away by it.
Let's try the marinade.
I just can't get over how this pulls apart like this.
It's actually really cool, very impressed.
So, I would even add a little bit of salt to the marinade.
I like the flavor that the pineapple juice gives it.
It definitely breaks it down a little bit,
makes it a little bit softer, more of a robust flavor.
It's really good, I'm very impressed.
I would probably toss these in some hot sauce,
so gotta check, oh my god, well that's just the winner.
Anything coated in Frank's Red Hot, though, is so good.
I'm super impressed.
I think you guys should definitely make this.
It's a super cheap way to have super authentic fried chicken
without having to buy those expensive meat products,
or meat substitute products, rather.
Alright guys, there you have it.
I taste tested this before you guys make it
so you guys know that it's really good.
I definitely think you guys should give this a try.
Toss it in some barbecue sauce or some Frank's Red Hot,
if you want to make wings, or just serve it
like fried chicken just like this.
If you guys like this recipe, make sure to give the video
a big thumbs up, let me know in the comment section below
what weird, plant-based food hack you want me to try
and see if it works, and if you are new here
hit the subscribe button and I will see you next week.
Bye.
(upbeat pop music)