A plant-based counterpart to what is most commonly known as "honey chicken" at American Chinese takeout restaurants.
This was homemade in the air-fryer. Here is the recipe:
Tofu
- 1 block firm (or extra-firm) tofu
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (tamari if you are gluten-free)
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- Pinch of black pepper
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Sauce
- 1/3 cup agave
- 2 tbsp soy sauce (tamari if you are gluten-free)
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar (apple cider vinegar should work, too)
- 1 tbsp ketchup (tomato paste should work, too)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sriracha
- 1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water (slurry)
Instructions
- Press the tofu. If you have a tofu press, you can use that. If not, wrap the tofu in a clean towel, take something heavy like a pan, and put the pan on top with cans inside. Do this for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. The more water you get out, the better the texture.
- Cut the tofu. Any size and shape you want is fine, but the way I did it, cutting it up into little cubes, worked great!
- Season and coat the tofu. Do this in a container with every ingredient from the "tofu" section above (soy sauce, cornstarch, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, vegetable oil). Shake everything up to make sure it gets all spread out.
- Air fry. I did it by preheating to 400°F (200°C) and cooking for 16 minutes, shaking halfway through.
- Make the sauce. What I did was I combined every ingredient from the sauce section except the slurry. I microwaved that combination for 90 seconds, I stirred the sauce while pouring the slurry in, and I microwaved for an additional minute, stirring again every 20 seconds. Of course, you can do this on a stove top, too.
- Toss the tofu and sauce together in a container.
- Enjoy!
I put sesame seeds on top as you can see. Of course, this goes great with rice, noodles, mixed vegetables, or whatever you have in mind.
