You love KFC but you’ve decided to eat more plants? Let’s talk about KFT – Kentucky (style) air fried tofu. My husband was a big fan of KFC until I switched us to a 100% plant based diet 10 years ago. He was reluctant to try my KFT at first, but now he asks me to make it every week, the man is completely obsessed, especially when it’s drizzled in my hasty sweet and sour pineapple sauce.
You will see that KFT does involve using a lot of ingredients, but that’s how KFC get their delicious crispy flavour packed coating. The only ingredient missing from the original recipe, which would give it extra pizazz is MSG. I don’t cook with it, but it doe’s take it to the next level.
KFT – Airfried tofu ingredients
- 1 cup extra firm tofu
- 1 cup all purpose white flour
- 1 cup unsweetened plant milk
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vegetable stock powder
- 1 large pinch ground sea salt
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp sage
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tbsp mixed herbs
- 0.5 tsp celery salt
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
- 0.5 tsp dry mustard powder
- 0.5 tsp white pepper
- 0.5 Tsp ground ginger
- 0.5 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- Handful of cornflakes
- 1 cup of pineapple juice
- 1 tsp cornflour + dash of ACV
- 0.5 tsp nigella seeds – optional
- Spray oil.
Method for crispy Tofu
Get your hands on some extra firm tofu. Drain away the water from the tofu and crumble it into bite size pieces. Put the plant milk and 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar into a bowl and mix. You have just made vegan buttermilk. Mix all the four and all the spices in a separate bowl. Pick up a piece of tofu, let it have a swim in the buttermilk, scoop out and douse in the flour/spice mixture. Do all of them, and get ready to repeat.
Now you’re going to need to smash up the cornflakes and add them to the flour mix. Repeat the dip and roll process, making sure lots of cornflake mix is stuck to your tofu. Place the pieces in the airfryer (I use baking paper to avoid too much mess and washing the air fryer pan) and spray with a little bit of oil.
Cook for 8 minutes on high before turning and cooking for a further 5-7 minutes. The cooking time will depend on your airfryer. The important thing to note is that you don’t need to worry about the tofu being undercooked, like you would chicken.
Sweet and sour sauce.
Your KFT is ready! Now for the sauce. Mix cornflour with the pineapple juice and heat until thickened. Add a dash of apple cider vinegar. Sprinkle in some nigella seeds too if you’re feeling fancy.
Video coming soon, stay tuned!