Baked Vegan Chicken Nuggets
Crispy baked vegan chicken nuggets or tofu nuggets are perfect party appetizers.
Servings: 10 Nuggets
Equipment
- Tofu press
Ingredients
- 1 Tofu block
- 1 cup Vegetable broth
For Flaxegg / Vegan Egg
- 3 tbsp Flaxmeal
- 6 tbsp Almond Milk or any plant-based milk
For Coating
- 1 cup Refined flour
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs or regular crumbs
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (skip if not available)
- 1 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese powder (optional)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- salt to taste (for crumb mixture)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 200 degree C.
Prepare tofu pieces into bite-sized nuggets
- Unpack tofu and press it to remove excess liquid.
- Slice the block into 2 pieces.
- Then place it in vegetable broth for a minimum of 30 minutes.
- After that remove the tofu block from broth.
- Break them into pieces or cut into equal-sized pieces as per your choice.
- Now take each piece and coat with a layer of flour.
Prepare Flaxegg
- Take a flax meal and warm milk. Stir well.
- Refrigerate for 15 minutes before use for egg-like texture.
Coating of Nuggets
- You can do single layer coating or double layer coating.
- In a plate mix the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, nutritional yeast, and vegan parmesan cheese.
- Take flour-coated nugget piece and dip it in flax egg.
- For double coating, repeat the above step.
- And then next, roll it on bread crumbs mixture and coat it nicely.
- Repeat for all pieces.
Oven Baked Nuggets
- Now place all bread crumb coated pieces on the greased baking sheet.
- Bake on high heat for 30 minutes flipping in midway.
- Remove from oven and serve hot with any dip of choice.
Air Fryer Tofu Nuggets
- Preheat the air fryer at 400 F or 200c for 5 minutes.
- Grease the air fryer basket. Place the coated nuggets.
- Start the air fryer at 400 F for 15 minutes.
- Flip them in the midways at around 8 minutes.
- For extra crispy, add 3 - 5 minutes more for air frying. Keep Checking at 2 minutes.
- Crispy tofu nuggets are ready to serve.
Notes
An alternative method (Using flour batter instead of flax egg)
Alternatively, you can make a batter of flour. This batter should be thin and coating consistency only. Mix spices to the batter and whisk. Keep breadcrumbs seasoned. Now dip the tofu piece into the batter and let if any excess batter it should drop off. Place it on seasoned bread crumbs and coat the tofu with crumbs. Repeat for all pieces. Then follow instructions for shallow fry, bake, or air fry as per choice.
This recipe can be made completely oil-free as well. We are using a little oil just to spray the baking tray or air fryer basket and a little on top of nuggets (using a spray or a brush). You can totally skip this and make oil-free nuggets.