Why Tofu Makes For A Better Toddler Orange Chicken
Attempt to make your own nuggs and you will always fail, no matter how good your end result, to replicate the meat glue that Big Ag mass produces; coat that same piece of breaded chicken in a sauce, though? More, please. To a child, it’s more than a minor modification to a nugget; it’s a whole new–a whole different–experience. See Exhibit A: orange chicken, that staple of food court Chinese food. Sticky, sweet, soft and crunchy–hard to think of many items with the same pure child-like dopamine kick. Kids frickin’ love it.
Putting orange chicken on your menu: obviously. Execution: tricky. We can’t just serve it as they do at Panda Express: too much oil, too much sugar, too much everything. But air frying is no substitute for deep frying; getting comparable results is quick difficult. We should know: we spent months trying to nail a recipe for our child, only to never quite get it right…until we switched to tofu. Tofu is not chicken, of course, but if you want crispy and sticky, and you want to do so with a minimum of both effort and mess, it is the quickest and most painless way of getting close to what your kid likes about fast food. See what we mean below.
Now, tofu is an acquired texture; not every child can or is willing to embrace it, even when coated in an orange juice and honey mixture. If your child is among them, you have a couple of options here: 1) cook the tofu a few minutes less than listed in the recipe instructions in order to make it softer easier to chew; 2) make the chicken version we detail in the “Adapt” section. But give this a try first: you never know what’s possible when something is breaded and sweet…
- 1 block Extra Firm Tofu
- 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
- Cornstarch
- 3 tbsp Soy Sauce (lower sodium recommended)
- 1/2 cup Orange Juice
- 1/4 cup Broth (I often use beef broth, but chicken broth is standard)
- 1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 1 tsp Ginger Powder
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tbsp Honey
- 1/2 tbsp Cornstarch
- minced Garlic
- Expel water from tofu block. Once dry, cut out cubes of tofu by making 4-5 cuts vertically length-wise (long side), 3 cuts along the width-wise (short side), and one cut horizontally at roughly middle-high on the block (height). Toss cubes into a large airtight container.
- Pour sesame oil, and soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch over the tofu; cover container, then shake container until tofu pieces are coated. If the tofu pieces look wet and/or sauce is pooling at bottom, add a small spoonful more of cornstarch and shake again.
- Mix all of the sauce ingredients except for the cornstarch in a bowl or cup. In a separate small cup or bowl, mix the cornstarch with one tablespoon of water until fully dissolved in the liquid.
- Place tofu pieces in your air fryer and cook for five minutes, then shake the fryer basket or flip the tofu pieces. Cook for an additional ten minutes if your air fryer runs hot, shaking or flipping one more time roughly 5-7 minutes into the cook; cook for an additional 15 minutes if your air fryer is less powerful, shaking/flipping twice. (Note: if cooking in an oven, increase total cook time to 25-30 minutes, flipping once.)
- While the tofu pieces cook, make the sauce: in a small pot, heat the sauce contents and a small spoonful of minced garlic at Medium Low until the liquid starts to gently bubble; pour in cornstarch mix and stir until blended. Raise heat to Medium and continue to stir as the mixture begins to congeal, roughly 2-3 minutes. Once the sauce reaches your desired level of thickness, turn off heat.
- Add tofu cubes to the sauce pot and toss to coat.
If your child is comfortable with the texture of tofu, serve the pieces as is; if not, or less so, cut the pieces in half or even thirds so that the soft interior predominates. Serve atop or sided by rice or thin noodles.
To make with chicken, and do so in the quickest and easiest way possible, cut boneless and skinless chicken thighs into cubes and chunks; pat dry. In a large flat container, pour in enough potato starch to coat the bottom of the pan, as well as a couple of pinches of salt and pepper; add chicken pieces to the container and toss to coat each piece in the starch, using your fingers to dredge and even squeeze the pieces so that the potato starch covers each piece entirely. Line your air fryer tray with parchment paper and coat with cooking spray, then place chicken pieces down in a single layer, doing your best to ensure the pieces don’t touch; spray the top of the pieces. Cook chicken at 400 for 7 minutes. Make sauce as described in previous steps, tossing chicken pieces in it once sauce is ready.
Brad (the Dad) is the founder and Chief Recipe Officer of New Dad's Kitchen. His own cooking/feeding journey started humbly during his son's infancy, preparing and managing his son's bottle intake in order to support his wife; it has since blossomed into a full-on passion to feed his child and family delicious and healthy meals that can satisfy both a toddler and his very tired parents.
