Crispy tofu with an addictive spicy garlic sauce is my favorite street food. It is usually sold with crispy potatoes and roasted sausages. The sauce perfectly blends the texture and flavors. We will cover how to make the tofu crispy and the perfect sauce for spicy teeth.
Coating tofu with various seasonings originated with the classic sticky tofu, one of the most famous Chinese street foods. However, making sticky tofu at home is difficult, and it is not a popular ingredient in the everyday Chinese kitchen. Although the taste of sticky tofu is widely loved, many can’t tolerate its stinky smell. So this is a popular version.
After deep-frying or shallow pan-frying, water will escape, creating many tiny bubbles inside the tofu cubes. Those small bubbles will absorb the sauce, making each bite well-flavored. So you must try it. It is my top recommendation, along with mapo tofu.
How to make tofu crispy
The key ingredient for this is crispy tofu. There are lots of ways to make the tofu crispy, including traditional deep-frying, shallow pan-frying with a little more oil, or even air-frying.
Among these three methods, I love deep but shallow pan-frying and the air fryer method the most. For me, shallow-frying can achieve a similar texture to traditional deep-frying without needing to handle so much oil. All you need is some time and patience.
I use a pan and add about 3/4 cup of oil to cover the tofu almost entirely. So it is super quick to fry them to golden brown.
After being fried until golden brown, transfer the tofu pieces to a kitchen paper to remove extra oil.
How to make Spicy Garlic Sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water to make a starch slurry.
- Heat about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, then fry the garlic until aromatic. Add five-spice powder, cumin powder, and chili flakes. Fry over a small fire until aromatic.
- Add around 1/2 cup of water, then season with salt, sugar, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Simmer for a while.
- Restir the starch slurry, then slowly add it to the sauce, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
- Add chili pepper, chopped scallion, and coriander. Remove from heat, and we are done with this hot, spicy, garlicy sauce.
Apply Sauce Over
Now, let’s apply the sauce over the crispy tofu. After mixing, the tofu will return moisture very quickly. Enjoy this within 10 minutes for the best flavors. You can serve this as the last side dish for your dinner or as a snack.
I recommend half-coating the crispy tofu—cover only half with sauce and leave the other half plain. This creates an interesting contrast between the sauced and unsauced portions. So you can taste both the original, crispy tofu flavor and the enhanced, sauced flavor in each bite.
Vegan option
This can be easily turned vegan by skipping the oyster sauce or using mushroom oyster sauce as a replacement.
Crispy Tofu with Garlic Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 block 14 oz firm tofu
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil for my deep-shallow frying method
Hot Garlic Sauce
- 3 tbsp. vegetable oil for the sauce
- 1 whole garlic minced
- 1 tbsp. chili powder
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. Chinese five spice powder ,optional
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro + chopped green onion
- 2-3 Thai chilies minced (adjust to your spice preference)
Starch water
- 1 tbsp. cornstarch
- 3 tbsp. water
Instructions
Prepartion
- Drain the tofu and pat it dry with paper towels. Cut the tofu into 1-inch cubes.
- I use a pan and add about 3/4 cup of oil to cover the tofu almost entirely. So it is super quick to fry them to golden brown. Pan-fry the tofu until crispy, turn ove the tofu pieces from time to time. Then move to a kitch paper to remove extra oil.
The Spicy Garlic Sauce
- In a small bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water to make a starch slurry.
- Heat about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, then fry the garlic until aromatic. Add five-spice powder, cumin powder, and chili flakes. Fry over a small fire until aromatic.
- Add around 1/2 cup of water, then season with salt, sugar, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce. Simmer for a while.
- Restir the starch slurry, then slowly add it to the sauce, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens.
- Add chili pepper, chopped scallion, and coriander. Remove from heat, and we are done with this hot, spicy, garlicy sauce.
- Then apply the sauce over the crsipy tofu. Recommend half coating! Serve immeidatly.
