Kentucky Fried Tofu (in Brooklyn)

I eat pretty healthy for the most part, but sometimes you just want a deeply fried & crispy dish to satisfy your bad side. I found this recipe in a copy of Peta's free "Vegetarian Starter Kits" laying around while I was in DC. It came out really awesome! It probably would be even more bad-ass in a deep fryer, but a regular ol' frying pan did the trick just fine.

Fried "Chicken"

• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 onion powder
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 cups unbleached white flour
• 4 Tbsp nutritional yeast (I use Red Star brand)
• 3 Tbsp yellow mustard
  
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 lb mock "chicken" (I used cubed Tofu instead!)
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable oil

Mix together the salt, onion powder, pepper, garlic powder, flour, and nutritional yeast in a deep bowl, dilute the mustard with the water. Add 1/3 cup of the flour mixture to the mustard mixture and stir. Combine the baking powder with the remaining flour mixture.
Dip chunks of mock chicken (or tofu, like I used) into the mustard batter, then drop into the flour mixture to coat with the desired amount of "crust." Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat (or use a deep fryer) and fry until crispy and golden brown, turning as needed.

I accompanied the fried tofu with some broccoli to try and cancel out the 20 or so pieces I ended up greasily lickin' and chowin' down (just like a real bucket o'chicken!), and whipped up a vegan-style aioli dipping sauce made of Vegenaise, garlic powder, parsley, and a dash of yellow mustard and sea salt on the side.