Food Network Friday: Crispy BBQ Tater Tot Seitan

Crispy BBQ Tater Tot Seitan

Tater tots, as promised! This is diner food gone psycho, but in a really good BBQ'd way. The original recipe is Crispy Potato Nugget Hoisin Halibut and is from Guy Fieri. I happened to catch him making this one on the show and he suggested a few versions. Now, you know I'm all about Asian food and could eat it every day. But sometimes I have to think of Jim (who could only eat it every other day), so I shifted things up.

Crispy BBQ Tater Tot Seitan
1 1/2 cups tater tots, thawed
3/4 cup panko
1 cup bbq sauce
2 Tbsp minced onions
1/4 cup soymilk
2 Tbsp flour
salt and pepper
oil for panfrying
4 seitan cutlets (I used chicken style)

Preheat over to 300 degrees.

Crumble the thawed nuggets in a medium bowl. Add the onions, panko and bbq sauce and mix well. Set aside.

Heat a nonstick pan (nonstick really matters in this recipe!) over medium heat. Add a little oil for panfrying. Use a decent sized pan to make flipping these easier. Yes, you're going to have flip them...but it's not as hard as it sounds. If you'd rather, you could cook them in 2 batches instead. Just make sure you've got room to maneuver these about.

Pour the soymilk in a pie tin or shallow plate then mix the flour with the salt and pepper, also on a small plate. Dip the cutlets in the soymilk, then dredge in the seasoned flour. Put them on plate and divide the tater tot mixture into 1/4's. Pat it on top of each cutlet, shaping it with your hands so that it goes to the edges. When they're all done, place them tater tot side down in the hot frying pan. Cook until it's browning and crispy. Flip it over and brown the cutlet side, then place on baking sheet. Bake them for about 15 minutes, then serve.

Notes on this recipe:

1. If you read the original, the timing is off and isn't what he did on the show.

2. I don't know if it's because I used barbeque sauce or what, but the brown parts that look burnt actually tasted the best. Nice and crispy, too!

3. The original ingredients would probably be really, really good with baked tofu cutlets and I plan to try it.

Would I make it again? Yes, because Jim liked it a lot. A lot. I'd probably prefer the Asian style or some other combination so I'm going to keep experimenting. The technique is really cool though! It's not often that tater tots make it into the main dish, so this was fun.


Have a great weekend!