Chicken and Waffles

Friday night, we went out to dinner as a family at a newer restaurant that our friend opened. We had been there once for dessert and once for dinner in the past and on the way there, my son shared that he wanted to order the Chicken and Waffles. Unfortunately, they were not part of the dinner menu, but part of the brunch menu, so he couldn't order them.

This weekend, in an effort to clean out the pantry and organize a little, I had cleaned up my baking shelves and realized that I had a couple of pancake/waffle mixes that I needed to use. So, when I sat down to plan the menu for this week, I decided to try making Chicken and Waffles for dinner one night. I did some searching and saw many examples of what I expected, a fried chicken chunk on a section of waffle or a fried chicken breast sandwich with waffles as the bun. I saw one post where the chicken was skewered and cooked in the waffle. I decided that this approach was the one that intrigued me the most. I decided to forgo the skewers and to fry the chicken rather than bake it, but I did elect to make the dip.

The result was great. The crisp of the fried chicken was lost for the most part in the waffle - I'm guessing that the waffle batter soaked into the crust, but the flavor was still there. I had made my pieces small enough that most of them only took up one quadrant of the waffle maker, which was a nice size to eat them as a finger food or to cut them up to eat with a knife and fork. The dip was really good - the combination of the spicy mustard and the sweet of the maple syrup was nice. In fact, we had extra and decided that we would keep it for dipping other things in this week. This dish was declared a keeper.

Chicken and Waffles
Fried Chicken
2 boneless chicken breasts
2 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 salt
1 pepper
1 cup crushed corn flake
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons canola oil

Waffle Batter
2 cups Pancake Mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg

Maple Mustard Dip
3/4 cup light mayonnaise
1/3 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons Ballpark mustard (could use a Dijon or Spicy mustard)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Cut the chicken breast in half (wanted to say lengthwise, what I mean is butterfly), then cut into pieces.

Whisk together 2 eggs and milk. Add the cut up chicken.

Place the oil in a frying pan and put on medium-high heat.

Place crushed corn flakes and bread crumbs on a plate. Add seasoned salt and ground chipotle pepper. Coat the chicken breast in crumbs. Place into frying pan, turning once, cooking until chicken is cooked through. Remove to a plate.

Preheat waffle iron.

Prepare waffle batter by combining the waffle mix, water, oil and egg.

Dip chicken into waffle batter then place on waffle iron (I spray mine with cooking spray).

Place in pan in oven to keep warm while you cook the remaining waffles.

Prepare dipping sauce by whisking together mayonnaise, maple syrup, and mustard.

Serve chicken waffles with dipping sauce.


Disclaimer