There’s no question that I love to eat. And until fairly recently, I would quickly tell you that I don’t like to cook.

But lately, the cooking thing seems to have grabbed me by the throat, making me love it in ways that I never thought possible.

I’m not sure why I disliked doing it up to now. Maybe it’s because now I don’t have to cook for anyone else, unless I WANT to. When my kids were younger, I HAD to cook for us all. Maybe it was the requests for 3 different meals every evening that gave me cooking anxiety.

But now that the kids have all grown up and moved out, I make whatever the hell I feel like eating (or not), and I love it!

There’s no one here to complain that they don’t like broccoli. No one to tell me that they don’t want what’s in front of them because they’d rather have pizza.

There’s none of that.

Most of my culinary ‘experiments’ come from whatever I happen to be craving at the time. Right now (and for about the past few months) it’s been chicken and Waffles.

Now…I have to tell you that not that long ago, the ‘logic’ of chicken & waffles completely eluded me. I mean…chicken is dinner, waffles are breakfast. They don’t ‘go’ together.

It made no sense.

I couldn’t imagine that these two dishes could possibly taste good together.

I couldn’t have BEEN more wrong!

Before, I’d see the dish on restaurant menus and completely bypass it.

Then one Sunday afternoon, while out for brunch with the kids at one of our favorite spots, I decided to try it.

It came to the table, and mouths drooled. Including mine.

Even though it looked amazing, my previous doubts didn’t disappear until I took that first bite.

It was euphoric

So needless to say, when I got home I couldn’t stop thinking about how badly I’d misjudged this dish.

It’s a mother’s natural ‘thing’ to want to make what the family loves in a restaurant, at home. (Remember when you told your mom that you wanted McDonald’s, and she’d say “I can make it BETTER than McDonald’s”? Yeah…that.)

I knew how to make fried chicken, and I make a mean waffle. So I decided to make the best Chicken & Waffles in my own kitchen.

I’m a decent cook, so I wasn’t expecting complete failure. But I didn’t expect it to turn out as well as it did either!

I made so much that I invited my son over to help eat it, and STILL had a couple days worth of leftovers!

The photo above is the result.

Here’s my recipe:

You’re going to need a waffle iron for this recipe. I have this one, and I absolutely LOVE it

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Chicken

• 1 Family Pack of boneless/skinless chicken thighs
• 2 C. flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tbsp. water
• About 3 tbsp. Seasoning salt
• 2 tbsp. garlic powder
• 2 tbsp. onion powder
• 1 tbsp. poultry seasoning
• Cooking oil – vegetable, canola, sunflower, whatever you prefer to use is fine.
• Green onions

Remove chicken from the package, and put it into a large bowl.

Season the chicken with about 1 tbsp each of seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and poultry seasoning. Put it aside.

In a large container/bowl, combine the flour, and the remaining seasonings.

Put the 3 large eggs into a second medium sized bowl, and add 3 tbsp. water. Mix thoroughly.

Place your cooking oil into a large, deep (3.5″ inch) frying pan, and turn heat to medium high.

Take your chicken one piece at a time, and dip it into the seasoned flour, covering each piece completely. Remove each piece from the flour, and dredge it through the egg and water mixture, turning over to completely cover each side.

Then dredge it back through the seasoned flour mixture, again, completely covering both sides.

Once the oil is hot, put your chicken in, and cook until brown and crispy on each side.

Place chicken on a cookie sheet, or oven safe pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes.

It’s time to crank up the waffle iron!

Waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 C. Flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 3 tsp. melted butter
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 C. milk

Place the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a 2 C. measuring cup, crack the two eggs, letting the whites fall into a small bowl. Pour the egg yolks into the measuring cup.

Pour 2 cups of milk and vanilla into the measuring cup with the egg yolks. Mix thoroughly with a fork.

Add the milk mixture to the bowl containing the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until it has the consistency of thin rice pudding (you want to keep some small lumps, or it gets too watery, and that ain’t good).

Add the melted butter.

Use a mixer to beat the egg whites until they’re stiff.

Fold the whites into the waffle batter with a spatula. Don’t fold until the whites completely disappear. This is what gives your waffles their crispy exterior. You should still be able to see egg whites on top of the waffle mix.

Pour about 1/2 a cup of waffle mix into the waffle iron (don’t forget to butter the iron plates, or your waffles might stick).

Close the waffle iron. (If you purchased this waffle iron, lock it, and rotate the plates for better cooking.)

*Your chicken should go into the oven when you start making your waffle mix. This way, the chicken will be ready at about the same time that your waffles are.

Add green onion both for garnish and flavor (don’t forget the syrup!)

ENJOY!

Peace

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