After a long day of homework, under pressure for a triple deadline on assignments, I decided that I would cook dinner for relaxation. I like cooking, and after sitting at my desk beating my head against math (mostly. At this level Chemistry, Physics and Calculus is ALL math) for the better part of a day, I wanted to get out of the office. The First Reader is under the weather, so going out wasn’t really an option.
Now, a while back I’d taken one of those silly quizzes that proliferate on the internet. This one was a list of 100 odd foods and although I’d eaten a lot of them, there was one of the meals on there which sounded good… it’s just that I’d never really lived anywhere it was a ‘thing.’ I’m sure if I really looked, I’d be able to find a restaurant that serves it. But I’d decided that I could make it myself.
Chicken and Waffles – sounds absurd together, and I’m still not sure if it’s meant to be served with syrup (I hope not) but I had fun making a version of it for tonight’s dinner. Just enough cooking to make me feel useful and productive, not so much as to leave me exhausted and not wanting to clean up after myself. I might even go back in there and make chewy gingerbread cookies tonight. They’d be great for snacks later this week.
I used the Alton Brown Good Eats recipe for fried chicken, I’ve done it before and it’s always come out well. While I had the chicken marinading in acidulated milk, I started the waffles, but I wanted to do something a little different.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 c self-rising cornmeal
- 1/2 c flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt (omit if you don’t want it to be salty)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 small onion (or half a big one) chopped finely
- 1 c acidulated milk (I add about 1 tsp lemon juice, vinegar would work as well)
- 1 egg
Instructions
- I combined all the ingredients in a mix-and-pour, stirring well until the batter was thicker than normal waffle batter, but not as thick as regular cornbread batter.
- Put about 1/2 c into a hot waffle maker, and let it go a bit longer than you would for a regular waffle.
- This made about 4 waffles in my Belgian waffle maker, and they are pretty big. You might want to only serve half to each person.
I served the chicken on a bed of fresh baby spinach with the waffles on the side and it made a very tasty meal, and a fun way to expand my eating horizons. I got the waffle maker to play with – not just regular waffles, but fun variations, and this one was a good idea!
Comments
4 responses to “Chicken and Waffles”
Wait, self-rising cornmeal is a thing?
Yep! Sanford uses it for his cornbread, and we usually get the Aunt Jemima brand in a 5lb bag. Makes baking cornbread as easy as adding milk and an egg to a teacupful of self-rising meal (his grandmother’s method of measuring).
Ha! When I read this through the first time, I misread the quantity as “50 lb bag” and thought, wow, these people are really hardcore! Seriously, I’ve never noticed self-rising cornmeal at our store. Because corn is supposed to have a pretty high glycemic index, I haven’t been using corn products very much lately. But this sounds like, if I were, I’d definitely do this.
LOL – once upon a time, I did buy things like flour in 50lb amounts. I don’t bake like I used to.
I’m not sure this would translate well to low-carb/gluten free. waffles tend to rely on the gluten proteins to develop properly. Might be worth a try.