HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN & WAFFLES

 HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN & WAFFLES

To make the best southern chicken and waffles you need three elements: perfectly juicy, crispy fried chicken, thick and fluffy waffles, and a delicious sweet and spicy sauce. I love making a spicy honey butter sauce but just swap the honey for maple syrup and you have a spicy maple syrup perfect for drizzling.

SOUTHERN FRIED CHICKEN

I'm well known for my authentic buttermilk-brined southern fried chicken. It's a tried and true recipe loved by many and incredibly beginner-friendly. Between that and my explosively popular Crispy Chicken Sandwich recipe, I would have to call myself an expert.

It is imperative that my fried chicken be extremely juicy, well seasoned, and have a wonderfully crisp and craggy crust. Here are my top X tips for perfect fried chicken to top your waffles with:
WHAT CHICKEN PARTS TO USE

WHAT CHICKEN PARTS TO USE

I personally love using boneless chicken thighs because they're naturally juicy and full of flavor. They're also smaller so they fry faster than chicken breasts and are harder to dry out.

You can also use chicken breast tenderloin, which is so much smaller than the actual full breast and cooks much more quickly, about the same time as thighs. So if you prefer chicken breast to the thigh, these are a great choice to use.

A BRINE FOR THE JUICIEST AND MOST FLAVORFUL CHICKEN

I've tested it over and over again. Brining works. It imparts flavor inside the chicken and makes the meat incredibly juicy. You can either do the classic southern buttermilk brine or you can use one of my favorite tricks whenever you do not have buttermilk, which is to sour milk with the juice of ½ a lemon or use pickle juice to brine.

The way a brine works is that the salt in the solution (along with other fat and water-soluble ingredients that you add) penetrates the meat through the process of osmosis. Yeah, science!

PERFECT CRUST

We all want that shatteringly crisp crust with beautiful craggy nooks and crannies on our fried chicken. I honestly love my double dredging technique for a thick, cronchy crust but with our southern style chicken and waffles, I wanted to make sure that the crust was thin enough to break through easily with a fork and knife without breaking apart as a thicker crust does.

There's also the ingredients. The flour is well seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders, and other spices. But there's more to it than that. Flour itself doesn't give us that wonderful, crispy crust. Adding cornstarch and baking powder to the flour helps lighten it up.

WHAT DOES BAKING SODA AND CORNSTARCH DO IN FRIED CHICKEN?

Baking powder is a leavener, meaning that in baked goods like cakes it helps puff up and lift it since we aren't using yeast to do the job. Same thing in the crust of fried chicken. It creates tons of tiny bubbles in the crust when the chicken hits your hot oil, making the surface of the crust expand and help it be lighter and crispier.

Same with the cornstarch. Cornstarch impedes gluten production from the flour, and that means the breading will be lighter and crispier because of it

WE'RE TALKING WAFFLES

Your waffles really depend on you. I personally love thick and fluffy Belgian waffles, which does require a Belgian waffle iron, but if you have a favorite waffle recipe and classic waffle iron, use it!

I love Belgian waffles because the thickness and structure holds up well to the syrups and all the knife and fork work that goes into eating chicken and waffles.

What makes these waffles special? The eggs are separated and the whites are whipped up nice and fluffy before being folded into the batter, which gives the waffles a ton of lift and makes the outsides crisp and the insides fluffy. If you have an electric hand mixer, it makes whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks a fast and easy process.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• Vegetable Oil, for deep frying

BUTTERMILK BRINE

• 2 cups (480 mL) buttermilk OR soured whole milk* (see notes)
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• ½ tablespoon garlic powder
• ½ tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon hot sauce or chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

SEASONED FLOUR CRUST

• 3 cups (384 g) all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup (43 g) cornstarch
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper

SPICY HONEY BUTTER SAUCE

• ¼ cup (85 g) honey (you can sub maple syrup)
• ½ teaspoon chili powder (or more if you like a lot of spice)
• 4 tablespoon (57 g) unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• Best Belgian Waffles Recipe, click the link for the full waffle recipe

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