Oklahoma. Chicken and waffles? Since when?

Oklahoma: the 46th state to enter the union but the 19th state on our cooking travel adventure.

So what’s for dinner? We usually have lots of different options we chose from while trying to figure out our meal, but this time we saw this one and didn’t even need to consider others. Chicken and waffles. And I really have some Oklahoma help purchasing the ingredients for this meal since shopping carts were invented in Oklahoma by Sylvan Goldman.

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Gooey, wet batter? Again?

We started out with the chicken and marinade around 3:00 this afternoon. I took two chicken breasts and was about to cut them into strips when I figured they were still too frozen to cut. I probably could have cut them up, but nuked them anyway in the microwave. Note to self - when microwaving chicken, go low and slow. I left the chicken in the microwave for too long and ended up semi-cooking the edges of the chicken.

After I accidentally pre-cooked the chicken I diced it into the size of strips you would typically find at any fast food restaurant, then started getting together the marinade. It was a buttermilk brine batter style, which is a very wet, thick type of marinade. After putting almost all the ingredients into the bowl, I realized I had confused our chile powder with the paprika. Luckily, the chile powder stayed in one clump so I could scoop some of the chile powder out. Then I added in the paprika I forgot and stirred it all together. After that, I took the chicken strips, put them in the marinade, mixed them in with my hands (which was gross), put some plastic wrap over the top of the bowl, and put the bowl in the fridge.

After the marination process was over, we started heating the oil to get it ready for the chicken. While it was heating we made the breading, which was mainly flour with some other things, like cornstarch and seasonings. When the oil was heated we would take the chicken strips out of the marinade, roll them in the breading, then gingerly lower them into the oil to fry for a few minutes. After frying, we kept the chicken warm in the oven.

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I didn't know you ironed waffles!

Next, we made the waffle batter (flour and sugar among other things) and preheated the waffle iron. As tradition, the first waffle didn’t work out; the pan was greased enough so it stuck and kinda shredded coming out. We got it right on the second waffle. But waste not, want not: Dad and I snacked on the shredded one while making the others. If it was any indication, these were gonna be good.

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The finishing glaze.

When the chicken and waffles were done, we started on the drizzling. The recipe called for a honey butter but you could substitute maple syrup. Of course, we had to use our homemade maple syrup. Adding butter and a pinch of chili powder did make the syrup a bit thinner than I’m used to but it really did improve the flavor, which personally, I didn’t even know was possible. Once everything was done, we plated, served, and dug in.

Man, the chicken and waffles were amazing, and the maple butter only made it better. The chicken was way better than anything I have and will ever find at any fast-food restaurant, and the waffles were some of the best I’ve ever had. But together? Oh, it was a match made in heaven. The cinnamony chicken complemented the soft waffles amazingly.