Skinnified Sunday: Chicken & Waffles

Oh, yes I did.

So, I had never even heard of eating chicken and waffles together, until my friend Ryan mentioned it a couple of years ago. I told him that was gross and that I would never ever eat that.

I’m a big fat liar. So as punishment, I washed my mouth out with huge forkfulls of chicken and waffles. Fair enough.

You know what? It really is freaking delicious. Somewhere along the lines of all my hating on the concept, I got intrigued. Kind of like how I developed my love for Justin Beiber. Yes, I love the Beibs. I understand if that makes you want to never come back, but I just can’t deny it! I’m not too worried though, I will keep you here with waffles. Chicken & Waffle.

Have I mentioned how much I lllooooovvvveeee sweet and savory combos? Almost as much as my love for sweet and salty. Sweet and spicy is good too. Basically I have the world’s biggest sweet tooth, and if I could make all my meals taste like dessert, I absolutely would.

And that, my friends, is why I give you these delicious, sweet, crispy on the outside, soft and cake-like on the inside waffles, topped with crispy faux fried chicken, and sweet maple syrup. AZ peeps, you don’t even have to go to LoLo’s!

Waffle recipe adapted from Bon Appetit. The chicken is just my version of “fried” chicken.

Original waffle recipe:

• 2 cups peeled, 1/2″ cubes red-skinned sweet potatoes
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated peeled ginger
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• Nonstick vegetable oil spray

Skinnified Chicken & Waffles

yield 4-6 servings

For the waffles:

• 1 medium sweet potato, roasted
• 1/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
• 1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1 tbs light brown sugar
• 1 tbs sugar free maple syrup
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbs whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 tbs baking powder
• dash salt
• 3 large egg whites, room temperature

For the chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, approx 8 oz each
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
• 1/2 cup crushed cornflake crumbs
• 1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Pierce sweet potato several times with a fork, and roast at 400 degrees for 1 hour.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk egg white and buttermilk (for the chicken) together and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine cornflake crumbs and panko.
4. Place a wire cooling rack inside of a large baking sheet. Spray thoroughly with nonstick spray.
5. Take chicken breasts one at a time through egg white/buttermilk wash, then coat with cornflake/panko combo, then transfer to prepared wire rack.
6. When sweet potato has finished cooking, reduce oven heat to 375, and bake chicken for 40-45 minutes, until juices run clean.
7. Meanwhile, peel sweet potato and remove of skin (or eat the skin, because it’s delicious). Transfer skinned sweet potato to a large bowl and beat with a hand mixer for 1-2 minutes.
8. Beat in milks, eggs substitutebrown sugar, syrup, and pumpkin pie spice. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, then beat dry ingredients into wet.
9. In a medium bowl (yes, I was using pretty much every single mixing bowl in my house for this one), beat room temperature egg whites until stiff peaks form. You will need your beater/mixer on the highest setting, and it takes longer than you think.
10. Fold in half of beaten egg whites to waffle batter. Then slowly fold in remaining half in two batches until just combined.
11. Let the batter sit until the chicken is almost ready to come out of the oven. Then transfer batter in increments (depending on the size of your waffle iron–I generally use 1/2-2/3 cup per waffle) onto sprayed waffle iron. Cooking time will depend on the iron. Mine has a little light that goes off when they’re cooked.
12. Transfer waffle to serving plate, top with 1/2 cooked chicken breast, and add light butter and syrup if desired.