Too Late for Dinner, Too Early for Breakfast

Today we celebrated Black History Month with the best combination: chicken and waffles! Crunchy, but moist fried chicken on top of a soft but structured waffle, all smothered in hot sauce and syrup almost magically hits the spot. The heat from the hot sauce combines with the sweetness of the syrup to make a one-two punch of flavor.

This tradition of mixing breakfast with dinner has several origins, my favorite begins in Harlem (my Mom's childhood home) at Wells Super Club in 1938 during the Harlem Renaissance when musicians, celebrities, and other late night revelers could not decide whether to order breakfast or dinner in the hours before dawn. This compromise has spread all over the country, with such famous eateries as Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in L.A., Gladys Knight and Ron Winan Chicken and Waffles in Atlanta and of course Laura and Diane's Chicken and Waffles tonight in Salt Lake City!

For our house chicken we used the cider-brined fried chicken recipe from a previous post. This brine creates the moistest, juiciest and flavorful chicken, with cayenne pepper setting a beautiful sunset color and the flour-cornstarch mixture brings a fantastic crunch! Making waffles from scratch is always an option, perhaps use the waffle recipe we've posted here before. However, in a pinch, we used a Bellegem Waffle Mix to save time and we definitely were happy we did! These golden waffles were the perfect base for our tasty chicken.

This combination may seem unusual but nothing feels more right!