Chicken & Waffles

I got this technique from fellow Chef, Scott Sasaki. I started doing it as an excuse to serve fried chicken as a healthy option at Google, but I’ve really come to prefer this over deep-fried chicken. It’s much lighter and less greasy, yet it still looks and tastes exactly like fried chicken.

Brine

A brine can be as simple as salt, sugar, and water. I’m actually not a firm believer in aromatics so much since I want the chicken to be the vehicle for whatever sauce that is going to accompany it instead of overpowering it. But, for fried chicken an aromatic brine helps. This is good for a whole chicken cut into 8 pieces.

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock, boiled
1 tablespoon white peppercorns
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 tablespoons of juniper berries
Peel and juice of one orange sans pith
2 bay leaves
1 bunch of thyme
1 head of crushed garlic
2 roughly chopped shallots
1 gallon of crushed ice

Place all ingredients, except for the ice into a large container. Whisk until the vegetable stock dissolves all of the sugar and salt. Add the ice to cool. Make sure the brine is completely chilled before adding the chicken. Let the chicken brine overnight.

Oven-Fried Chicken

Preheat oven to 350 F. If you have a convection oven, set the fan to high; it’ll turn out much better. Drain chicken from the brine and discard spent brine. Dredge chicken pieces in seasoned flour (flour, garlic powder, onion powder, touch of cayenne, touch of white pepper, touch of salt). Place chicken on a sheet pan fitted with a rack and bake for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, pull the chicken from the oven and drizzle heavily with olive oil until the chicken is completely drenched. Bake chicken for another 12 minutes or until chicken is golden brown.

Best Waffle Recipe

This is my favorite waffle recipe. Until I can come up with a recipe that is better, I’m going to redirect you:

http://orangette.blogspot.com/2010/05/you-deserve-waffle.html

Serve chicken & waffles with pure maple syrup or even some honey (I prefer orange blossom for this one). Pop open a forty and some orange juice and enjoy.