I don't know that I have ever mentioned this, but my hubby is from the south. Not just the south, but the deep south. We are talking Alabama south. Where the accents are thick and the iced tea is sweet. Now being a girl from big city Baltimore this was a whole new world to me. I thought us moving to North Carolina was pretty southern but boy was I in for a surprise. Everything is different there but most of all the food.
I have spent a lot of time in our relationship expanding my palette to include more foods of the fried variety and he has spent more time trying to understand why we put Old Bay on everything up here. Some of these have been hits: BBQ pulled pork is freakin' amazing! And I am in love with Dairy Queen (thought my thighs would beg to differ). Plus Adam really does love Maryland Crabs and Old Bay on popcorn has been pretty popular in our house. Some of them have been misses: I learned pretty quickly that I can't stand the taste of Okra and I do not for the life of me understand the South's love for Mayonnaise (White Sauce Alabama, really?). But either way we have been pretty open to trying each others regional faves. Except I dragged my feet on one: Chicken and Waffles.... boy was I missing out.
I don't know what it was about Chicken and Waffles but I could not bring myself to do it. I'm not usually a fan of fried food so maybe that was it. I don't know, there was just something about the thought of pieces of fried chicken covered in maple syrup that just didn't do it for me.
Hubby calling me out on being a foodie coward on the other hand? That spurned me on. I am a food adventurer. I have eaten brown buttered bugs and Emu jerky. So why was this so hard? Whatever it was, I shoved it down and pushed on to prove hubby wrong. Stubbornness and a need to be right will spurn a woman into a lot of thing. But if I was going to do this, I was going all or nothing. These couldn't be any ordinary chicken and waffles (the discussion of Eggo's came up at some point and I shot that right down.) This had to be the world's best chicken and waffles. And thanks to a recipe from Emeril I figured I could manage that. So I busted out the waffle maker my parents got from what I can only
assume was sometime in the seventies. This thing had certainly seen
better days, but I was determined to make it work. After a few minor burns and burnt waffles, it finally did the trick!
Seriously this was the best introduction to chicken and waffles anyone could have ever had. The chicken was super moist and the coating had the perfect crunch. The waffles were fluffy and soaked up all of the perfect spiciness from the black pepper maple syrup. And that vanilla bean butter was well worth the effort, smooth and creamy and just a little earthy. If I knew it would be like this, I would have eaten my words much sooner.
Please do not be put off by what looks like a complicated recipe and ingredient list. It seriously did not take any time at all and was worth a little extra effort.
I don't say this very often, but Adam was right about this one. If you are feeling adventurous, or are up for a southern treat check out the recipe HERE
Southerners: 1
Skeptical Northern City Girl: 0
Until next time,
Bee
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