Chicken and Waffles and Black Pepper Syrup OH MY!

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. 

Replica Recipe: Coco Ichibanya Chicken Curry

When Adam was in the military he was stationed in Okinawa, Japan for a year. He talks about it constantly. How amazing the people are, how beautiful the beaches look, how fun the nightlife is, but mainly how delicious all of the food is. I have never been, but it is definitely on our bucket list of places to visit together. 

Now you have to remember that while hubby was stationed in Oki he was a mere 19 year old Marine. He was in a foreign country, working ridiculous hours, and was a teenaged male so he wasn't exactly eating at Michelin star quality joints if you get my drift. So when I say he talks about how delicious the food is I mainly mean he babbles on about how great their curry houses were. One in particular comes up a lot in conversation and that is Coco Iichibanya (heads up that link is in Japanese). 

From what I can gather from him and a few of his Marine Corps buddies many late nights after work or after a few rounds they would head over to the curry house and order up huge plates of cheesy chicken cutlet curry. We are talking plates covered in sauce and ooey gooey melted cheese over crispy fried chicken. What's not to love? Anyway, I have been hearing about this place for the past eight years and have been trying to replicate it to his memory ever since.

We found a few recipes in our searches and (according to hubby since I have never been) this is the closest replica we can find. The sauce doubles or even triples really well you just need to adjust your times for sweating the veggies accordingly.

Chicken Cordon Bleu ala Brights

I'm a big fan of well used recipes. Recipes that you learned years and years ago that you know so well you can throw them together without even thinking about it. Meals that over time have become a staple of your household. 

This is one of those recipes for me. Chicken Cordon Bleu is a classic french dish and it is easy to see why. Chicken, ham, melted cheese? Sold. Plus it is way easier than is seems so it is a great dish to pull out when you want to impress but don't want all of the stress.  We update the classic a bit by doing away with the old swiss and kicking up the ham.