You let your mind wander over all the different kinds of food and tastes, searching for a flavor that you can cook, for a type of food you can adapt. Your mouth starts to water and you get an idea: “What if…”
“Hmmm, what if I…
And it comes to you. An idea. You start to bend it and twist it, figuring out flavor and cooking technique to make it easy and tasty…and cheap. Suddenly it’s there…”Fried Chicken Breast and Waffles”. Boneless, skinless chicken breast “paillards” served between frozen waffles.
OK, don’t quit on me and go elsewhere just because I committed the grievous sin of suggesting a frozen food. The reason is pretty simple. Rather than using bread or French rolls for a chicken fried chicken breast sandwich, I tried something different—an experiment. And it worked (at least in my not-so-humble opinion).
Fried chicken and waffles is enjoying a huge growth spurt. This soul food classic has gone mainstream and restaurants all over are coming out with their very own version. When I think about it, I start to get flavors running through my mouth. So I decided to “Cheap Bastidize” it. The breading of the chicken, the aroma of waffles, the sweetness of pancake syrup all form flavors running through my brain and mouth (like right now as I type these words).
What brought this into the realm of possibility is figuring out how to get the flavor of pancake syrup without making an ooey-gooey mess and without producing something that was too sweet. So here’s how I did it:
Recipe: Chicken Breast and Waffle Sandwiches
Summary: Here’s a fun take on a soul food classic–chicken fried chicken breast and waffle sandwiches.
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 box Frozen waffles
- ¾ cup flour
- ¼ cup corn meal
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder
- Mayonnaise
- Beaver brand Sweet Hot Mustard (you can substitute Dijon mustard)
- Pancake Syrup
- 1 cup cooking oil
Instructions
- Take out a 1 gallon freezer bag (or a tear off a big sheet of plastic wrap), meat mallet (or heavy sauce pan), 2 shallow containers, a small bowl and frying pan.
- Put a breast in the bag, seal it and lay it on your counter.
- Use the flat side of the mallet to gently pound the breast to a uniform thickness of not more than ½ inch.
- Then do the other breast. Cut each breast in half.
- Put 2 tbsp mayo, 1 tbsp mustard and ½ tbsp syrup in the small bowl. Mix well and taste. You’re looking for the smokiness of the mustard married with the sweetness of the syrup. Keep adjusting, you’ll get the flavor you want—maybe a bit sweeter & maybe a bit smokier; whatever your taste tells you.
- Break the egg in one of the shallow containers and add the milk. Then whisk it together with a fork. Sit it on the counter next to the stove.
- Now put the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper and garlic in the other container and mix it well. Put this container on the counter between the egg wash and the stove.
- Put the frying pan on the big burner of the stove, add the oil and turn the burner to medium. The oil is ready when a pinch of the flour mix dropped into the oil starts to cook.
- We’re going to double-dredge. Remember, use one hand for dry and the other hand for wet. One hand dredges the breast in the flour, the other into the eggwash and back into the flour.
- Double dredge each piece of breast and gently lay it into the oil (you may have to do 2 batches).
- It will take about 6-8 minutes to fry the breasts. Flip at 3-4 minutes (gently lift a corner with your fork to check & flip when the bottom is a nice golden brown).
- When done remove the meat from the pan and put on a plate covered with a paper towel.
- Drop the frozen waffles into the toaster set to medium.
- Build the sandwiches. Generously use the mayo/mustard/syrup sauce on each waffle. Put the breast down and top with lettuce and tomato slices (optional).
- Enjoy!
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
That’s a lot of steps and takes a bit of time but this is worth it. I also made a batch of oven baked sweet potato fries and we enjoyed this with salad.
It’s a different twist on a classic and a different twist on chicken breast sandwiches. The combination makes for something a little goofy and really tasty while honoring a soul-food tradition in your own kitchen.
The Cheap Bastid Test: This is really quite reasonable. The chicken breast was $1.99/lb and I used about 1 ½ lbs for a total of $3. The frozen waffles were $1.80 for a box of 10. I’ve got 1 left over for one of my favorite sandwiches—peanut butter and frozen waffles. If you make baked sweet potato fries, you’ll spend another $1.00. Add another $1 for the mustard, mayo, syrup, flour and corn meal (that’s a generous amount). The total comes to $6.80 or $1.70 per person. That’s good eating on the cheap when you consider that each of these sandwiches would set you back about $8 at a restaurant for a total of $32.
That’s the Cheap Bastid Way: Eat Good. Eat Cheap. Be Grateful!
If only this was gluten free hahaha
This looks and sounds wonderful. I would’ve never thought of eating waffles used as bread for sandwiches. I’m going to try this. Thanks for sharing. A fan of your’s.
Thanks Kay, this was simply a goofy idea which came to me when I was trying to think of a way to “Cheap Bastid-ize” fried chicken and waffles as well as simplify it. And if it should work just as well if you grill the chicken breast rather than frying it.
By the way, one of the benefits of having some left-over frozen waffles in the freezer is that I have always really liked making a frozen waffle and peanut butter sandwich. Really, really good.
That’s an interesting sauce you’ve made. Sounds good.