Waffles and Fried Chicken

Inspired by:
-hunger
-the awful buffalo chiken recipe
-the need to redeem my stomach with crispy, fried chicken
-the awsomeness of fried chicken
-The Next Foodnetwork Star recipe of fried chicken and waffles yesterday
-NYC's Le Pain Quiotden's awesome sugar waffles

I decided to make sugar waffles and fried chicken.

PS: This was not inspired by the need to be healthy :P

So the fried chicken, I've tried out a few recipes now. My modification to my last recipe was the best one I've tried. So check out the Parma Jarma recipe from The Foodnetwork for the recipe of the breading. I also tried Brad's recipe (below and pictured) and found it to be pretty good (minus the fact I didn't have blue cornmeal and fried it in olive oil instead of shortening). I think if I keep up deep frying, I would like to buy some peanut oil because olive oil is not making my deep fried breading that flaky. Maybe I should just buy a deep fryer...

http://www.waffle-recipe.com/recipes/liege-waffle-recipe/

Liege Waffle Recipe
Another waffle from Belgium. These guys really know their waffles. This Liege Waffle Recipe comes from tadaaaa – the city of Liege in Belgium. Again the Liege waffle recipe is almost the same as the ordinary Belgian waffle recipe, just sweeter. Liege waffles are also smaller, so you can hold them in your hands while Brussels waffles are eaten from a plate with a fork and knife. To make Liege waffles you have to add some extra vanilla sugar (What is vanilla sugar? – it is vanilla scented sugar. You can even make your own if you put a whole vanilla bean in a jar of white sugar for a week or so.) Liege waffles are a bit denser and also sweeter. A little piece of history before we start cooking, yeah it is always fun to learn new things – Liege waffles were invented in eighteenth century by one of the cooks of Prince-Bishop of Liege. I bet you did not know that, we sure didn't.

Liege Waffle Recipe


For a Liege Waffle recipe we will need:
2 cups flour
1 cup pearl sugar
1 cup melted butter
3 eggs
1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (add some vanilla sugar)
1/8 teaspoon salt

How to make Liege Waffles in nine easy steps:
1. Take the lukewarm water and mix in yeast, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar and salt. Let the yeast develop for 15 minutes. In the meanwhile you can melt the butter, but be careful - do not burn it.

2. Now take a large bowl and put in the flour, make a hole in the middle, pour in the yeast that you made in step one. Also add eggs and melted butter and knead until you get nice and even dough. Then let it rest so the yeast does it's magic and the dough doubles.

3. Now take pearl sugar and gently mix it in.

4. Again, let it rest for 15 minutes, in the meanwhile you can turn on the waffle maker so its nice and hot.

5. All there is left is to pour the waffle dough into the waffle maker and bake for 3-5 minutes. Because we mixed in the sugar late in the process it will melt and caramelize and give that special Liege waffle taste. Just be careful when you take them out of the waffle maker, caramelized sugar can make them sticky.

6. Enjoy!!


This is the end of the Liege waffle recipe. Bon appetit!

So some modifications to the waffles would be: to use a little less butter (maybe a little bit more than 3/4 cups) because 1 cup is too much. Melted butter comes out of the dough and messes up the waffle iron. I also don't have vanilla sugar or pearl sugar. So I make a sugar solution with about 1/4 cup regular sugar and add a splash of rum (kind of vanilla scented). I microwaved it a bit to get some alcohol out and to carmalize the sugar a bit. I also usually let it stand for a bit to let it harden (make it at the beginning of the recipe to give yourself time). Also, be a bit healthy and add some fresh berries. It's summer!

Fried Chickens:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brad-sorenson/blue-corn-fried-chicken-with-malt-vinegar-aioli-recipe/index.html


Ingredients
1 cup hot sauce
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
12 chicken legs
Vegetable shortening, for frying
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups fine ground blue cornmeal
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons poultry seasoning salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
Malt Vinegar Aioli, recipe follows
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the hot sauce, mustard, garlic powder, and paprika. Toss the chicken legs in the mixture to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to cook the chicken, remove it from the refrigerator and let the chicken come to room temperature.

In a deep saute pan with tall sides, over medium-high heat, add the shortening until you have enough to fill halfway up the sides of the pan. Heat the shortening to 325 degrees F. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a shallow baking dish, combine the flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, poultry seasoning salt, and black pepper. Remove the chicken from the marinade, shaking off excess and dredge the chicken in the flour and let rest about 5 minutes to let the flour soak in. Dredge again in the flour and fry, in batches, in the shortening until golden brown on both sides. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan. Transfer the chicken to a rack fitted over a sheet pan and finish the chicken in the oven until internal temperature of 165 degrees F, about 10 minutes.


I didn't make the malt vinegar stuff because I didn't have malt vinegar and prefer ranch or bleu cheese sauce. Also, I used small pieces of chicken because I don't like bones.