Chicken and Waffles

For the Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken breast tenderloin strips
Milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Season All (seasoned salt)
3/4 tsp pepper
1 c. flour
2 tsp. paprika

Directions
1. Place chicken in a bowl of milk and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes.
2. In a gallon Ziploc bag or large bowl, mix salt, Season All, pepper, flour, and paprika. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick butter into a few pieces and place in a 9x13 pan. Melt butter in preheated oven. Spread the melted butter around the bottom of the pan. If needed, lightly spray the pan with non-stick cooking spray to make sure that there are no dry spots.
4. Shake excess milk off of chicken and place in Ziploc or bowl. Coat each piece of chicken completely with the seasoning mix. Place in pan.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken over and bake for another 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Prepare gravy, syrup, and waffle batter while chicken is baking.

For the Gravy
Ingredients
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. flour
1 c. milk
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. In a heavy saucepan, melt butter. Add flour and stir with a wooden spoon until a ball forms.
2. Add milk all at once and stir with a wire whisk. Continue to stir until sauce comes to a boil. reduce heat and simmer for about 2 minutes more. Add plenty of black pepper and salt to taste. Do not over boil or allow milk to burn. Remove from heat and place a lid on the pan to keep the gravy warm.

For the Syrup
Ingredients
1/2 c. water
1 c. sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp. maple flavored extract

Directions
In a small saucepan, bring water to boiling. Add sugar. Continue to cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Once the syrup is clear, remove from heat. Add maple flavoring. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the Waffles
Ingredients
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
2 beaten egg yolks
1 3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. canola/vegetable oil
2 stiffly beaten egg whites

Directions
1. Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
2. Combine egg yolks, milk, and oil with wire whisk.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. There will be a few lumps in the batter.
4. Fold in egg whites, leaving a few fluffs. Cook waffles according to waffle maker's directions. Make sure to cook these right before the chicken is done so they are still warm when you are ready to serve.

Assembly Directions
For each serving, place a piece of chicken on top of a waffle. Top with syrup and milk gravy. Enjoy!

Notes: We saw the idea of chicken and waffles on a Food Network show a few years ago and finally decided to try it ourselves. It was a bit of work, but it was worth it. You can certainly make this easier by using a waffle mix and store-bought syrup and gravy mix, but I tend to make these things from scratch. There are several other versions which include topping with just gravy or just syrup. We liked the combination of the sweet and savory, the crispy chicken with the softer waffles. Very tasty! We will be making this again. Source: The chicken recipe came from Our Life Uncommon. The remaining recipes are my own.