BY NOEL CUNNINGHAM
Listen, homemade chicken and waffles have never tasted better; super crispy and perfectly flavoured coconut fried chicken paired with fluffy and tender golden waffles! The most perfect pairing! Chicken and waffles are an American dish combining chicken with waffles. It is part of a variety of culinary traditions, including soul food and Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, and is served in certain specialty restaurants in the United States.
I switched things around to Carribeanize it by marinating chicken pieces with jerk seasoning and a coconut brine and instead of a regular waffle I serve these with my festival (fry dough) recipe which resulted in a crispy cinnamon festival waffle. If you’ve missed the recent virtual Jerk Fest this was one of the dishes that I prepared.
Here is your chance to give this simple soul food dish a try in the comfort of your own home. The sweet and spicy hot sauce with the chopped scallion is the star of this dish.
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken, cut in 9 pieces
- 1 (2 cups) can coconut milk
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 tbsp jerk marinade
- 2 cups flour, for dredging
- 1 pack coconut powder
- Oil for frying
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- Waffle
- 1 cup flour
- ¼ cup cornmeal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup of water
Hot Sauce
- ⅓ cup hot sauce honey
- 3 tbsp hot sauce
- 1 stalk scallion, chopped
Directions
For the fried chicken: Thoroughly rinse the chicken, then marinate with jerk seasoning and salt then cover all the pieces with 2 cups of coconut milk. Soak in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours.
Combine flour, 2 tsp salt and coconut powder in a bowl. Remove chicken from the refrigerator, pour off excess liquid and dredge into the flour mixture and deep fry until golden brown roughly 15 minutes.
For the waffle: Mix baking powder with festival mix and water then add to a heated griddle and cook until golden.
For the sauce: Combine all the ingredients and mix to combine. Drizzle over chicken and waffle.
