Pennsylvania German Tuesday-Chicken and Waffles

Yes, you read that correctly. I said chicken and waffles. I know right now some of you are thinking I've finally gone around the bend. Trust me ok? This is good stuff. And just so we are clear there's no syrup involved because that would be gross. Basically it's chicken and gravy over waffles. Listen, if you can eat S.O.S. you can eat this. It's the same idea. And yes, I do like S.O.S. Yes, this is Pennsylvania German food although down south you find some folks who fry their chicken, sit it on a waffle, and pour gravy over that. I'm sorry, that's an abomination.

The non-abomination version is Depression food. I don't mean "woe is me, my boyfriend broke up with me so I need a pint of Ben & Jerry's to console me." I mean " I got a houseful of hungry kids and not a lot of money so how do I stretch what I have?"

Backing up a bit, Sunday was the first Sunday since October when no in at Casa de Lime had to go anywhere and there were no impending holidays. I decided it was time for a nice family dinner and I had a new recipe for chicken roasted in a cilantro orange marinade that I wanted to try. It was a bit of a disaster. I'm not sure if my oven temp is off or the bird wasn't completely thawed or what but after roasting it to a perfect golden brown, checking for doneness (I thought I had it right) and letting it rest before carving into it I discovered it was pink in the middle. Very aggravating and entirely disappointing. After we picked off the done parts I made a big pot of stock with the rest of it. It made a gorgeous pot of stock and a big pile of chicken after I picked the rest off the bones. Thus we came to have chicken and waffles. (See? It's that whole stretch the food dollar thing...in theory we had one good meal of roast chicken and now we have another good meal of chicken and waffles off the same carcass.)

Ok, the recipe. It's way easy. For the waffles I just use this recipe. I won't bother commenting on it except to say I love me some Alton Brown. I like the humor and geek factor he brings to cooking. I've used a lot of different waffle recipes but this one has become my favorite.

Now, the chicken and gravy part. Here's what I did.
1/4 C. butter
1/4 C. flour
pepper to taste
2 C. chicken stock

1. Melt the butter, toss in the flour and pepper to make a roux. Mix it all around.
(I once described the recipe to a friend who is a chef and now teaches chef wannabes. I thought he'd weep with joy when I used the word roux because he said his students failed to recognize the importance. Roux Roux Roux your gravy, gently on the stove. Merrily, merrily, merrily merrily, life is such a ....um....what rhymes with stove? Never mind, moving on..)
2. Slowly add in the stock as you keep whisking.
3. Bring to a boil over medium heat and let the gravy thicken.
4. Stir often.
(A real chef would probably stay stir constantly. I had other stuff going on, so it was often, not constant. I mean I had to change the CD player because I gotta have my tunes when I cook. For this recipe I recommend Amos Lee and Sheryl Crow. They were the perfect accompaniment. Some folks do wine pairings. I do music pairings. But ya know, if you'd rather some death metal with your chicken and waffles who am I to say otherwise. Just never, EVER use Neil Diamond. I am violently allergic to him. He will ruin your gravy mojo. Really, just mentioning him makes me break out in hives. Henceforth, he shall be "the singer who is not named.")

5. After your gravy thickens toss in some of the chicken you pulled off the bones from making stock. How much? Hmm, a couple of handfuls or so.
(I have small hands. If you have big hands you probably won't use more than a hand and a half. Andre the Giant might just use a pinch. Verne Troyer, well, he might need half a dozen handfuls. What? You didn't make your own stock so you didn't pull any chicken off any bones? This guy will tell you how if you need to know. Ok, well then if you used bouillon and water anyway, go grab a piece of leftover chicken and pull some meat off some bones so you can throw it in the gravy. And seriously, aren't you glad I opted to limit comment on Alton's waffle recipe? You're already wondering if you're ever going to get through a simple gravy. )

Finally, thrown some waffles on a plate, ladle the chicken and gravy over them and voila! You now have a plate of food that looks like someone hurled on it.

Yes, I know it's not pretty food. The Limelettes all talk about how gross it looks but they all like this dish. They all slurp it up with gusto. They are all happy to eat it. I think part of their joy is making barfing sounds when they are served it. They get away with that because I know they actually like this stuff and will eat it.


Besides, if you've gone to the trouble of making waffles to pour chicken and gravy over you get to have this for dessert...but only if you've eaten your dinner.