I hope everyone had a wonderful Super Bowl. If the Chicago Bears had played.... it'd have been a lot better, but I'm not bias or anything ;) No, it was a really good game and the commercials were pretty excellent too! I'm a huge animal lover so of course the Budweiser commercial with the adorable lost puppy and gorgeous horses tugged at my ticker, as well as, the silly Sprint commercial with the screaming goats and donkey gave me a good giggle among others. Something about screaming goats always makes smile!?! I heard a 30 second commercial during the big game averaged around 4.5 million dollars! THAT'S JUST PLAIN CRAY CRAY lol! How are there hungry children or homeless people in the world, but these companies can fork over 4.5 million bucks for a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl? It is beyond absurd and horribly sad (in my opinion), really, but I'm not trying to get super heavy today. Let's keep it light, I suppose, and talk about my game day version of chicken n' waffles! This is a fun and SUPER SIMPLE twist on the classic fried chicken & waffles combo. As far as I'm concerned... these have to be a bit healthier than the fried version, I'm not labeling it diet friendly by any means, but it had to cut a few caloric corners by making them in the crock pot minus all the grease and extra breading! So yeah, we'll just pretend these are diet chicken n' waffles or at least less guilt inducing chicken n' waffles lol!
Whatcha' Need:
- 1.5-2 lbs Chicken Breasts
- 1/4-1/3 cup strawberry preserves (or jelly)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3 TBS brown sugar
- 2 TBS maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp of each red pepper flakes, lemon pepper, and minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp each Chili powder and Salt
- 2 TBS Lemon Juice
- 2 1/4 cups water 1 small yellow onion finely diced (opt)
- ~Maple Syrup, Crock pot, Waffle Iron, Butter~
Additional Materials: a boxed waffle/pancake mix and the ingredients listed to make the desired amount of waffles (IE eggs, oil, water~ I used Hungry Jack mix), or make it even easier and use cooked frozen waffles or canned honey biscuits (I'll prob put it on some flaky biscuits next time cuz that sounds swell)! If you want to fancy it up even more make a homemade waffle recipe of your choice, I'll find an easy one to include and place a link to it at the bottom for all my anti-boxed food folks out there. Either way, this chicken will taste great on just about any bread like vessel you choose ;) Such as... my jiffy corn and tater cakes, wink, wink here's a link to those beauts: http://thriftytreehuggary.blogspot.com/2015/01/jiffy-corn-and-tater-cakes.html
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| Picture these lovelies topped some spicy sweet shredded chicken, OH YEAH ;) |
I started by dicing my onion and layering it across the bottom of my crock pot. Then, I placed the chicken breasts on top of the onions and sprinkled it with all the dry spices.
In a small mixing bowl, I combined the preserves, water, brown sugar, lemon juice, and maple syrup to make a sauce or glaze of sorts. Then I poured it onto the chicken and onions in the crock pot, cover it with the lid, and cook it on high for 4 1/2 hours (you could also cook it on low for about 6 hours if you prefer, but I was hungry, so I cranked that baby up lol).
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| Not the prettiest pic ever but this was about 2. 5 hrs in and it smells devine! |
When the chicken is fork tender, like so tender that when you attempt to poke it, it practically falls apart, remove it from the crock and place it in a large mixing bowl and shred it up with two forks. Mine was so tender by that time that I SERIOUSLY, barely had to apply any force to the ol' pulling process! The chicken didn't fight back at all, SCORE ~ Fall apart tender = WAY YUMMY :)
Once you have your chicken all nice and shredded, place it back into the crock pot with all those yummy juices and spices and cook for about 30 more minutes. While that is going down... start working on your waffles. I made a generous stack of waffles because this makes quite a bit of shredded chicken and I didn't want to bust out the waffle iron again later on (call it lazy ;) but I call it efficient, why work harder when we can work smarter right lol). I also cooked the waffles a bit darker and longer than usual because I didn't want a soggy situation on my hands.
When you have a nice stack of waffles ready and buttered, turn that crock off, and get ready to chow down. Place one large buttered waffle on a plate, and using a slotted spoon dish up a nice scoop of the chicken right on top of the waffle. Drizzle it with a little maple syrup and prepare for taste bud domination. This dish is crazy easy, fun, and super yummy &&& we can even claim it is a little healthier than it's fried friend! Winner, winner, Chicken n' Waffle Dinner.
Big Hugs and I hope you enjoy my funky twist on this classic dish!
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| My boyfriend topped his off with Shredded Mozz. Cheese and devoured it, despite him being a picky eater ;) |
Here's a link to an easy homemade waffle recipe for those feeling extra ambitious:
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/classic-buttermilk-waffles-with-cheese/
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