This new Recipe Series is brought to you by community news service COLlive.com and Kettle & Cord, the home essentials store in Crown Heights. Today’s presenter is Chaya Rapoport, a gourmet baker and pastry chef.
Fried chicken and waffles are a staple of Southern-style soul food. While the exact origin of this unlikely pairing remains subject to debate, its early 20th century prominence amongst New York’s African-American owned eateries cemented it as a staple of American cuisine.
This recipe combines a zingy lemon and thyme chicken, fluffy egg-white waffles, with a sweet and spicy Sriracha-Maple Syrup sauce.
You will need:
4 cup soy milk
½ lemon (juice)
1 lemon (peeled, seeded & halved) ½ cup honey
2 cup hot water
1/3 cup kosher salt
6 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic (smashed)
6 sprigs thyme
8 boneless, skin on chicken thighs
Breading mixture:
3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp chili powder
3 sprigs thyme
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp sumac
1 tbsp hot paprika
2 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 qt canola or vegetable oil (for frying)
Sriracha maple butter:
½ cup maple syrup
2 tbsp sriracha
2 tbsp bourbon
4 tbsp melted butter (Earth Balance) ¼ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
Waffles:
2 cup flour
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup melted butter
½ tsp sea salt
1½ cup soy milk
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
4 egg whites (whipped)
Directions:
• In a large food safe container, add the soy milk & juice of ½ a lemon. Let it sit about 10 mins until it curdles. This is the “buttermilk”. To the buttermilk, add the peeled, seeded and halved lemon, bay leaves, smashed garlic & thyme. Dissolve salt & honey in the hot water. This is the brine. Stir the brine into the buttermilk and spices, then add chicken.
• Refrigerate for 1 day. The next day, combine the flour, baking powder, chili powder, thyme, sumac and sweet and hot paprika, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Remove chicken from buttermilk brine, but do not throw away the brine. Coat the wet chicken in a thin layer of the flour mixture, and bring to room temperature on drying rack set over paper towels.
• Heat oil to 370° degrees in large cast iron or heavy bottomed pot. When chicken is close to room temperature, dip in reserved buttermilk brine & once into flour mixture then drop gently into the hot oil. Fry 3 pieces at a time. Cook for 4-5 mins on each side, until golden brown. Thermometer should reach 165°. Remove from oil and sprinkle with fresh thyme. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces.
• To make the waffles: preheat the waffle iron to regular setting. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla and 2 egg yolks. Pour over the dry ingredients and very gently stir until halfway combined. Pour in the melted butter and continue mixing very gently until combined. In a separate bowl (or using a mixer), beat the 4 egg whites with a whisk until stiff. Slowly fold them into the batter, stopping short of mixing them all the way through. Scoop the batter into your waffle iron in batches and cook according to the manufacturer’s directions. Keep warm. In a small saucepan, combine the ingredients for the spicy maple butter. Let come to a boil.
Serve drizzled over the hot chicken, immediately. To serve: Place 2 chicken thighs on top of a waffle. Pour the warm sauce over everything and serve.
Yum!!! My mouth is watering from just watching!! Let’s see what happens when i make it!!
I agree with# 6. Also have an issue with calling things “bacon” even though they mean crispy kosher meat. Why cant we just be proud of our own “soul food”, and yes, it is soul food that feeds our Jewish neshamos.
The recipe should be changed to exclude any mention of butter
or milk.. Even though it seems obvious that margarine and dairyless beverages are meant, there are those who might share it with people who may be less informed and it constitutes “lifnei eyvair lo sitain michshol”
Great job chaya! Your recipe is both creative and sophisticated, and the results look so unbelievably perfect- i’d Love to taste it. (Don’t have enough patience to make it myself)
Fried chicken in the south would never be served with any kind of syrup. Our breaded chicken is an art Simply bread by dipping chicken in flour seasoned with salt, pepper and perhaps a bit of ground thyme, then into egg and again flour. The test is to achieve a crispy, noncrumbly crust and moist chicken.
For those who ask – great fried chicken is equal to chicken soup. Both warm the soul and show the devotion of a loving cook. Simple but not delicious unless done perfectly.
Soul food is not Jewish at all. Now if you’re talking about “Jewish soul food” there’s lots out there but soul food itself is a black American concept with nothing Jewish about it.
If anyone could please explain what is Jewish about “Soul Food” I’d love to know. Thank you.
Takes me back to my roots!