Meat « (y)our food choices™

Ah, fried chicken and waffles! Folks have been serving them together for ages, but the combo has enjoyed a lengthy renaissance of sorts in recent years. Mostly likely Southern soul food-inspired, interest in this decidedly decadent dish grew to a near frenzy back in the ’00s. Today it’s standard chow, found on menus just about everywhere.

With a chicken in the fridge, and too many jars of bacon fat, we felt tempted to fry it up with as much bacon fat as possible. Inspired by Ina Garten’s Oven-Fried Chicken and Julia Moskin’s Best Fried Chicken, we incorporated elements of the two recipes to come up with this version. We served the chicken with a batch of Black Pepper and Parmesan Belgian waffles, a tweeked version of King Arthur’s Classic Buttermilk Waffles, and plenty of hot maple syrup, crunchy salt flakes and Tabasco. Stick-to-your-ribs dinner fare!

Our eyes were bigger than our bellies on this one. A whole frying chicken will easily feed four adults when combined with crispy Belgian waffles. So this one is for a family or party of four or more. Of course, if you’re like us, you’ll make it a little party anyway and serve it with Sazeracs. Next time we whip up a batch we’ll make sure to invite a few friends over.

If you happen to have leftover waffles, freeze them. They last for weeks and toast up quickly. Any leftover chicken can easily be turned into a quick fried chicken sandwich or salad.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Best Oven Fried Chicken

1 chicken cut in eight pieces
1 cup kefir
1 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 – 1 cup bacon fat (strained of all pieces)
vegetable oil for frying

Place the cut up chicken in a gallon sized plastic bag, add the kefir and zip shut. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. In a gallon sized plastic bag, or bowl, add the flour, smoked paprika, salt and black pepper. Whisk together and set aside.

After marinating, remove the chicken from the kefir. Add a piece or two to the bag of flour, or bowl, and coat each piece. Set aside on a plate or tray. Continue with the rest of the chicken pieces.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add a baking tray and rack to the oven.

In a large fry pan on medium heat add the vegetable oil and allow to reach 350 – 360 degree. Slowly add the bacon fat and bring back up to heat. When oil is hot enough, gently, but quickly, add one piece at a time, about three to four piece. The size of the pan will determine the number of pieces that can be cooked at one time.

Fry for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove from the oil and place on the rack in the oven to continue to bake, another 20-30 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink at the bone.

Black Pepper and Parmesan Waffles

1 3/4 cups AP flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup shredded Parmigiano Reggiano
2 teaspoons (or more) freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups kefir
1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flours, Parmigiano Reggiano, black pepper, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl beat together the eggs, kefir, and melted butter.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until almost smooth. A few small clumps may be present.

Heat the waffle iron. Once ready gently spray with non-stick spray. Add 1/4 – 1/3 cup of the batter to the waffle maker, or however much your waffle iron can hold. Cook until golden brown. Place in the oven to keep warm.

Serve the waffles and fried chicken with warm maple syrup or gravy.

Sazerac

2 ounces Bulleit Rye
1/2 tsp sugar
Several dashes of angostura bitters
A dash of Absinthe or enough to coat the bottom and sides of the cocktail glass without dripping out
Lemon twist

Note: This is a labor intensive cocktail that requires a little planning. It’s worth every second it takes to prepare!

Set serving class in freezer to chill. In a rocks glass, add sugar and bitters and stir until sugar begins to dissolve. Add bourbon or rye and muddle them until the sugar is completely dissolved (this takes time).

Remove cocktail glass from freezer and add absinthe, turning glass on its side to coat the bottom and inside of the glass. To the bourbon sugar bitters mixture, add 2 or 3 ice cubes and stir until chilled. Strain into frozen cocktail glasses.

Garnish with a piece of lemon zest (use a veggie peeler). Be sure to twist the lemon peel over the surface of the cocktail so that the oils “spritz” over the surface. Cheers!

London, one of the world’s truly great food cities, still fosters the kind of stick-to-your-ribs eats typically associated with Great Britain. Brown foods washed down with ale and served in a pub that’s been pouring and serving tavern guests for centuries. And while Britain’s great cities team with diverse and exotic foods, visitors should enjoy at least one really good English breakfast or Sunday roast in addition to the curries, noodles, tapas and sushi on offer everywhere you look.

On a recent trip to London, I filled up on pub food whenever I could. Day one of my trip ended in an upstairs corner of The Kings Arms where I dove into a steak and ale pie, fully encased in a simple dough and served with mashed potatoes, steamed veggies and a side of brown gravy. Inside, the filling was molten hot and teaming with tender pieces of beef swimming in a dark, savory sauce. Too much food after a long flight and afternoon meetings!

Steak and ale pie a la The Kings Arms.

As luck would have it, I got to catch up with a friend who offered to show me the sights via formal walking tours of a couple of London’s storied “neighborhoods.” After a fascinating London Walks tour of “Little Venice” (big thanks to our guide Shaughan!) on a blustery Saturday afternoon, we slipped into The Prince Alfred for a pint and a bite. What a find! This Victorian gem of a gastro pub treats visitors to beautiful interior architecture, complete with ‘snob screens’ in the bar area, a traditional dining room with fireplaces, and a funky private area downstairs in the building’s old coal storage cellar. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Easter Sunday roast at The Champion Pub in Notting Hill.

Honey beer revived us and generous helpings of hearty pub grub warmed us up. I jumped on the meat pie like it might be my last, devouring every drop and crumb. The buttery side veggies stood up well to the rich meaty gravy of the puff pastry covered pie. I honestly fooled myself into thinking before diving in that I’d only eat half and push the rest away. That didn’t happen!

The Champion Pub’s Sticky toffee & Medjool date pudding

I enjoyed an Easter Sunday roast at The Champion Pub in Notting Hill, just steps from Hyde Park. I was hungry and feeling like I needed to treat myself, so I eased into a soft chair near a fireplace, ordered a pint and a mixed roast of beef sirloin and roast pork loin with crackling (yes!) complete with roasted potatoes, seasonal veg, a crispy Yorkshire pudding and lots of gravy. It was plenty, but I felt indulgent and decided to add a side order of crispy deep fried mussels. Dipped in salt & vinegar mayo, the crunchy mussels were addictive, if not particularly delicate. But it didn’t end there. I had to have the sticky toffee and Medjool date pudding! It was one of the tastiest things on the trip.

A proper English breakfast a la Fuller’s London’s Pride (Heathrow).

On my way out of London, I took one last bite of British fare with a proper English breakfast at Fuller’s London’s Pride inside Heathrow terminal 2. A full English breakfast may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but apart from being crazy hearty, what could be more satisfying to a carnivore than a breakfast of eggs, sausage, bacon, and black pudding? I’m never impressed by the grilled tomatoes served on these plates as they’re typically flavorless. But grilled mushrooms add plenty of rich, umami flavors. To an American consumer, those Heinz baked beans are weird as breakfast food, but they offer a sweet counterpoint to all that salty, fatty meat. It was a late breakfast, so I washed it down with beer. Hey, it’s London!

Cheers,
Steve