Healthier Chicken and Waffles Recipe

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I am enjoying reading through and cooking from the Joy Bauer’s Super Food! Cookbook. It’s full of delicious recipes made with “super foods” to help keep a person healthy and to live a longer life. I was sent a copy at no charge as part of the Abrams Dinner Party. Today I am sharing a recipe. I tweaked it a little to suit our needs here. I have always been intrigued with chicken and waffles. It’s a Southern staple, I understand but I’ve never had it. That is why I figured it was a good recipe to start with in my explorations of this new cookbook. Read on for a healthier chicken and waffles recipe thanks to Joy Bauer!

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Healthier Chicken and Waffles Recipe

Serves 5

For the Zucchini Carrot Waffles

• 3 cups roughly chopped carrots
• 3 cups roughly chopped zucchini (with peel on)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 large egg white
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
• 2 to 3 tsp onion powder
• 3/4 cup chickpea flour or flour of choice
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Oven “Fried” Chicken Tenders

• 1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
• 1 TBS hot sauce
• 1 pound chicken tenders (5 pieces)
• 1 1/2 cups crispy brown rice cereal
• 1 TBS ground flaxseeds
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Spicy Maple Syrup

• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 2 tsp siracha

For the Waffles:

• preheat waffle iron and spray with cooking spray
• Add the carrots and zucchini to the bowl of a food processor and gently pulse until finely chopped (being extra careful not to puree them)

• Transfer to a bowl and add the egg, egg white, dill, chickpea flour, salt and pepper and stir until everything is combined.
• Add 1/2 cup batter to each waffle iron compartment, close the lid and cook for about 15 minutes. Because this is a veggie batter they will take much longer to cook than traditional flour waffles.

• When the waffles are ready use a bamboo stick or fork to carefully loosen the edges and lift them out of each compartment. Serve immediately or place on a baking sheet in a low oven to keep warm until serving.

For the Chicken

• Combine the buttermilk and hot sauce in a zip bag, preferably reuseable. Add the chicken, move it around in the bag to coat and marinate in the ‘fridge for 3o minutes or overnight
• Preheat the oven to 375
• Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and set aside
• Place the cereal in a zip bag and lightly crush with a soup can or rolling pin. Don’t pulverize it, you want it to look like coarse bread crumbs.
• Open the bag and add the flaxseeds, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper
• Working in batches, lift one piece of chicken at a time from the buttermilk marinade and place in the cereal bag. Shake it around to coat in the cereal crumbs and place it on the baking sheet being careful to keep them from touching.
• Mist the tops with olive oil cooking spray and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and golden brown.

For the Syrup

• In a small bowl stir together the maple syrup and siracha.

To Serve:

• Stack two waffles with one piece of chicken on each plate and drizzle with the syrup.

I made the following changes when preparing the recipe:

• Since I had frozen carrots and zucchini shreds not fresh that is what I used and the recipe worked just fine. I had put them up last summer from the harvest.
• Chickpea flour was not in my pantry but buckwheat flour was so I used that
• Since I have duck eggs on hand (LOTS of duck eggs) I used a duck egg in place of the one egg and one egg white
• I did not add the flax seed as I am allergic
• Instead of crispy brown rice cereal I used what I had on hand which was a Cheerios like cereal

• Instead of cooking the chicken in the oven I used my air fryer

How Was the Healthier Chicken and Waffles Recipe?

I must admit that I have never had chicken and waffles! Therefore I have nothing to compare this to.  I can tell you that I enjoyed this meal. The waffle is very, very different from a standard Belgian waffle. It is much more dense but it is very good. Having the zucchini and carrots as the bulk of the batter makes the finished product very moist. Making the chicken in the air fryer produced a very crispy topper for the waffle. The spicy maple syrup was a delicious topper for both. I truly enjoyed this combination and now would like to try the classic presentation to know what everyone is talking about.

The Joy Bauer’s Super Food! Cookbook has 150 Recipes for Eternal Youth and the ones I have tried so far have been very good. I will share another for a gluten free “mac and cheese” with tuna that the hubby loved. It’s made with spaghetti squash!

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