Fried Chicken and Waffles with Bourbon Maple Syrup

Steps

1. In a bowl large enough to hold all of your chicken wings, pour in the buttermilk and whisk in the seasoned salt until dissolved.
2. Rinse each chicken wing under cold water then place inside of the buttermilk mixture. Allow this to sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours, up to 8.
3. To prepare for frying, heat the oil to 375 degrees using either an electric deep fryer, or large heavy bottomed pot.
4. In either a shallow dish, large bowl, or paper bag, mix together the flour and seasoning until combined.
5. Take each piece of chicken out of the buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip off and place into the flour mixture. Toss around until coated evenly. I usually press the flour into the chicken to assure it’s properly coated. Repeat until every piece is coated. Then arrange each piece on a plate and refrigerate for about 10 to 20 minutes — this just helps the flour really stick onto the chicken. Remove from the fridge, and toss into the flour mixture one more time. Shake off the excess and stick into your hot oil. Fry up to 4 pieces at a time for about 12 to 14 minutes or so. Don’t overcrowd the fryer because the temperature of the oil will drop down too drastically and it just won’t fry the way it should. You start with 375 degrees, but once the 4 pieces of chicken are added, it will drop down to between 350 and 365 degrees, which is ideal. I always know when the chicken is ready to come out of the oil when it gets “quiet” in the fryer and is a beautiful caramel brown color and kinda floating to the top of the oil.
6. Drain and repeat until each piece is fried.
7. For the Yeast Waffles:

   - In a large bowl, combine the milk, ½ cup melted butter, flour, yeast, eggs, agave or honey, salt, sugar and whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand until the batter is very puffy, about 2 hours at room temperature (or refrigerate overnight).

   - Preheat the oven to 250°. Preheat a waffle iron and brush it with melted butter, or use a butter flavored non-stick spray. Gently stir the batter to deflate it. For each batch, fill the waffle iron about two-thirds full (the batter will spread and rise); brush the waffle iron with melted butter as needed.

   - Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Transfer the waffles immediately from the iron to plates, or keep them warm in the oven. Serve the waffles with softened butter, bourbon maple syrup and fried chicken.

8. For the Bourbon Maple Syrup:

   - In a small pot, pour in all ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, while stirring to dissolve the brown sugar.

   - Once it starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and allow mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes. The syrup will reduce a little and the alcohol will burn off, leaving nothing but flavor behind.

   - Turn off the heat but leave the pot on the stove. The mixture will cool down slowly and thicken/caramelize. Just stir it around with a spoon if you need to. While it’s still warm, pour over your waffles and enjoy.