This is not your ordinary Fried Chicken and Waffles recipe! It’s Spicy Bloody Mary-infused Fried Chicken to go with your waffles!
Flavorful, crunchy, crispy fried chicken marinated with all the flavors of Bloody Mary and scotch, fried to perfection and then drizzled with sriracha and maple scotch syrup! Served with overnight yeasted waffles.
Fried chicken and waffles
I have long since been a fan of fried chicken (fried chicken sandwich is a favorite of ours!), and have tried to make it all my life. I was great at frying the chicken, but not so much with the delicious crunchy coating (you know, like KFC?), until I saw a show on the Food Channel (in New Zealand) where they added liquid to the flour to create those delightful lumps.
It’s fair to say that my life has forever changed since then. I added the Bloody Mary marinade to the flour here and boy, that crunchy coating you get on the chicken is oh-so irresistible!
The sriracha drizzle is optional, but I love it! Not only does it taste delicious together with maple syrup, but a splatter of it over your fried chicken is symbolic of all the blood shed that occurs in the show. It’s a bloody massacre, alright.
How to make Bloody Mary and Scotch infused fried chicken
I’m not much of a fan of Bloody Mary actually, but fried chicken infused with Bloody Mary? Come on, now! I’ll stuff my face with that all day!
Usually, fried chicken is brined for a few hours in a seasoned buttermilk. I decided to go about it in a different way. These chicken pieces were soaked in a marinade of tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, sriracha, pepper, and scotch.
Tomato juice is acidic enough to still tenderize and flavor the chicken just as buttermilk would, except that the chicken will now have that amazing subtle spicy tomato flavor with a hint of scotch!
Plus there’s a good amount of warm, buttery maple scotch syrup that goes on top of the chicken too!
Recipe notes
- You can infuse your chicken with some spectacular flavors to make fried chicken! And for even better results, add some booze (it also acts as a tenderizer – for the surface, so I’d call that a win-win).
- Adding that little bit of liquid (Bloody Mary marinade in this recipe) to the flour makes it form lumps that result in beautifully chunky, crispy fried chicken that’s juicy, tender and moist inside and shatteringly crisp on the outside.
- Salt is you best friend in your marinade. Salt really goes inside the meat when it’s marinating (through osmosis), so it’s OK if you sprinkle a little extra salt on top.
- As salt gets absorbed, more liquid is absorbed (which is why the chicken is “brined” and stays nice and juicy!). Example? If you eat very salty food, you get thirsty right? So you drink a lot of liquid because your body needs to “balance” the salt molecules in your muscles.
Recipe
Bloody Mary infused Fried Chicken and Waffles
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
Bloody Mary Marinade
- ½ cup tomato juice
- 2 -3 celery ribs roughly chopped
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 tbsp sriracha
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper skip this if you don’t like extra heat
- ¼ cup vodka
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 chicken legs I used skin on
- 1 egg
Flour Coating
- 1 ¾ cup AP flour
- ¼ cup corn flour
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper
- ½ tsp back pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- Oil for deep frying
Maple Scotch Waffle Syrup
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp scotch whiskey
- 1 Waffle recipe I love using my yeasted waffled recipe, which makes enough for 4. You can also use 4 large waffles, or 8 small waffles.
Instructions:
Bloody Mary infused Fried Chicken
- Place all the ingredients for the marinade (except the chicken and eggs) in a food processor/blender. Blend until smooth. Do a taste test to make sure it’s seasoned well.
- Pour this into a shallow dish or a large ziploc bag. Place the drumsticks in the dish or ziploc bag and shake to coat the chicken well with the marinade. Cover the dish (or remove as much air from the ziploc bag as you can and seal) and place it in the fridge for a few hours or up to 24 hours.
- The next day, remove the chicken from the fridge and leave it at room temp. for about 30 min to 1 hour (to return to room temp.) before coating them with flour.
- When you’re ready to coat, whisk the flour and all the spices together in a large bowl.
- Separate out about 3 tbsp of the Bloody Mary marinade into a little bowl. Then mix in 1 egg with the chicken and remaining marinade and mix well so that the egg incorporates fully in the marinade which will be used to coat the chicken.
- Drizzle in the reserved marinade (3 tbsp) into the flour while mixing, to create a lumpy flour coating. This will create that characteristic crunchy chicken coating you love!
- Coat the chicken with the marinade, and then with the flour. Repeat once more. This should give you double coated chicken drumsticks with a rough, flaky coating. Place the chicken on a lined baking tray.
- Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed dish (like a dutch oven) on the stove, with enough to cover the chicken. Heat the oil until it registers at about 400°F/205°C.
- Carefully lower about 3 chicken legs into the hot oil (DO NOT OVER-CROWD). The oil temp. will drop to about 315-320°F. Maintain the heat at this level and fry the chicken for about 6 minutes.
- The fried chicken should be placed on a wire rack, on top of a tray (to catch the excess oil), while you cook the rest of the chicken.
- Place the cooked chicken in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, until the internal temperature of the chicken registers as 165°F/75°C. Serve warm.
Maple Scotch Waffle Syrup
- Place the maple syrup and butter in a saucepan. Heat gently until the maple syrup is simmering and the butter is melted. Pour the scotch into the maple syrup and remove from the heat.
- Transfer this to a glass bottle with an airtight lid. Let the syrup cool down till it’s warm enough to serve. Shake the bottle vigorously before serving to mix the butter layer and the maple syrup.
To Serve
- Serve the chicken with your favorite waffles and some melted butter on top. Drizzle some sriracha sauce and maple scotch syrup just before eating. Enjoy!
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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