Waffle Stuffing

It was during the holidays I came up with this great stuffing recipe. I was trying many different recipes for many different birds and chops. I was making fried chicken one night, and I thought of chicken and waffles but I was still on this stuffing kick, so I decided to merge the two. By adding frozen waffles into my stuffing, the combination of sweet and savory was a huge hit with my fried chicken and has become one of my favorite side dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 0.25 cup chopped celery
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 Granny Smith apple - peeled, cored, and chopped
• 0.5 teaspoon dried sage
• 0.5 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 pinch paprika, or to taste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 10 frozen buttermilk waffles, toasted and cut into bite-size pieces
• 0.5 cup chopped pecans
• 0.25 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Heat butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Saute celery, onion, and apple in the hot butter until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in sage, thyme, paprika, salt, and pepper. Add chicken broth, brown sugar, and maple syrup; stir to combine and reduce slightly, 3 to 4 minutes. Add waffles and toss until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in pecans and buttermilk; toss until completely coated. Stir in eggs to bind everything together.
3. Spoon stuffing into a large casserole dish.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until browned, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes before serving.