Waffles With Chicken Gravy: a Perfect Recipe for Leftover Roast Chicken

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Waffles with Chicken Gravy is NOT your usual chicken and waffles recipe. I’ve had Chicken and Waffles, and while they’re delicious, this is not that recipe. I mean, this IS delicious, but it’s not fried chicken on a waffle with maple syrup. BUT what it is, is one of my go-to recipes for What to Do With Leftover Roast Chicken.  

Waffles with Chicken Gravy is a perfect dish for leftover chicken.

What Is This Leftover Chicken Thing You Speak Of?

With my family of four, who are all  generally moderate eaters, we can usually squeeze a second meal out of a whole roasted chicken.

I know your situation may differ, but from time to time it’s nice to have a recipe for when you DO find yourself with some leftover chicken, but perhaps not enough for each person to have a whole piece of chicken.  

Just Like Mom Used to Make

I’ve never seen this recipe before in a cookbook, but it’s something my mom served us, growing up, that we absolutely begged for.

Mostly, I begged for waffles for dinner because I knew that for dessert, I’d get waffles with brown sugar syrup. I used to try really hard to get some melted butter, and some brown sugar syrup, into each “communion cup” of the waffle. Don’t ask me how my brain comes up with these things, but each little indentation of the waffle reminded me of the tray of communion cups filled with grape juice on Sunday mornings, that I helped Sister Atkins empty and wash, after church. (The cups were made of glass when I was a little bitty girl, and made the most satisfying and sophisticated “clink” as they went back into the tray! Sister Atkins let me drink the grape juice, when she was washing the glass cups, which was a true treat. Don’t tell anyone, but I may not have been all that holy, in terms of being a helper. I was in it for the grape juice.)

Anyway, back to dinnertime at my house, growing up, to get to the waffled communion cups of buttery/brownsugary goodness, I first had to make it through a waffle topped with chicken gravy. Some sacrifice, right? I guess mom wanted me to get a little protein, and for sure, she wanted that leftover Sunday roast chicken cleaned up. So, Monday night was sometimes waffle night, and I cherished waffle night. 

This *Might* Be an Amish Recipe

I have a feeling that this is truly a retro recipe, since I’ve never seen it elsewhere. Could be Mom got the idea out of the newspaper. Maybe “Hints from Heloise” suggested this budget-friendly meal. Mom was always reading and clipping recipes from home cooks that were shared in our local newspaper.

Another possibility is that she got this recipe from a little cookbook she bought, when she and Dad were visiting the Pennsylvania Dutch country. I remember the quaint little drawings in that cookbook, that I loved to look at, as a little girl. One of my readers told me that recognizes this as an Amish recipe, so that’s a very likely possibility. 

Or maybe someone surviving the Depression (as my Mom did) came up with the idea to fill growling tummies on not much meat. I wish she were alive so I could ask her where she got the idea from, of waffles with chicken gravy.

The Joy of Cooking for an Assist

It may be a frugal meal, but it’s absolutely delicious!  When my husband and I got married, and mom passed away 5 months later, I started craving the waffles of my youth, and so I did my best to replicate Mom’s chicken gravy by looking in one of her cookbooks, The Joy of Cooking.

I don’t know that she ever used it to help her make her own white sauce/béchamel sauce/chicken gravy – she was an experienced enough cook that she might not have needed to, but The Joy of Cooking is  filled with all the basics. From it, I learned the basics of making a white sauce.

In making waffles for this post, I experimented a bit to try to improve the dish, trying a new sauce recipe, and a new waffle recipe, but have concluded that what I’ve been making for years is still better than any of my newer efforts at improvement. Sometimes, the old fashioned ways are the best. 🙂 And I kind of love that. 

Can I Use Rotisserie Chicken In This Recipe? 

You certainly can, if that’s what you have!  However, one of the things that makes my version SO delicious is that I use the chicken from this recipe: Boonie Sooze’s Roast Chicken. 

In that recipe, I pour about a cup of wine over my Roast Chicken with vegetables, and there is this wonderful sauce in the bottom of the pan. So it’s this same sauce that flavors my chicken gravy for the waffles! Imagine the goodness of chicken drippings, and herbs, and carrots, potatoes and shallots, and white wine, all incorporated into your chicken gravy! It has so much flavor! So while I do make a basic white sauce, I add every bit of goodness from the leftover roast chicken that I can to my gravy: nothing goes to waste! (I feel my Mother’s approving smile beaming down from heaven. 😀 )

The leftover sauce is  usually kind of congealed and jelly-like in the bottom of the container that the chicken was stored in. If you haven’t saved your chicken drippings or juices, if, say…you brought home a rotisserie chicken from the store and are wanting to use this recipe, I’d try upping the flavor ante by at least adding some herbs into your sauce. Maybe a bit of freshly chopped rosemary or thyme that you’ve steeped in the milk you use for the sauce, would be nice. You could also stir in a teaspoonful of a seasoning like Better Than Bouillon. 

Hints for making a Béchamel Sauce:

A Béchamel or white sauce is basic, and easy to learn, so don’t be scared if you haven’t made one before. Just remember to cook/lightly brown the flour and butter mixture (which is called a roux – and pronounced “roo”) for about 3 minutes, before you add your liquid. Otherwise, your sauce will have a raw pasty flour taste, which, you don’t want.

Then add your liquid, and keep stirring. It may seize up at first, when you pour the liquid in, but just keep stirring. Your liquid can be milk or chicken broth, or a combination thereof. (You could even add a splash of wine for some of the liquid, but you’d need to cook the alcohol out, or your sauce will taste boozy.) Then add the shredded chicken, and stir till everyone in the hot tub is happy, and sufficiently warmed up. Voilà, chicken gravy. 

Pouring the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients of the waffles.

The Best Hint For Making Waffles:

The best hint I know for making waffles is to whip my egg whites separately from the yolks, into peaks. After that, I fold them into the batter. (that means to kind of gently lift, and tuck under the ingredients, rather than to all-out stir.) This makes the waffle’s texture lighter and more tender, while giving it a slightly crisp exterior.  

Folding the egg whites into the batter.

What Do I Do If I Don’t Have Any Buttermilk?

In addition, since I don’t keep buttermilk on hand, I typically make my own substitute for buttermilk. I simply add 1 T. of vinegar to each cup of milk. Therefore, for this recipe, which calls for 2 c. of milk, I put 2 T. of vinegar into the glass measuring cup, and then fill the cup with milk to the 2 c. measuring mark. 

Pouring the batter into the waffle iron. You can still see small lumps of egg whites, which is the way it should be.

Please pin this on Pinterest, so you’ll know where it is, next time you have leftover chicken.

The Recipe for Waffles With Chicken Gravy:

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