Vegetarians are always curious about chicken and waffles. "Is it really good?" they wonder, contemplating the salty crunch of the chicken juxtaposed with sweet, fluffy waffles — often with a swirl of honey to tie the two disparate mains together. Meatless chicken technology has come a long way in the past 10 years, especially in the latter two, so it's much easier to contemplate chicken and waffles with a good chicken substitute available.
The good chicken substitute I speak of is Trader Joe's meatless chicken tenders. For a few months now I've been tasting different meatless chicken tenders, and these are the best I've found. Even better, is when you eat these with your waffles, there's no bones to content with!
Which waffles?
You can use any waffles here, whether they are pre-made, frozen, fresh, from a mix, or from scratch. I used a recipe from All Things Mama, which is a simple, but solid recipe that will result in four waffles. I froze the three I didn't eat with this.
Meatless Chicken Tenders and Waffles with Hot Honey
Ingredients
- 1 waffle
- 4-6 Trader Joe's meatless chicken tenders
- hot honey
- 1 scallion or chives, chopped optional
Instructions
- Prepare your waffle (whether it's making the waffles in an iron, heating a frozen one, or anything in between).
- Heat up the meatless chicken tenders in a 425 F oven for 10 minutes on one side. Use tongs to flip and cook for another 4-5 minutes. Set aside
- Plate your meal by cutting the waffle into fourths. Top the waffle with the chicken tenders.
- Drizzle hot honey on top of the chicken and waffles.
- Garnish with chopped scallions or chives as desired.
How about that hot honey?
You don't need for your honey to be hot to make this dish work. In fact, after I took these photos, I squeezed a little regular honey on before I ate these. The hotness of your honey, or if you use any at all, is entirely up to your personal taste preferences. I do like a little heat in this dish, but not so much that it hurts. Which, that's how I feel about all dishes with heat. I want the heat to be for flavor-boosting, not to prove that I can handle it. I don't care about if someone thinks eating really hot foods makes me a better person. So do your level of hotness.
These are some hot honey brands I've tried and liked:
Cloister Chipotle Infused Honey
Mikes Hot Honey
And now Trader Joe's has a hot honey too! I saw it in the store this week, so you could get it, the tenders, and frozen waffles from here for a whole meal.
Want more waffles?
