Let nostalgia overtake you and 'fancify' the dishes your remember from your youth. Chefs across the world are reimagining the food from their younger days with surprisingly fun and delicious results. Think fancy fish fingers, grown-up mac and cheese and even a whole cereal 'restaurant' where you can choose from boxes and boxes of the sugary breakfast food. This particular recipe hails back to a time when caramel popcorn was the sweet-yet-savoury snack delight.

ingredients

for the chicken breasts 4 chicken breasts salt and freshly ground black pepper 200g popped popcorn 1 cup flour 1t onion powder 1t chilli powder 1 egg, lightly beaten 3 cups sunflower oil micro herbs, such as pea shoots, to serve for the waffles I cup self-raising flour 1t baking powder 1t sugar 1 egg 1 cup milk for the caramel sauce 5T butter ¼ cup sticky brown sugar ¼ cup sugar 3T golden syrup ½ cup cream ½t Maldon salt or to taste  

method

To prepare the chicken, cut the chicken breasts into cubes and season it. Blitz the popped popcorn in a food processor. Mix the flour and spices. Dip the chicken into the flour, then the egg and then the popcorn, tossing well to coat. Heat the oil in a small pan or pot over a medium heat. Shallow fry the chicken pieces until they are crisp and golden brown, then set them aside to keep warm. To prepare the waffles, mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk in the egg and slowly add the milk, whisking well to make sure the batter is smooth and free of lumps. Use the batter to cook the waffles in a waffle machine according to manufacturer’s instructions, then set them aside to keep them warm. To prepare the caramel sauce, melt the butter, sugars and syrup in a pan and simmer for three minutes, giving the pan a good swirl every 30 seconds. Add the cream and salt and stir through. Cook for a further minute or two and then set the sauce aside. Serve the waffles topped with the crispy popcorn chicken. Drizzle the caramel sauce on top and garnish with micro herbs. SERVES 4