An Unholy Union: Fried Chicken and Waffles
Be warned, this article contains food porn.
In the late 1980’s, I helped manage a small ski area in Manitoba, Canada. Small was the operative word. Even though my primary duties were the ski school and rental departments, if need be, any warm body was co-opted into the canteen’s kitchen when we were overloaded with cold, hungry patrons. There we served up your typical fast food fare from deep fryer and griddle.
Our specialty was “The Ditch Dog”. It was a hot dog loaded with fried onions, tomatoes, lettuce, condiments, and cheese. Its moniker came from the nickname of the ski area that was located on the slope of a big, man-made flood plain. In times of flooding it diverted water from the city of Winnipeg. Thus, “The Ditch”. It was a giant ditch. In winter, two rope tows whisked skiers up in seconds.
One day, myself and one of my ski instructors were feverishly pumping out Ditch Dogs from the kitchen to hungry skiers. My colleague took a Mars candy bar and deep fried it for a few seconds. He swore by this indulgent treat. I never tried the sweet and savory concoction. Nor would I try his deep frying of red licorice.
This was in the late 1980’s before state fairs and rural exhibitions began to offer the craziest treats in tents and kiosks. Now you can have a deep-fried ice cream-topped cheeseburger or spaghetti and meatballs on a stick. If those don’t appeal, why not a bacon-wrapped caramel apple or the Krispy Kreme Sloppy Joe featuring meat, onions and cheddar cheese served between two halves of a glazed donut?
A Wisconsin State Fair is known for its, Fat Elvis on a Stick. Inspired by The King of Rock and Roll’s famous peanut butter and banana sandwiches, this is a Reese’s peanut butter cup on a stick dipped in banana batter, deep-fried, covered with chocolate sauce, and sprinkled with bacon. If you want to cut to the chase, many state fairs offer deep-fried butter. Clearly, my colleague from years back was onto something.
Such glutinous maximus treats are not just fairground oddities. We know they exist at nation-wide restaurants. The KFC Double Down sandwich has two pieces of fried chicken fillet, as opposed to bread, containing bacon, cheese, and a sauce. Burger King once offered Mac n’ Cheetos. It was fried globs of macaroni and cheese shaped like giant Cheetos and coated in Cheeto dust. Pizza Hut’s Hot Dog Bites Pizza had 28 miniature hot dogs baked into the crust’s perimeter.
There is no monopoly on such creative, heart-stopping, elastic waistband testing meals. Inspiration and combination know no bounds. That takes us to the heart of this exploration. I am talking about a delectable union of sweet and salty and soft and crunchy. This is the unholy but irresistible marriage of chicken and waffles.
If you think this is a recent concoction birthed at a festival or fair in rural Kentucky, you would be wrong. This dish first appeared in the colonial period in the 1600’s in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The traditional version is now tough to find having been overshadowed by numerous evolutions. The original consisted of a plain waffle with pulled, stewed chicken on top, covered in gravy.
Waffles go back to the Middle Ages. The waffle was developed using the same method that produced communion wafers, by baking a thin cake between two metal plates. Waffles quickly became popular street food, given they could easily be made with flour and water. Waffle irons became bragging rights when engraved with various designs, from coats of arms to the honeycomb pattern used today.
The pilgrims brought waffle irons to America in 1620 after discovering them during a stop in Holland. Dutch immigrants would popularize the dish in New Amsterdam, before it became New York. Thomas Jefferson reportedly started a waffle craze during the 1790’s when he returned from France with a goose-handled waffle iron. He was an influencer before the term was coined.
When it first took off in the early 1800’s, hotels and resorts outside Philadelphia first served waffles with fried catfish. The catfish was a delicacy but seasonal, so these establishments began leaning on chicken as a more reliable meat. Waffles served with chicken and gravy were a common Sunday dish among the Pennsylvania Dutch by the 1860’s.
The Pennsylvania Dutch stewed chicken and gravy recipe would dominate until the 20th Century. Then the soul food-inspired pairing of waffle and southern fried chicken would take over. A big catalyst was the Wells Supper Club in Harlem, New York which opened in 1938. It was the late-night hotspot for jazz musicians and music hepcats. Eating chicken and waffles at three in the morning was an appetizing compromise between the dinner and breakfast hours. The story goes that Nat King Cole held his wedding reception at the Wells with chicken and waffles on the menu.
In 1976, a Harlem native named Herb Hudson opened a Los Angeles restaurant dedicated to the pairing. Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles became a popular destination for music industry professionals and performers in the area. Over the years, the restaurant became a fixture and icon. It is expanding to a ninth location in San Diego, the largest in the chain with over 300 seats.
Word of mouth and inaccurate branding ties the modern version of fried chicken and waffles to the American South during slavery. The origins of the dish in the African-American community are a bit garbled. It is akin to the confusing origination of chop suey. A traditional story states that because African Americans in the south rarely had the opportunity to eat chicken and were more familiar with flapjacks or pancakes than with waffles so, they considered the dish a delicacy or special-occasion meal.
Competing accounts cite a scarcity of early evidence of the dish’s existence in the south. Historians place the origin later, after the post-Civil War migration of southern African-Americans to the north during the Reconstruction Era. This may explain why it took until the 1930’s for it to be a hit in New York and Los Angeles. It appears to be an evolutionary take on the original. Instead of pulled, stewed chicken with gravy, it became fried chicken with butter and syrup. And, it did not come from the old south but the streets of Harlem.
An NPR cooking show called The Salt produced a segment on fried chicken and waffles in 2013 and kicked a hornet’s nest. They called it a traditional southern food and southerners were not amused. Viewers reacted with one responding by saying they had never heard of the dish, while another said they grew up in the south but had never experienced chicken and waffles until they moved to Los Angeles.
Regardless of lineage, there are many innovative contemporary takes on the dish. Chicken served in waffle cones make for handheld treat. Appetizers can appear quite bespoke with skewered chicken and waffle bites balanced on a shooter glass of syrup. Then there are sliders and substantial sandwiches with fried eggs, avocado, and cheese.
There are ethnic spins including Mexican, Korean and Italian interpretations. The Mexican comes with guacamole, ancho-and-honey-glazed bacon, salsa roja, and a drizzle of Mexican crema. The chicken and waffle pizza is curious. The fried chicken swims in the cheese, meanwhile, individual squares of the waffle are dotted on the slices while holding syrup.
The traditional version is often accompanied by cornbread, mac and cheese, and fruit salad. When it comes to breakfast plates, scrambled eggs and hash browns help fill the already loaded space. Eggs benedict chicken and waffles make for a fancy stack.
A healthier twist is waffle-crusted chicken. A breast of chicken is dipped in whole grain waffle crumbs and baked. Chicken, zucchini and cheese bites are all mixed together to create mini waffles with shredded chicken in the batter. Chicken and waffle nachos are a gut-busting shareable. Chefs have experimented with different dipping sauces to assist the two different taste experiences. From maple garlic to Gochujang to Siracha, the options are endless.
Many chatrooms full of passionate chicken and waffle aficionados suggest an easy route. Buy some KFC, Eggo Waffles, and a tub of Mrs. Butterworth’s, and you are good-to-go. Proponents swear by its ability to cure a hangover, often before the hangover has a chance to kick-in.
A story during the pandemic speaks of one person’s love of the dish. In February of 2021, a customer of Roscoe’s was refused service for not wearing a mask. Instead of complying, he pulled a gun, walked into the kitchen, and had his bag filled with chicken and waffles. The man demanded no cash and had no real intent to injure but he did ask for syrup before making his clean getaway.
Lay’s brand potato chips understands the passion of chicken and waffle fans. In 2013, it came out with a flavored chip tasting like the dish as part of the brand’s “Do Us A Flavor” campaign. It returned in 2017 due to popular demand and hit shelves again in 2020. Lay’s Chicken and Waffle chips seems weird until you consider that the company has produced Prawn Cocktail, Grilled Cheese & Ketchup, Hot & Sour Fish Soup, and New England Lobster Roll.
You know “its” a thing when people dress as it at Halloween. Or they dress up their unknowing toddler. Fried chicken and waffles can be found on the menu of scads of restaurants but no longer at Gladys Knight’s & Ron Winans’ Chicken & Waffles.
Knight partnered with gospel singer, Winans, to build a chain in 1997. Her son, Shanga Hankerson, eventually ran the business which grew to a handful of locations. Winans passed away in 2005 and the chain was then named, Gladys Knight Chicken & Waffles.
The enterprise was initially successful but blew up when Hankerson was caught on tax crimes and it was discovered he spent lavishly on sex and pot. It did not help that numerous health inspections revealed terrible conditions and then there were trademark issues that saw Knight sue her own son. The chain is now closed and Hankerson began serving a two-year sentence in 2021.
I have always said that Colonel Sanders should be the subject of a Netflix documentary or receive a movie treatment like Ray Kroc did in, The Founder. Now I believe, Gladys Knight is deserving of a movie. This restaurant drama is a sliver from a life of huge challenges. Knight was pregnant at sixteen, married four times, spent a million dollars looking for her kidnapped son (Shanga Hankerson!), and kicked a gambling habit having lost $60,000 in one night.
Gladys Knight & the Pips are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and is listed on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest Singers of All Time. In 2022, Knight was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor. That is movie material. If she is featured onscreen, I hope the restaurant chain is covered. The menu once offered a dish called, “Midnight Train”, a plate of southern fried jumbo chicken wings and one original waffle. It would be great if that came back because chicken and waffles are not going away.
