I put this in GQ as there may be a factual answer to it.
Went into a store yesterday and they were giving out little Dixie cup samplers of Lays chicken and waffle chips.
I’ve been all over these United States and I don’t recall ever seeing this strange combo on a menu anywhere, not even in the South. I was just down in St. Louie on a beer run about a month ago and ate at Hodaks and I don’t recall seeing waffles being served with their chicken.
So is this a “thing” somewhere? Where?
It’s a “thing.” I don’t know where it comes from, but here in New York, you can order it at “soul food” restaurants. It’s always been on the menu at Sylvia’s, for instance.
See Chicken and waffles.
Yeah, it’s a thing. Someone will be along shortly to sing the praises of Roscoe’s. (I haven’t been impressed myself, but I know many who rave.)
It’s more of a Southern “Soul Food” tradition, but rest assured Chicken and Waffles are quite the duo down South. Just google “Chicken and Waffles”.
Some time ago we ate at this little soul food restaurant that was on the border of Arkansas and Tennessee. The only white person working there was about 100 years old and looked, sounded, and acted just like Granny on the Beverly Hillbillies I kid you not. My wife was cracking jokes about how she was in the kitchen chopping up possums.
But what we didn’t see was an waffles on the menu or anyone eating waffles with the insanely good chicken that was served.
Thanks to Roscoe’s this dish is on hundreds of menus in California. For me, this combo is just a good excuse to have fresh, hot, fried chicken for breakfast.
Bacon or sausage served with eggs and pancakes is pretty much universal in the US, I think, and is not that far off.
I tried it for the first time at IHOP a couple of weeks ago, so anywhere there’s an IHOP, you should be able to get it.
I think going back to the specifics of the OP, though, Lays is attempting to make inroads into the. . . uh. . . “urban” market.
And that flavor of Lays sucks.
Of course it’s chicken & waffles; the chili & donuts thing didn’t work out.
I tried that a few months ago and was really disappointed. The chicken was some weak, boneless nugget thing.
My favorite at Roscoe’s is three wings and a waffle. I guess that’s what the President had when he ate at the one in Hollywood since it’s now called the “Obama Special”.
What you didn’t tell us—were the chips any good? I guess Lay’s is having a contest. Three people won with their “invented” flavors. One was chicken and waffles, one was cheesey garlic bread and the third was some kind of hot sauce flavored ones that start with a “t”. I bought a bag of the garlic bread and hot sauce ones, but was afraid of the chicken and waffles one, lol! You’re supposed to vote on Facebook for your favorite. I’m intrigued, but figured there was probably a ton of fake seasonings and enough MSG to give me a headache for the next 3 years in the chicken and waffles one.
It may be derived from Southern Soul food traditions but it isn’t a traditional Southern food. I am Southern and I have never seen it or had it. I have only heard of it in the last year. It is a current trendy food some reason so it gets lots of national press and mentioned on places like Facebook. My understanding is that was first popularized by blacks that left the South and moved to the North or California. It suddenly caught on about a year ago and spread rapidly.
Sriracha. It’s a Thai hot sauce, sometimes called “rooster sauce”, due to the rooster on the label of Huy Fong brand sriracha sauce.
I’ve had the sriracha chips (pretty good, definitely spicy), as well as the cheesy garlic bread (very good). Right now, my annoyance is that no stores in Chicago seem to have any of these chips anymore, despite the fact that the ads are still running.
As a joke, because I had never heard of a crazier combo than chicken and waffles, I bought a bag of these for my chip-enthusiast husband and daughter. Neither was impressed, and the smell alone put me off, so the bag sits in my cabinet until the next major clean out day. My husband did say that he had heard of the combination, however, claiming vaguely it was a “southern” thing.
I venture that most Southern Californians has been aware of chicken and waffles for at least the last 30 years. The owner of Roscoe’s brought the recipe to LA from Harlam in 1975.
Are you supposed to put maple syrup and/or butter on the waffles? If so, should the syrup run into the chicken, or should they remain segregated? In any case, the combo is intriguing and I want to give it a try. If the dish IHOP is not a good representation, I need to find some place in North Jersey of NYC that makes a good version.
ETA: I see that a place in Harlem serves it. Anyone know of any places in North NJ (besides IHOP)?
That’s up to the individual; I scoot my chicken over to one side of the plate to avoid the syrup. Some places sprinkle powdered sugar over the whole plate which actually tastes kinda good on the fried chicken.
Part of the appeal is to all-night partiers who drag themselves into a place in the early hours for whatever the dinner/breakfast version of brunch is.
Let’s just get this out of the way at the start: the Cheesy Garlic Bread flavor is the only one that has the right to win this contest. There’s nothing inherently wrong, per se, with the [del]srirachi[/del] [del]sriracha[/del] [del]sirachi[/del] Rooster Sauce flavor, but they’re just too damn hot for daily consumption. There is something inherently wrong with putting the flavor of maple syrup into a potato chip; I have empirical data that backs up this assertion, and jftr, I couldn’t taste chicken in there at all.
All of the above aside, chicken and waffles makes a delicious meal. I won’t dunk my chicken into the maple syrup, but neither will I feel obligated to throw it away if some maple syrup gets on it. And it might be nice to try some chicken gravy on a waffle some time.
