| Chicken and Waffles | |
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| Chicken and waffles | |
| Origin information | |
| Country of origin : | United States |
| Creator(s) of the dish : | Unknown |
| Dish information | |
| Serving temperature : | Hot |
| Main ingredient(s) : | Fried Chicken Waffles Butter Syrup |
Chicken and waffles is a dish, combining waffles, typically a breakfast food, with chicken, sometimes fried, that is served in certain specialty restaurants in the United States.[1] One example of these restaurants is Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles.
It's important to note, however, that there are two types of dishes that go by the name of chicken and waffles. The first type is one not often referred to: it consists of a plain waffle with pulled, stewed chicken on top, covered in gravy. This dish is mostly known within areas that have Pennsylvania Dutch influences. The most common usage of the phrase, however, refers to the serving of fried chicken along with a waffle, the waffle then typically being covered with butter and/or syrup (as is common practice among those who eat waffles for breakfast in the United States). This unusual combination of foods is beloved by many people who are influenced by traditions of soul food passed down from past generations of their families.[1]
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The exact origins of the dish are unknown; there are several versions of its origins.
One version:
Another version:
Benny's Home Cooked.com notes:
A restaurant named the Wells Supper Club in Harlem (1938-1999) used the slogan "Wells: Home of Chicken and Waffles, Since 1938".[4] A commonly quoted story is that the Wells Supper Club started selling the chicken and waffles dish to late-night patrons of their club in 1938; as it was too late for dinner, and too early for breakfast, Wells served both dishes on the one plate.[5][6]
From Harlem, "chicken and waffles" was brought across the country to Los Angeles by Herb Hudson, who founded Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles in the mid 1970s.
Gladys Knight and Ron Winans founded a chain of chicken and waffles restaurants in 1997. The original restaurant opened in Atlanta, Georgia, with subsequent restaurants in Lithonia, Georgia and the Washington, D.C., suburb of Landover, Maryland, in The Boulevard at the Capital Centre.[7][8] The restaurant was featured on the opening episode of the Food Network's show Dweezil & Lisa (January 2004).
The popularity of chicken and waffles has much to do with the success of Roscoe's chain of restaurants, which brought the dish more into the mainstream. What helped spread the popularity of Roscoe's was celebrity support of his restaurant - Herb Hudson knew people who worked in Motown and in television, such as Natalie Cole; later, more celebrities, such as Redd Foxx, would tell their television audience that Roscoe's was a place they should eat. In recent decades, Arsenio Hall and Snoop Dogg have helped popularize Roscoe's, speaking of the restaurant in their performances and television shows. Will Smith also made frequent references to Roscoe's on his sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. In the movie Jackie Brown, the character Ordell Robbie, played by Samuel L. Jackson, offers to treat the character Beaumont, played by Chris Tucker, to dinner at Roscoe's if he will only ride with him and serve as "backup" in a meeting with a group of Asians looking to purchase automatic firearms. Robbie convinces Beaumont to hide in the trunk of his car, drives around the block, and murders him. This is the first instance, in the words of film critic Roger Ebert, of "one character luring another to his death with the promise of chicken and waffles."
Besides those mentioned above, there are other chicken and waffles restaurants in the United States. There are some such restaurants in Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Roanoke, and Oakland.