Chicken and waffles

Chicken and Waffles

Chicken and waffles
Origin
Place of origin	United States
Dish details
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredient(s)	Fried Chicken Waffles

Chicken and waffles is a dish combining waffles, a breakfast food, with (usually) fried chicken. It is served in certain specialty restaurants in the United States.^[1]

The dish is most commonly made by serving fried chicken 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]

A version of this dish mostly known within areas that have Pennsylvania Dutch influences consists of a plain waffle with pulled, stewed chicken on top, covered in gravy.

History

The exact origins of the dish are unknown; there are several versions of its origins.

One version:

"As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots. Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry was a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic. Chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal before a long day in church...".^[2]

Another version:

Some historians believe the dish goes back to the late 19th century, when Southern African-Americans, recently freed from slavery, began migrating to the Northern United States. According to author John T. Edge: "My guess is that it comes from the days when someone would go out in the morning and wring a chicken's neck and fry it for breakfast. Preparing a breakfast bread with whatever meat you have on the hoof, so to speak, comes out of the rural tradition".^[1]

Benny's Home Cooked.com notes:

"It is interesting to note that this combination and/or recipe does not appear in Abby Fisher's 1881 cookbook What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Mrs. Fisher was a former slave and her book is generally considered the first cookbook written by an African-American. These foods appear (but not together) in Mrs.Porter's 1871 cookbook Mrs. Porter's Southern Cookery Book.^[3]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Edge, John T. (2004) Fried Chicken: An American Story. Putnam Publishing Group. ISBN 0-399-15183-4
2. ^ Serving up chicken & waffles, Los Angeles Business Journal, September 22, 1997 (p.1) - reproduced at: http://www.bennyshomecooked.com/chicken_southern_food_in_the_uni.htm
3. ^ http://www.bennyshomecooked.com/chicken_southern_food_in_the_uni.htm Benny's Home Cooked.com

External links