Chicken and waffles was a childhood favorite of mine. Fast forward to adulthood -- it still is. I love the Southern-style crispy-fried chicken kind and, the Yankee-style PA-Deutsch tender pulled-chicken w/gravy kind. Cluck, cluck. In my food world there's also a third variation: Pub-grub-style deep-fried chicken wings and waffles. On paper, this might sound like a rather strange duo, but, in reality, a steaming hot waffle with honey butter melting atop it is the ideal foil for some hot-out-of-the-deep-fryer RedHot-sauced Buffalo-style chicken wings. Trust me, skip the French fries -- the switch to waffles with wings will change your life, so invite some friends to the party!
Chicken & waffles is indeed well-known throughout the South, but it undisputedly has it's roots in PA Deutsch country:
In Pennsylvania Dutch country, chicken and waffles is a common Sunday supper (they call "dinner" "supper" there). The concept most likely evolved from "fried catfish and waffle" dinners served in the Philadelphia area in eateries along the Schuykill River (whose supplying creeks were full of fresh catfish). The Schuylkill Hotel (founded in 1813) was the first well-known place, along with the Catfish and Waffle House, located at the Schuylkill Falls, which from 1848 
into the early 1900's did a thriving business purely by word-of-mouth. It doesn't take much imagination to rationalize a reason for the people of the surrounding PA Dutch farming communities (close knit family-oriented people who kept to themselves and never went out to eat) to adopt this inexpensive style of hearty eating by substituting roasted or stewed farm-raised chickens served on waffles. It's a short leap to see them substituting fried chicken for fried catfish -- to invent fried chicken and waffles.
Four components, homemade or stress-free store-bought:
For each serving:
2-3 deep-fried unsectioned chicken wings, or, 4-6 deep-fried sectioned chicken wings, hot out of the deep-fryer
1-2 waffles, homemade or store-bought, hot out of the waffle iron or toaster
honey-butter, homemade or store-bought, for generously slathering on each waffle
Buffalo-style RedHot 'n honey wing sauce, homemade or store-bought, for drizzling over each serving of wings and waffles
Wing it -- serve dinner for breakfast or breakfast for dinner, wings & waffles make everyone happy anytime of day.
RedHot & Honey-Butter Chicken Wings & Waffles: Recipe yields instructions to serve as many chicken wings w/waffles as you want to.
Special Equipment List: deep-fryer preheated to 375° according to manufacturer's specification for preparing chicken wings; waffle iron or toaster for preparing waffles; hand-held electric mixer for preparing honey-butter; saucepan and whisk for preparing wing sauce
Cook's Note: There are two types of chicken-wing aficionados -- those who dredge their wings in a flour-based blend of seasonings, and, those who do nothing at all -- the latter group is know as the wing purists. Trust me on this next point: One method is not better than the other. One method, no matter what the claim, does not produce crispier wings. Dredging wings in a seasoned-flour mixture prior to deep-frying, vs. deep- frying wings in the classic manner, naked in a bath of seething hot oil, accomplishes only one thing: a bit of seasoning on your wings and a few more calories on your hips. It's a matter of preference. You really gotta try my Buffalo-style ~ RedHot Seasoning Dredge for Chicken Wings ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2022)
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