Here’s a novel solution to ‘what’s for dinner?’

Fried chicken and waffles. Who came up with this combination? As an entrée, the dish is gaining popularity, and its origin is usually traced back to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

Food writer Alexandria Jack of Houston, Texas, said the “simple yet impactful meal – a juicy hot piece of fried chicken on top of a buttery waffle drizzled with warm maple syrup – used to be a hot commodity back in the 1930s, just like the creator, Dickie Wells.”

“Richard ‘Dickie’ Wells was a self-taught tap dancer in Harlem,” Jack said. He rose to fame as a member of a tap dance trio, along with Jimmy Moredecai and Ernest Taylor, who performed regularly at The Cotton Club, a swanky New York nightclub.

 

Dickie Wells gained the reputation as being a bit of a gigolo, according to Jack, and he was linked to prominent women including Joan Crawford, Ava Gardner, Lana Turner and Tallulah Bankhead.

As a blossoming businessman, he entered the food and beverage industry in 1932, welcoming patrons to a late-night club known simply as “Dickie Wells,” Jack said. His clientele included hungry celebrities, entertainers and musicians.

 

Since the place didn’t get hopping until the wee hours of the morning, Dickie Wells decided to combine dinner with breakfast, giving birth to the combo-meal of fried chicken and waffles.

Guests could select their chicken and waffles “with coffee or a shot of bourbon,” Jack said.

 

Another place in Harlem to order fried chicken and waffles was the Wells Supper Club, which was opened in 1938 by James T. Wells (no kin to Dickie Wells). This restaurant also developed a loyal following and became a Harlem landmark.

Yet, there are skeptics about the pairing of crispy fried chicken and “breakfasty” waffles. One unafraid to speak out was Carla Lalli Music, an American chef, cookbook author and YouTube personality, based in New York City’s Brooklyn neighborhood. In June 2023, she wrote:

 

“I love fried chicken, and I love waffles, but if I’m being honest, I am but a hatchling when it comes to chicken and waffles (stacked one atop the other on the same plate).”

Music said her “breakfast brain” casts large shadows of doubt on her future with fried chicken and waffles. “My struggle came down to this: waffles are brown, tender, slightly crisp. Fried chicken is brown, juicy, crunchy. Waffles are sweet. Chicken is savory. On paper, the flavors complement each other, but the texture was tripping me up.”

 

“Plus, visually, it was a lot of brown; in test photos all the shapes morphed into a random blob. I acknowledged my inexperience and started asking everyone I knew to ‘explain’ chicken and waffles to me.”

“Still lost, I did what anyone in my position would do. I watched chicken and waffle videos,” Music said.

“Sometimes, you have to see someone experience the joy of eating in order to feel the joy yourself. When I watched the syrup drip off the chicken, the butter pooling in the waffle divots, saw the juices mingle, heard the crunches – it finally clicked. Breakthrough; clarity; bliss.”

 

Her recipe includes “lots of do-aheads and other advice for the best flow in the recipe.”

And finally, she offers: “If the thought of getting up to fry chicken first thing in the day still feels like too much, make this for supper.”

One reader suggested topping the dish with fresh peaches and Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey and just a splash of syrup.