Blog

New Breakfast Dish Tantalizes Guests’ Taste Buds

If you have stayed at the Buckhorn Inn, you know that breakfast is truly a highlight.  Each morning we offer fresh coffee, biscuits and coffee cake right from the oven, fresh fruit, and a choice of a sweet or savory hot entrée.  One of our newest breakfast dishes is chicken and waffles! 

Our new breakfast entree was a hit with this guest!

Not Just for Breakfast

Chicken and waffles is truly an American dish that draws both on soul food and Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine traditions.  

There are several theories about the origins of this dish.  We do know that European colonists brought waffles to America in the 1600’s.  When Thomas Jefferson bought a waffle iron in France in 1789, the popularity of the dish soared.  One origin theory says that in the early 1800’s Philadelphia restaurants served waffles with fried catfish.  Chicken gradually became more popular than catfish because it was available year round.  The Pennsylvania Dutch enjoyed Sunday dinners of waffles, chicken and gravy.  So much so that the dish became a symbol of Pennsylvania Dutch country by the end of the 19th century.

In the early 20th century Harlem, New York, chicken and waffles was served by such restaurants as Tillie’s Chicken Shack, Dickie Wells’ jazz nightclub, and the Wells Supper Club.  In 1935 Bunny Berigan composed a jazz instrumental called “Chicken and Waffles”.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wike/Chicken_and_waffles

Fried chicken and waffles came to Los Angeles by 1940’s.  The dish was served at The Maryland and marketed as a Southern specialty.  Interestingly, the combination of chicken and waffles does not appear in early Southern cookbooks.  

Whatever the origins of the dish, chicken and waffles has become a popular breakfast item at Buckhorn Inn.  We make a light, fluffy waffle, top it with crispy fried chicken, drizzle it with a bit of Tennessee honey, and serve warm maple syrup on the side.  What could make a better breakfast?