5 Chain Restaurant Chicken And Waffles, Ranked

If I get to choose my last meal, it's going to be chicken and waffles. It may be one American dish that seems bizarre to everyone else, but the combination of hot, salty chicken, crunchy breading, and pillowy bread with a sweet-and-spicy sauce is my definition of heaven. The first time I ever had it was on a vacation to Tennessee, and when I returned home, I found myself craving it again and again. I tried it at half a dozen restaurants in Ohio and Colorado, and just about everywhere in between, but gave up my search when I realized nothing would ever compare to getting it at its source in the southern states.

That was, until I sampled the fried chicken at eight restaurants, followed shortly after by the waffles at five breakfast chains. Though I managed to ignore the call of the specialty waffles on the menu that day, the experience reawakened my desperation to find chicken and waffles that could hold me over until my next trip to the Lowcountry. Though several chain restaurants offer a waffle-and-fried-chicken item on their menus, few serve it as a truly cohesive dish. But one made me feel like I was trying it for the first time all over again.

Denny's doesn't have a chicken and waffles menu item, per se, but they have advertised a menu hack to make it yourself. I have found myself with a craving so intense that I would consider such a hack out of desperation, but I would certainly never attempt it at Denny's again. The recommended hack involves getting a Waffle Slam and premium chicken tenders meal, which adds up to almost $30, but I hacked the hack with a junior Waffle Slam and junior tenders meal. For around $13, it's a decent bit of food — two tenders, one waffle, eggs, breakfast meat, and a side — but I wouldn't order the waffle again if someone paid me to.

It's rock hard. I mean that literally. I have no clue how they managed to make a waffle like that. I almost thought it was still frozen when I tried to rip into it, but it was, at least, lukewarm. The only explanation I can come up with is that it was microwaved, but I don't think even that would have resulted in this monstrosity. I took one bite, and it crumbled like a cookie — or maybe like a Costco chicken and waffle.

The chicken was fine – I quite liked the breading, though I'm sure it, too, was once frozen. Regardless, I'd drive five hours to Tennessee before I'd ever order a waffle at Denny's again.

IHOP's chicken and waffles is a perfect example of why you can't just slap some chicken fingers on a waffle and call it chicken and waffles. That's exactly what this dish is, and as a result, it does nothing to scratch the itch for the real thing.

The individual ingredients were fine. The waffle was thick and pillowy, and the chicken was well-seasoned with a very pleasant crunch. I wouldn't mind eating either one on its own — the waffle was even better than when I tried it for my ranking of plain chain restaurant waffles, and the chicken, though certainly fried from frozen, would make a very satisfying snack. But there was nothing holding the dish together. It came with a side of pancake syrup and a dipping sauce for the chicken, almost as though IHOP doesn't even expect diners to eat the two together. The vibe, as a whole, is that IHOP's chicken and waffles isn't a specialty dish so much as a hack that got put on the menu.

My experiences at Another Broken Egg Cafe have been hit or miss. Though it nearly topped the list of breakfast chains' French toast, I recently tried the plain Belgian waffle and was downright offended by the pre-packaged food-service pancake syrup that came with it after paying nearly $12. Suffice it to say, I wasn't expecting much more out of the chicken and waffles, but the dish certainly exceeded my expectations.

The waffle, as I knew, was a good waffle, though a little firmer than I like for chicken and waffles. After all, textural contrast is important, so for me, if the chicken is crispy, the waffle should be plush. It wasn't nearly as hard as Denny's, of course, but still not as soft as it should have been. And the chicken was crispy — though a teensy bit dry, and very lightly seasoned. But the chipotle honey brought the whole dish together. It was a little light on the spice, but exploding with flavor enough that, when it all came together, I wasn't even thinking about how it was seasoned.

For $16, it's not a ton of food, as no sides are included. But it's certainly redeemed itself from the last time I tried the waffle. It's probably the same base syrup, but at least they did something different to it this time.

Scramblers is an Ohio-based breakfast chain with locations in Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, and Florida. Its chicken and waffles come with two huge chicken tenders on a Belgian waffle, sprinkled with powdered sugar and chives, and drizzled with hot honey syrup. The default side is a cup of fresh fruit, but other sides are included in the $14.49 price as well — though, sadly, the most perfect chicken-and-waffles side dish wasn't an option. I went with the hash browns.

The waffle was the perfect flavor — a little savory with just a hint of sweetness — and the chicken tenders were super crispy, though the breading was a little bland. The hot honey syrup made the dish, though — it had just the right amount of heat and a touch of smokiness. I'd eat it on anything. The chives were the perfect complement to the whole combination, adding a brightness that balanced the smoky syrup really well.

Scrambler's was the first chain I tried on my chicken-and-waffles excursion. I was really afraid that it was going to be the highlight of the day, and that everything else was going to be a disappointment in comparison. And I was right ... until I got to my last stop.

Tupelo Honey Cafe was born as a farm-to-table restaurant in North Carolina and has expanded to locations as far away as Idaho. Its Carolina roots bode well for the chicken and waffles, and yet, somehow, it was still better than I had dared to hope. The waffles were savory and pillowy; the chicken was pounded thin, darkly fried, and seasoned thoroughly with a bold blend of spices. Tupelo Honey was the only place where I would gladly eat every ingredient on its own. Even the syrup had a complex blend of flavors. It isn't described on the menu, but to me, it was more than just sweet and spicy. There was something richer in it — maybe bourbon? Whatever it was, I need it bottled ASAP. 

The main thing that sets Tupelo Honey Cafe apart is that it isn't a breakfast restaurant. Every other restaurant I tried had waffles on the menu, so it was easy enough to throw some fried-from-frozen chicken on top and call it a day. The best ones had a special sauce to tie a nice little bow around it. But Tupelo Honey has chicken and waffles on the menu intentionally — not just one dish, but also a sweet and spicy version with sriracha honey, and another called "Life's a Peach" with peach compote, pecans, and whipped cream. It's more than waffles with chicken on top — it's one cohesive dish that Tupelo Honey put its soul into.

I had to drive 90 minutes to get to my nearest Tupelo Honey location. I would drive double that for the chicken and waffles. In fact, I'm already planning a trip back to get my hands on that sriracha honey version. Next time I get a craving, this is where you'll find me.

I knew finding chain restaurants with chicken and waffles on the menu was hard — that is, after all, the premise of this whole article — but holy moly, I had to search high and low to find these five within a day trip of my home in rural Ohio. In one case, I even had to hack the menu to make it happen — though it is an officially-sanctioned menu hack, so it counts.

Once I got my hands on each restaurant's chicken and waffles, I sampled them hot and fresh. I tasted the waffle, the chicken, and the syrup separately first, then all together. I then ranked them according to the taste and quality of each component, and, most importantly, how the dish came together as a whole. It's not enough to simply slap a piece of chicken on a waffle and call it a meal. It has to be done intentionally, with each element balancing and complementing the others.

It's a tall order, I admit — I half expected to find that none of the restaurants would live up to the hype. And though I do mention prices where it feels relevant to do so — and of course, prices vary by location — I didn't even consider price as a factor in the rankings at all, because I would absolutely pay unreasonable amounts of money for real, southern-style chicken and waffles. It all came down to the dish itself.