By Ken Storey
Nothing says southern comfort food quite like Chicken and Waffles, and several area food purveyors serve them:
There's a new place to try this old time recipe: Popeye's Louisiana Chicken. The fast food restaurant debuted Chicken Waffle Tenders, bone-free tendersmarinated in their signature Louisiana spices and hand-battered in a waffle coating. The tenders are served with a side of Honey Maple Dipping Sauce. Cajun fries and a biscuit fill out the meal.
With something this unique we had to go out and try it ourselves so we headed over to the area's first Popeyes (600 South Orlando Ave. Winter Park, Fl 23789). While the tenders are definitely different, the waffle batter was less waffle and more batter; something that caused it to become gummy, making it difficult to chew. The batter also fell off the chicken in large chunks creating a chicken strip with odd waffle crumbs. The dipping sauce was good, but with batter falling off, the dipping cup quickly filled with the waffle crumbs. This made getting more than few dips of the sauce impossible.
Sorry Popeye's, but it looks like theme parks and The Daily City® Food Truck Bazaar are where we'll be getting our Chicken and Waffle fix.
Nothing says southern comfort food quite like Chicken and Waffles, and several area food purveyors serve them:
- Melissa's Chicken and Waffles (Facebook | Twitter) has been a local staple at some of The Daily City® Food Truck Bazaars for the past two years and is still a hard meal to beat.
- Disney got in on the southern meal when it debuted a chicken and waffle sandwich in 2011 at Sleepy Hollow in Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland.
- Universal debuted their own Chicken and Waffle sandwich earlier this summer when it opened Cletus' Chicken Shack as part of the new Simpson's themed Springfield; the same land that offers the locally-brewed Duff Beer.
There's a new place to try this old time recipe: Popeye's Louisiana Chicken. The fast food restaurant debuted Chicken Waffle Tenders, bone-free tendersmarinated in their signature Louisiana spices and hand-battered in a waffle coating. The tenders are served with a side of Honey Maple Dipping Sauce. Cajun fries and a biscuit fill out the meal.
With something this unique we had to go out and try it ourselves so we headed over to the area's first Popeyes (600 South Orlando Ave. Winter Park, Fl 23789). While the tenders are definitely different, the waffle batter was less waffle and more batter; something that caused it to become gummy, making it difficult to chew. The batter also fell off the chicken in large chunks creating a chicken strip with odd waffle crumbs. The dipping sauce was good, but with batter falling off, the dipping cup quickly filled with the waffle crumbs. This made getting more than few dips of the sauce impossible.
Sorry Popeye's, but it looks like theme parks and The Daily City® Food Truck Bazaar are where we'll be getting our Chicken and Waffle fix.
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| The new Chicken Waffle Tenders are the main ad in the windows right now. |
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| Samples of the new tenders were also being passed out. |
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| Waffle crumbs fill the dipping cup. |