Bobby Flay’s Classic Buttermilk Waffles with Double-Dredged, Extra Crispy Buttermilk Fried Chicken Tenders

A classic soul food offering, buttermilk waffles with fried chicken are definitely an ultimate comfort recipe. Food Network star Bobby Flay is known for his creative brunch recipes and here puts his spin on the popular Southern recipe for a crunchy, tender dish.

Flay’s Buttermilk Waffles and Chicken Tenders are a crunchy, juicy treat

For Flay’s recipe, you’ll need for the waffles: flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, fine salt, eggs, buttermilk, and unsalted butter. For the chicken tenders, these ingredients are needed: chicken tenders, buttermilk, hot sauce, flour, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and canola oil for frying. Honey will also be needed for drizzling before serving.

Why so much buttermilk? Flay explained in the Food Network video for this recipe, “That’s one thing that buttermilk does. It tenderizes meats, it obviously gives a little bit of that tangy flavor as well. It’s also going to promote a nice, juicy chicken.”

Get the complete recipe, video, and reviews at Food Network’s site.

Bobby Flay double dredges his chicken before frying

The Beat Bobby Flay star begins the recipe by allowing the chicken to “marinate or tenderize” with some buttermilk and hot sauce for about an hour.

The waffle batter is assembled and then should sit “for 30 minutes or so.”

In the meantime, the chicken can be fried. “I like to dip my chicken twice into the seasoned flour,” Flay said. “So we’re going to make two dredges basically of the flour mixture.”

The chicken is dipped in one dredge of seasoned flour (that’s flour, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper), dipped in buttermilk, then dredged again in another plate of seasoned flour. “We need a wet dredge and a dry dredge, man we got a lot of buttermilk today,” Flay adds.

It’s important to note that Flay seasons as he goes along: “I season every layer no matter what it is. … I mean you can put all kinds of different seasonings if you want. To me, the most important thing is that it actually has, you know, seasoning and is flavored. Otherwise, you’re going to get some bland chicken.”

The chicken is fried in about two inches of oil; because they’re tenders, Flay notes that “this is going to cook pretty quickly, so when these get golden, they’re done.”

Waffle batter is spooned into a waffle iron (“I don’t like to make perfect waffles in terms of shape; I like them to be misshapen because then, they look like they’re homemade”) and cooked until done. Plate the waffles, with the chicken tenders on top. Flay then finishes the dish off with drizzles of honey and hot sauce.

Reviewers were wowed by Flay’s waffles and chicken

“This is an excellent chicken and waffle recipe. The chicken breading is superb,” one home cook wrote.

Another fan of the recipe added, “The chicken is super juicy and the waffles are amazing.”

And a satisfied fan of the dish said, “I’m a sucker for buttermilk, and the waffles and chicken in the recipe are phenomenal. I add a touch more cayenne because I like a kick and it turned out perfectly.”