Popeyes Combining Chicken & Waffles In New Menu Item

Why would you ever eat two things separately, when you can have it in one? Popeyes is taking one of brunch's best dishes ever (chicken and waffles) and just mashing it into one thing: chicken tenders. We're not sure how we feel about this.

According to AdAge, the brand is debuting Chicken Waffle Tenders on July 29 for a limited time. What are they? Boneless chicken strips coated with waffle batter, fried, and served with a honey maple dipping sauce. "Chicken and waffles is an incredibly trendy, popular, and kind of unexpected [product] right now," Dick Lynch, Popeyes' chief global brand officer, told AdAge.

Of course, Popeyes isn't jumping on the bandwagon with the Chicken Waffle Tenders, oh no; their story is that Popeyes was inspired by jazz musicians in Los Angeles during the 1940s and '50s, who would get off work so late the restaurants would have fried chicken available while they were making waffle batter. And since Popeyes is based in New Orleans, the connection still works. "We're looking to real culinary trends, no matter where they came from. The odder the better, frankly," Lynch said.

This is reportedly going to be the first of many "chicken tenders reimagined" products, what Lynch is calling "flavor proliferations" of the humble chicken tender. No word on what other iterations are going to be, but Chicken Waffle Tenders are being sold for $4.99.