Almost everyone reacts to a plate of chicken and waffles the same way: one raised eyebrow. Fried chicken on top of a waffle. Savoury over sweet? Breakfast or dinner?

The second reaction, after the first bite, is almost always the same too. Which is why El Sureño is the most photographed plate in our house.

Where chicken and waffles come from

The dish is not a modern idea or a social-media invention. It is a classic of African American cooking, tied to the Harlem supper clubs of the 1920s and 1930s, where jazz musicians finished playing in the small hours and found themselves at an awkward time: too late for dinner, too early for breakfast. The answer was a plate that worked for both — the breakfast waffle and the dinner fried chicken, together.

That root — late-night music, African American cooking, two meals in one — explains why the dish sits so naturally in a place like ours, and not in any café that happens to serve waffles.

Why it works (and it is not just a striking contrast)

What holds the dish together is not the clash of sweet and savoury, but three things happening at once:

Texture. The waffle is soft and airy inside with a crisp edge; the chicken crust is rigid. The two crunches are different, and they complement each other instead of competing.
Fat and sugar. The sweetness of the waffle cuts the richness of the fried chicken, the way a pickle or a vinegar does. It is the same mechanism that puts vinegar in Buffalo sauce.
Salt underneath. Without a savoury element below, the plate tips towards dessert. That is where what we do comes in.

Inside El Sureño, our version

At Harold’s we do not serve a waffle with chicken on top and leave it there. El Sureño has four layers, each there for a reason:

A homemade American waffle as the base, not an industrial one.
Ranch fries underneath: homemade potatoes cut that same day, under our own ranch sauce. They are the salty, creamy element that holds the plate up.
Crispy bacon, which brings the smoke.
Strips of fried chicken on top, hand-breaded in our cajun spice mix and fried when you order the dish, never before.

“Listening to live jazz while eating chicken waffles is something else. It is the only American restaurant in Madrid offering this.”

Where to eat chicken and waffles in Madrid

Versions of the dish have appeared on brunch menus and in American-inspired places across Madrid. In our case the difference is the chicken: we are the only restaurant in the city specialising exclusively in authentic Southern fried chicken, with the Louisiana recipe unmodified and fried only when you order it. The waffle is half the plate; the other half is what we have been doing since 2016.

We are at C/ Alonso Cano, 60, in the Ponzano area of Chamberí. El Sureño is on the menu every day we open.

How to order it

One practical note: El Sureño is substantial. If you are in a couple or a group it works very well as a sharing plate alongside some sauced wings, rather than one per person. And if you like sweet and savoury together, order a homemade bourbon lemonade with it: the fruity note of the bourbon pulls in the same direction as the waffle.