How to Make Waffle House’s 3 Most Popular Dishes

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Craving a Waffle House fix without leaving the house? In this video, Nicole shows you how to make three of the diner’s most iconic dishes right in your own kitchen! From savory sandwiches to crispy hash browns and golden waffles, she’s serving up the full Waffle House experience—with homemade flair. She starts with the Texas Patty Melt, featuring buttery Texas toast, a juicy patty, melty cheese, and grilled onions. Next up: Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked Hash browns, loaded with cheese, onions, and diced ham—just like they do it at the restaurant. Finally, she whips up Waffle House-Style Waffles, showing how to make them with or without pecans for that signature (but optional) crunch.

Transcript

00:00Nothing says comfort food more than diner food,

00:02and nothing screams diner more than Waffle House.

00:04I'm cooking up Waffle House's

00:05three most popular menu items.

00:07I'm gonna start with the patty melt.

00:08I think that is just like the quintessential diner option.

00:12From there, I'm going with the hash browns.

00:15Scattered, covered, smothered, and chunked.

00:18And then finally, ending it off with,

00:20you're at the Waffle House, you're gonna have a waffle,

00:22and down here, the most popular waffle to order

00:25is the pecan waffle.

00:26Waffle House, in particular, sells a ton

00:30of the Texas patty melt, which adds bacon to it.

00:33And what's wrong with that?

00:34Nothing.

00:35What's great about diner food

00:36is that everything is usually made very quickly.

00:38Great recipes to do for dinner on your busy nights.

00:42I'm gonna take my bacon and get it going.

00:44This is gonna create a little flavor base

00:45at the bottom of our pan, too.

00:46I'm cutting it in half so that it better fits on the bread.

00:49I forgot to mention about how I am an expert at this,

00:53because I did work at the Waffle House.

00:56Is it two or three eggs?

00:57Two, unless you say triple.

01:01Order up!

01:02I like my bacon well done and crispy.

01:09I'm gonna take out some of the fat,

01:10but I can leave all that brown stuff,

01:12because that is flavor.

01:14Every patty melt needs some onion.

01:16Waffle House has theirs diced up.

01:18Typically, I would do thin slices.

01:21We're also gonna need this diced onion for our hash browns,

01:24so I'm gonna go ahead and just dice it for both.

01:26When it comes time to cook,

01:27you've gotta have everything prepped,

01:29because at Waffle House, you are a short order cook.

01:31So I'm just gonna use the same skillet

01:33and get my meat in there.

01:35It is a four ounce beef patty.

01:38I like to start it in kind of a ball shape.

01:40That way I can flatten it down in the skillet.

01:42You want it to get caramelized and crusty

01:44on that first side before we flip,

01:46but I'm gonna go ahead and season it

01:47with the salt and pepper now.

01:49Flip the burger,

01:52and then add in the onions to the other side.

01:56Okay, while that goes,

01:57we've gotta toast the bread and melt the cheese.

01:59Bread goes down and the cheese goes on top.

02:01It's two slices of American cheese.

02:03So when your burger is pretty much done,

02:05you're gonna place it on top of the onions,

02:08and then we're gonna put the bacon on top of that.

02:12Bread is toasted.

02:14And now it all comes together.

02:21Come on now.

02:25Oh, look at that.

02:27That is gorgeous.

02:29It's not a good burger

02:30if it's not dripping grease from the bottom.

02:3610 out of 10, perfect patty melt.

02:38We might be having a Waffle House dinner tonight at my house.

02:41Mm, that is so good.

02:45100% of the time if I've been to Waffle House,

02:47then 100% of the time I have gotten hash browns.

02:50The most popular hash brown order is scattered,

02:54smothered, covered, and chunked,

02:56which means these get scattered on the grill.

02:59Scattered, smothered, covered, and then chunked ham.

03:04So for the ham, I'm using a very inexpensive ham steak.

03:11This is really easy to dice,

03:13and then you can get it kinda looking like your onions.

03:15When I worked there,

03:16everything cooks in this like melted buttery mixture.

03:20That was used in copious amounts,

03:23especially in the hash browns.

03:24So I'm going to make a liquefied buttery situation,

03:28but I want to use butter,

03:29so I'm gonna melt this and add oil to it.

03:31If you do that, the oil's gonna increase the smoke point

03:34for the butter and help it not to burn

03:35as we cook in the hot skillets.

03:38Butter melted, and I'm going in with vegetable oil.

03:41Just kinda like give that a little whisk.

03:43All right, back to our cooking station.

03:46Heat up a skillet.

03:47I like to use a nonstick skillet for this,

03:48and then you wanna get it pretty hot,

03:50so you're trying to mimic that of a griddle.

03:53Then you're gonna take your shredded hash browns,

03:55that are partially thawed,

03:57and scatter them.

03:59So once you scatter them, you leave them alone.

04:01These actually take the longest

04:04because you want them to get obviously cooked through,

04:07but brown and crispy on the other side.

04:09I'm starting to get some browning around the edges,

04:11and add in a little more of our buttery goodness.

04:13It really helps it to get browned and flavorful.

04:17And I'm also gonna put some on the other side of the skillet,

04:21and get my onions and ham really.

04:23Smothered and chunked.

04:27So now I'm gonna flip these.

04:28Probably have to do it in two pieces.

04:31Oh yeah.

04:33Cheese goes on top.

04:35And we scoop it onto the plate,

04:36and then there's usually some little remnants

04:38that they put on top.

04:40Order up.

04:41Scattered, covered, smothered, and chunked.

04:47Tellin' y'all, it looks just like the picture.

04:52Oh yeah.

04:53Perfect bites.

04:58Simplest things are the best things.

05:01Can't do a Waffle House episode without making a waffle.

05:04The recipe I'm using is an existing recipe

05:07we have at All Recipes for a copycat Waffle House waffle.

05:11I will be adding in some chopped pecans

05:13because what we're making down here is a pecan waffle.

05:17So I'm gonna get my dry ingredients going first,

05:19starting with a cup and a half of flour.

05:22And then two tablespoons of cornstarch.

05:25I think the cornstarch is what's gonna help it

05:26get a little crispy around the edges,

05:29which is what you want.

05:32Teaspoon of salt.

05:33And then a half a teaspoon each

05:34of baking soda and baking powder.

05:37That's your dry ingredients,

05:38so I'm gonna give those a whisk.

05:40Okay, and then for the wet.

05:41Just a quarter cup of sugar.

05:43And then one egg.

05:46And then a quarter cup of softened butter.

05:49Teaspoon of vanilla extract.

05:51So I'm gonna stir that together first

05:53and then add in the liquid.

05:56Butter should probably have been a little softer,

05:59but it'll work.

06:01I'm gonna whisk this together

06:02until this is all incorporated and smooth.

06:06That's good enough there.

06:07And now you add in the liquid.

06:09Liquid here is a mixture of half and half

06:12and buttermilk.

06:13Okay, so now our wet goes into our dry.

06:20Lumps are normal.

06:22So you don't wanna over mix here.

06:24Right when it comes together,

06:27it is mostly done.

06:29The catch is you gotta refrigerate it.

06:31This is a great recipe to do the night before

06:34and then it's ready for you in the morning.

06:35So you can do it overnight, but you wanna let it

06:37refrigerate for at least an hour.

06:41Rested and ready to become a waffle.

06:44Okay, so I'm going to stir the pecans right in.

06:48At this point, again, if you don't wanna do this part,

06:50just make the regular waffles.

06:51They're gonna be so delicious.

06:54And then as they cook,

06:55they're going to infuse the waffle with that pecan flavor.

06:58Spray it up.

07:01Extra insurance.

07:03In we go.

07:05If you are gonna take the time to make the waffles,

07:11then make a huge batch, whether it's too many or not,

07:14because you can freeze them

07:16and then you can just pop them in the toaster.

07:18She's a beaut.

07:21Butter for sure.

07:23Let that get going into the nooks and crannies.

07:28Love the little flecks of pecan throughout.

07:32It's gonna give you good texture.

07:34It's gonna be buttery, salty, sweet, all the things.

07:38Mm.

07:40It is just the right amount of sweet.

07:42Not too sweet because the waffle's not that sweet.

07:44The only sweetness you get really is from the syrup.

07:47That little crunch of the pecan.

07:49It just makes these taste like elevated.

07:54We went three for three, y'all.

07:56You've gotta try one of these recipes.

07:58Whether you do it on your outdoor griddle

07:59as a fun family night,

08:01or on a Saturday morning for breakfast,

08:03you can make the Waffle House your house.

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