A buttermilk biscuit split around hot fried chicken, glossed with honey or pepper jelly, the breakfast sandwich format Chattanooga's downtown biscuit houses hand across the counter all morning.
Where to eat it: 1 restaurant across 1 city.
The biscuit belongs to the whole South, but the fried-chicken-in-a-biscuit breakfast went from gas-station secret to city-centre staple across Tennessee in the 2010s, as biscuit houses built entire menus on the format. Chattanooga's downtown adopters serve it with pepper jelly or a shot of maple, and the queue on Broad Street on a Saturday morning is its own endorsement. It works because the biscuit is a fat-lined pastry, not bread, and fights the crust on equal terms.
Common allergens: Gluten
Tip from the editors. Grate frozen butter into the flour if the rubbing intimidates; the goal is visible fat streaks, which become the biscuit's layers.
Maple Street Biscuit Company hands over flaky biscuit stacks and shots of maple at 407 Broad Street, downtown Chattanooga's fast brunch fix.
Order: A fried chicken biscuit with house-made pepper jelly.
Tip: Doors close at 14:00 weekdays and 15:00 weekends; it is a breakfast-and-lunch operation, not a dinner stop.
More cities are in research. Want fried chicken biscuit covered somewhere specific? Tell us where you want to eat.