Review: Chicken & Waffles Oreos? The New Bizarre Limited Edition Lineup Bites Off More Than It Can Chew

Oreo cookies have been around a long time; 114 years to be exact. That means every generation of human beings living in America has been around as long as the cookie company. My generation had a few flavors to choose from. I remember getting sick from its Double Stuf after having eaten an entire tray throughout the course of one evening.

Oreo jumped on the collab bandwagon starting with Lady Gaga in 2021. Her Chromatica-inspired cookie was a huge hit, and if you didn't get them early, you couldn't find them on store shelves. Today, flavor combinations are the big thing. Brands like Lays have introduced non-traditional potato chip flavors into their brand lineup, and even M&M's is putting its test kitchen into overtime.

It feels like the snack wars have returned, but unlike the cola wars, brands are staying in their respective lanes, Oreo included. In 2025, Coca-Cola released an Oreo-flavored zero-calorie beverage, and Mondelēz International released a Coke-flavored Oreo.

Oreo is releasing three new special edition treats this month, and TheTakeout got a chance to taste them before they are released to the public for a limited time on August 24. This is also a consumer voting campaign where people can vote on their favorite flavor to put in the wholesale rotation starting in 2027. Read on to discover which ones I think are worth your vote and which should be vetoed immediately. 

I am a big fan of cookies, and, although I prefer the soft batch over the sandwich variety, I cling to my cravings for Oreos every once in a while because they pair well with cold milk, they have a fun "twist and lick" factor, and I can't resist revisiting core memories that resurface from my childhood. With this new snack food trend of combining non-traditional flavors with shelf-stable snacks, it's an exciting time for pop culture culinary enthusiasts. So when I got assigned to try Oreo's latest limited edition drop, I was ecstatic. But, the trouble with mash-ups is that they can be hit or miss.

For this article, I made my assessments based on aroma, adherence to flavor profiles on the wrapper, and ,of course, taste. I ate each cookie twice: Once as a whole, and once tasting only the creme filling. I took sips of milk in-between tastings to cleanse my palate. My list consisted of these factors with a slight tilt toward my personal tastes and if I think Oreo incorporated it classic flavor into the recipe. 

Some recommendations are based on first-hand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer/distributor/etc.

I love a good old-fashioned banana pudding, especially the kind that comes in a small box and says "instant." So I was very excited when I saw that Oreo was making a cookie which would hopefully mimic that flavor while adding a satisfying crunch.

I ripped open the pack using the brand's new and satisfying resealable top-facing trap door. I was expecting the sweet-smelling aroma of banana, but to my surprise it was only faint; drowned out by the even stronger slap of vanilla.

I rejected the idea of the twist and lick and instead bit into the entire thing, hoping Oreo's intention was to indulge the customer with a gestalt of flavors. It took two bites to get the banana flavor up into my olfactory system because all my tongue detected was the vanilla creme. There are two layers of creme in this cookie: One is the iconic white Oreo filling, the other is a thin yellow tier which holds the "pudding" part.

The banana began to intensify as I chewed, but I didn't appreciate it. Suddenly the sweetness ramped up, and the imitation banana came through. It's is so cloyingly sweet and acidic I could feel the back of my throat begin to tingle. This cookie didn't win me over. Adding layers of sugar to something already sweet on its own, like banana pudding, doesn't allow any nuance, and instead gives you something that tastes as if it came from a test kitchen run by an AI chef. 

Can cognitive dissonance have a flavor? If it did, Oreo's new Chicken and Waffles cookie would probably be it. The label clearly says "chicken and waffles," but I'm crying foul. Or in this case, fowl. Growing up, I thought the idea of mixing chicken and waffles was gross. But, when I got older, I learned to appreciate the tasty mash-up.

I opened the package by peeling away the top-loading resealable label and was immediately hit with the warm and cozy aroma of maple. I took a bite of the entire cookie after admiring the "waffle" design on the outside. This was a pleasant surprise to me. You're immediately hit with a warm maple flavor, which feels more like fall than summer. These cookies are delicious, and not too sweet. I feel Oreo often cranks up the sugar, perhaps to create an immediate path from your taste buds to your dopamine receptors. 

But, and here's where the cognitive dissonance comes into play, the package says "chicken and waffles," but I couldn't taste a single hint of chicken. I was expecting some kind of savory component, but it never materialized. I would think Mondelēz International, which owns Oreo, would have given curious snackers something savory in the product to make good on its promise. If it was there, I couldn't taste it. Ironically, eating the creme center by itself was pleasant, but I appreciated the wafers on the outside to break up the intense sugar rush. 

Have you ever been to a fair and walked down food alley, and all the smells reach into your nose and take you on a journey of corn dog batter, cotton candy, and a variety of barbecued meats? If you've made that trek, you might have seen the deep-fried food trailers which have everything from battered butter to Uncrustaburgers. But, there is one treat that's the king of all deep-fried carnival snacks, and that's the original Oreo cookie. Taking it from the carnival to the shelves of your local supermarket, Oreo hopes you get that same nostalgic feeling when you bite into its newest limited edition flavor, aptly called "deep fried," which for all intents and purposes does what it promises. 

I was first hit with that recognizable Oreo chocolate flavor, which is on the inside; the outer cookie is vanilla. It all comes together in a flavorful package with chocolate being the top note. Here's where it gets interesting; you get that greasy coating in your mouth just like at the fair. Some people might get turned off by the texture, but I enjoyed it. Is it a novelty? Sure, but it's a satisfying one. 

I tasted the cream stuffing on its own, and it was creamy, sweet and bold. However, if you're not keen on the intentional greasy aftertaste, you might not like these. But I loved them and would purchase them again if I want a reminder of Ferris Wheels, Midway games, and state fair nosh.

Although Oreo is over a century old, its name has become ubiquitous with chocolate sandwich-style cookies with a creme filling. As time marches on and as I imagine new blood starts bringing their ideas to product pitch meetings, new trends begin to form, such as dirty sodas, cross-brand mashups, or inventing new items based on pop stars or blockbuster movies.

Oreo has embraced this new way of advertising and I feel like it's been hit or miss. Mondelēz International, which owns the brand, has taken big swings with offerings like its Thanksgiving Feast Oreos and dill pickle flavors, but those seemed more novel than edible.

With these new flavors, I found them to be safer, but only one elevated the iconic cookie to something new. That was the Deep Fried flavor, which was delicious and unique. The Banana Pudding and Chicken & Waffles felt like nothing more than a cash grab, with the former, in my opinion, failing miserably to live up to the source material.

I'm not one to check nutrition labels if I plan to splurge on a snack food, but I know some people do. If you're one of them, here's the breakdown for these new Oreo limited edition treats.

The Chicken and Waffles flavor is 150 calories for two cookies with 140 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of saturated fat. For two Banana Pudding cookies, it's 140 calories with 70 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of saturated fat. The highest amount of calories for two cookies of all three flavors in this limited release is the Deep Fried variety with 180 calories for two, 115 milligrams of sodium and 3.5 grams of saturated fat.

The good news for consumers looking to try one or all of these three new batches of cookies from Oreo is that they probably won't have to travel too far to get them. The National retailer rollout begins on August 24, when all three flavors will be available for a limited time, while supplies last.

Each package has a suggested retail price of $5.49. If you can't wait until then, presale will begin on August 17 by visiting the Oreo website. While you're there you can vote for your favorite flavor from this new drop. The flavor that wins will go into wholesale rotation starting in 2027.