8 ms·

How Hot Chicken Happened

95 points by jger15 8y ago

nodesocket 7y ago
Been in Nashville for about a year and half. Prince's Chicken is the best I've had, but of course Hattie B's is the most popular. Pro-tip if you in Nashville and don't want to wait in the huge lines at Hattie B's, it is rumored that Party Fowl was founded by somebody who used to work there and stole the recipe. Go to Party Fowl no lines.
- opportune 7y ago
  Party fowl also has a more expansive menu. Hattie B's is still the best though, I would just go there at like 3:30 when there would be a very short line. I really like spicy food and don't think I'm a wimp, but the medium intensity hot chicken I had at Party Fowl was REALLY fucking hot too. Much hotter than the same level at Hattie B's. If you have 5 heat-levels on your chicken with medium being the second lowest, you should really adjust it so that medium is tolerable to regular people. I swear that stuff was hotter than anything else I've ever had, including lots of ghost pepper flavored products and all the other spicy food I had living in Nashville
  - nodesocket 7y ago
    No doubt. I got the medium at Party Fowl at was crying a few minutes in. The bartender was laughing.
    - CydeWeys 7y ago
      Hell yeah this sounds like my kind of place! I'm so used to restaurant food not actually being all that spicy that I always order whatever's spiciest, and then every so often I find a place that actually takes spicy seriously and it just about kills me (in a good way). It turns from eating for enjoyment to eating tot accomplishment at that point, which frankly is more memorable.
    - djakjxnanjak 7y ago
      Maybe they just have a bartender that likes messing with people.
- cosmie 7y ago
  +1 on the Prince's recommendation. But does Hattie B's usually have huge lines now? I haven't gone very often in the last year or so, but I can't really recall ever standing in the ordering line longer than a few minutes.
  - dreamcompiler 7y ago
    I went to Hattie B's around 6 pm on a Wednesday last month and only waited about 15 minutes.
  - azhenley 7y ago
    Last time I went at 11 on a weekday and the line was quite long. It moved quickly though.
  - rocketpastsix 7y ago
    depends on which one. The midtown one always has a long line. The one on 8th ave can be up and down but has a ton more seating. Same with the Sylvan Park one.
- rschapman 7y ago
  You can also hit up Bishops in Cool Springs and they carry it too.
- rocketpastsix 7y ago
  Don't go to Party Fowl. It sucks. You want hot chicken without lines? Either order hattie b's online and pick it up, or go to Slow Burn, Pepperfire, TNT BBQ, 400 Degrees, or Big Shakes I live in Nashville. Party Fowl is a last resort.
  - dgritsko 7y ago
    Another vote for Pepperfire here. Absolutely delicious.
  - basch 7y ago
    another vote against Party Fowl. Its fine enough for a large group of people if you need seating, but if youre only in Nashville for a short period of time, try something else. If you do end up at PF, the lacquered lollipops were the best thing they had of everything I tried.
2819b 7y ago
For those on the West Coast, Hattie B's recently opened in Las Vegas at the Cosmo.
- zachgersh 7y ago
  For those on the West Coast, well LA, we actually have access to incredible hot chicken in Howlin' Rays. The chicken definitely stays true to the Nashville original and they have the lines to prove it (peak is like 3 hours).
  - dima55 7y ago
    It's apparently now a thing here (LA): https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-nashville-hot-chicken-princes-howlin-rays-20190509-story.html https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-nashville-hot-chicken-pri...
  - rocketpastsix 7y ago
    To give Howlin Ray's some credit, they did a pop-up night here in Nashville with 400 Degrees (one of the highest regarded places) and it was incredibly packed and successful. Next time I'm in LA, I will be at Howlin Rays!
    - messick 7y ago
      Not sure if things have calmed down in the last year, but get ready for 2-3 hour lines.
  - clairity 7y ago
    i went to howlin rays a few times when it opened (the line was “only” 15-30 mins long then). it’s delicious but the line is way too long now to go regularly. i switched to dave’s for a while but that’s now got a long line too. luckily new options have popped up and maybe will tame those crazy lines at howlin rays eventually.
perfmode 7y ago
Personally, I put Bolton’s above all. :)
- sciurus 7y ago
  It's too dry! I do miss living in walking distance of both Bolton's and Pepperfire. cwage's ranking at https://quietlife.net/2015/07/27/the-best-hot-chicken-in-nashville/ https://quietlife.net/2015/07/27/the-best-hot-chicken-in-nas... is older but still pretty good.
craigds 7y ago
So it's just chicken with hot sauce?
- taejo 7y ago
  AIUI there's chilli powder in the breading, too.
- kkarakk 7y ago
  So you've never had lemon pepper wings either i'm guessing? try some, it'll change your life
  - cylinder714 7y ago
    Lemon pepper on macaroni and cheese!
- empath75 7y ago
  Cacio e Pepe is just pasta with cheese and pepper.
- pzone 7y ago
  It's more like butter infused with spices, not hot sauce. Using an oil-based coating allows the fried chicken to stay crispy. They also add pepper to the batter.
- yareally 7y ago
  Fried chicken + cayenne pepper + buttermilk + brown sugar + some other spices. It's not buffalo wings nor does it taste like them if that's what you're wondering. It's closer to a spicy chicken sandwich at Wendy's or Chick Fil A, but a bit more sweet/spicy than just spicy. I've made the following recipe at home and it's fairly close (I would cut down the 6 tablespoons of cayenne to 2-3 and try it before adding more): https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/nashville-style-hot-chicken-51236260 https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/nashville-styl...
  - auiya 7y ago
samcheng 7y ago
Here's a solid New Yorker article on Hot Chicken: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/the-family-business-that-put-nashville-hot-chicken-on-the-map https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/the-family-bus... Apparently Prince's chicken started as a prank! I'm happy that it's continuing to grow in popularity, myself.
pjc50 7y ago
This sounds a lot like Nandos. (Also, the article is 90% about the racialisation of urban planning in Nashville and the author's surprise at discovering that different communities eat different foods.)
- kkarakk 7y ago
  > author's surprise at discovering that different communities eat different foods. i think it's more that in a well researched and sourced article you can't just start from the generalisation "well it's well known that minorities like spices" as that assumes an us(the reader-part of the mainstream) vs them(the quirky minority) mentality
  - nashvillecactus 7y ago
    Never mind that the "secret" was out a long time before 2005, when the author left for grad school. There was even an Insomniac episode from 2003 that featured Prince's. I think the fact that nobody in her family had heard of hot chicken speaks more to her and her family than of the general population (white or otherwise) of Nashville.
    - kkarakk 7y ago
      Well the article is on the internet and has a global audience(esp when amplified by aggregators like hackernews). i personally didn't know the origins of hot chicken(my first interaction with it was KFC)
- pjmlp 7y ago
  As Portuguese it was a surprise to discover that "our" recipe had lots of variations around the world, back when I started traveling. Naturally the idea to combine spicies and grilled chicken, is a natural thing to do in any community that has access to both. Regarding Nandos, having tried a couple of them in UK, the experience is quite different from what you would actually get in Portugal.
- sciurus 7y ago
_9ijd 7y ago
For those in Tokyo, Soul Food House in Azabujuban has some very good Hot Chicken and delivers through Uber Eats.
bluedino 7y ago
It's popular enough that KFC is cashing in on the trend
tracker1 7y ago
For those that know... how is this difference more/less than the spicy/hot chicken from Church's (aka Texas outside US) or Popeye's Chicken?
- sciurus 7y ago
  First of all, the base fried chicken is usually much better than you'd get at a fast food chain. Second, it's legitimately spicy. At higher heat levels the chicken is dark red from all the cayenne. Eating it is more akin to eating a raw pepper than eating something like Church's spicy chicken.
- wil421 7y ago
  Those places and even Bojangles tend to have spices in the batter that might give a slight red/pink color to the skin. If you get the HOT Nashville Chicken, and I mean the hottest one hot they serve, it will be dripping red, almost smothered in red hot sauce and cayenne powder. I’ve been to Prince’s, Hattie B’s and Bolton’s. Bolton’s was crazy spicy and left the stomach in a state of fury for a few days. Marinate chicken pieces in equal parts butter milk and a Louisiana hot sauce (cayenne based) overnight to get a really tender and juicy fried chicken.
  - sciurus 7y ago
    Don't make the mistake of thinking pouring a standard hot sauce on fried chicken == nashville hot chicken, though. This is what a lot of restaurants that don't specialize in hot chicken have done to jump on the craze, and it's not at all the same. Those sauces will have a lot of vinegar which affects both the flavor and texture negatively. Nashville hot chicken traditionally is coated in a mixture of lard (or oil) and cayenne.
    - wil421 7y ago
      I had more in my last paragraph but removed it so I wouldn’t confuse anyone. I’ll just give the marinade I like the most, that one and the one where you just use pickle juice overnight.
  - 7y ago
auiya 7y ago
These are all cute folk-lore tales, but nothing more. Humans have used chili peppers and other hot spices for thousands of years on all manners of food, and commercially bottling hot sauce (in the US at least) since the early 1800s. To try and pretend putting hot sauce or dried pepper spices on fried chicken is something that originated in the post-war south is utter nonsense.
- mywittyname 7y ago
  It's the modern marketing machine at work. The heartwarming story and mythos are an important component for manufacturing that authenticity and uniqueness. It even encourages gaslighting by people in the region who pretend to have "grown up on the stuff" when they really only found about about it five years ago. Also, to anyone who loves hot chicken, next time you're at your favorite Chinese place, ask for Mala chicken, you won't' be disappointed.

95 points by jger15 8y ago

Been in Nashville for about a year and half. Prince's Chicken is the best I've had, but of course Hattie B's is the most popular. Pro-tip if you in Nashville and don't want to wait in the huge lines at Hattie B's, it is rumored that Party Fowl was founded by somebody who used to work there and stole the recipe. Go to Party Fowl no lines.

opportune 7y ago
Party fowl also has a more expansive menu. Hattie B's is still the best though, I would just go there at like 3:30 when there would be a very short line. I really like spicy food and don't think I'm a wimp, but the medium intensity hot chicken I had at Party Fowl was REALLY fucking hot too. Much hotter than the same level at Hattie B's. If you have 5 heat-levels on your chicken with medium being the second lowest, you should really adjust it so that medium is tolerable to regular people. I swear that stuff was hotter than anything else I've ever had, including lots of ghost pepper flavored products and all the other spicy food I had living in Nashville
- nodesocket 7y ago
  No doubt. I got the medium at Party Fowl at was crying a few minutes in. The bartender was laughing.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    Hell yeah this sounds like my kind of place! I'm so used to restaurant food not actually being all that spicy that I always order whatever's spiciest, and then every so often I find a place that actually takes spicy seriously and it just about kills me (in a good way). It turns from eating for enjoyment to eating tot accomplishment at that point, which frankly is more memorable.
  - djakjxnanjak 7y ago
    Maybe they just have a bartender that likes messing with people.
cosmie 7y ago
+1 on the Prince's recommendation. But does Hattie B's usually have huge lines now? I haven't gone very often in the last year or so, but I can't really recall ever standing in the ordering line longer than a few minutes.
- dreamcompiler 7y ago
  I went to Hattie B's around 6 pm on a Wednesday last month and only waited about 15 minutes.
- azhenley 7y ago
  Last time I went at 11 on a weekday and the line was quite long. It moved quickly though.
- rocketpastsix 7y ago
  depends on which one. The midtown one always has a long line. The one on 8th ave can be up and down but has a ton more seating. Same with the Sylvan Park one.
rschapman 7y ago
You can also hit up Bishops in Cool Springs and they carry it too.
rocketpastsix 7y ago
Don't go to Party Fowl. It sucks. You want hot chicken without lines? Either order hattie b's online and pick it up, or go to Slow Burn, Pepperfire, TNT BBQ, 400 Degrees, or Big Shakes I live in Nashville. Party Fowl is a last resort.
- dgritsko 7y ago
  Another vote for Pepperfire here. Absolutely delicious.
- basch 7y ago
  another vote against Party Fowl. Its fine enough for a large group of people if you need seating, but if youre only in Nashville for a short period of time, try something else. If you do end up at PF, the lacquered lollipops were the best thing they had of everything I tried.

2819b 7y ago

For those on the West Coast, Hattie B's recently opened in Las Vegas at the Cosmo.

zachgersh 7y ago
For those on the West Coast, well LA, we actually have access to incredible hot chicken in Howlin' Rays. The chicken definitely stays true to the Nashville original and they have the lines to prove it (peak is like 3 hours).
- dima55 7y ago
  It's apparently now a thing here (LA): https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-nashville-hot-chicken-princes-howlin-rays-20190509-story.html https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-nashville-hot-chicken-pri...
- rocketpastsix 7y ago
  To give Howlin Ray's some credit, they did a pop-up night here in Nashville with 400 Degrees (one of the highest regarded places) and it was incredibly packed and successful. Next time I'm in LA, I will be at Howlin Rays!
  - messick 7y ago
    Not sure if things have calmed down in the last year, but get ready for 2-3 hour lines.
- clairity 7y ago
  i went to howlin rays a few times when it opened (the line was “only” 15-30 mins long then). it’s delicious but the line is way too long now to go regularly. i switched to dave’s for a while but that’s now got a long line too. luckily new options have popped up and maybe will tame those crazy lines at howlin rays eventually.

perfmode 7y ago

Personally, I put Bolton’s above all. :)

sciurus 7y ago
It's too dry! I do miss living in walking distance of both Bolton's and Pepperfire. cwage's ranking at https://quietlife.net/2015/07/27/the-best-hot-chicken-in-nashville/ https://quietlife.net/2015/07/27/the-best-hot-chicken-in-nas... is older but still pretty good.

craigds 7y ago

So it's just chicken with hot sauce?

taejo 7y ago
AIUI there's chilli powder in the breading, too.
kkarakk 7y ago
So you've never had lemon pepper wings either i'm guessing? try some, it'll change your life
- cylinder714 7y ago
  Lemon pepper on macaroni and cheese!
empath75 7y ago
Cacio e Pepe is just pasta with cheese and pepper.
pzone 7y ago
It's more like butter infused with spices, not hot sauce. Using an oil-based coating allows the fried chicken to stay crispy. They also add pepper to the batter.
yareally 7y ago
Fried chicken + cayenne pepper + buttermilk + brown sugar + some other spices. It's not buffalo wings nor does it taste like them if that's what you're wondering. It's closer to a spicy chicken sandwich at Wendy's or Chick Fil A, but a bit more sweet/spicy than just spicy. I've made the following recipe at home and it's fairly close (I would cut down the 6 tablespoons of cayenne to 2-3 and try it before adding more): https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/nashville-style-hot-chicken-51236260 https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/nashville-styl...
- auiya 7y ago

samcheng 7y ago

Here's a solid New Yorker article on Hot Chicken: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/the-family-business-that-put-nashville-hot-chicken-on-the-map https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/04/the-family-bus... Apparently Prince's chicken started as a prank! I'm happy that it's continuing to grow in popularity, myself.

pjc50 7y ago

This sounds a lot like Nandos. (Also, the article is 90% about the racialisation of urban planning in Nashville and the author's surprise at discovering that different communities eat different foods.)

kkarakk 7y ago
> author's surprise at discovering that different communities eat different foods. i think it's more that in a well researched and sourced article you can't just start from the generalisation "well it's well known that minorities like spices" as that assumes an us(the reader-part of the mainstream) vs them(the quirky minority) mentality
- nashvillecactus 7y ago
  Never mind that the "secret" was out a long time before 2005, when the author left for grad school. There was even an Insomniac episode from 2003 that featured Prince's. I think the fact that nobody in her family had heard of hot chicken speaks more to her and her family than of the general population (white or otherwise) of Nashville.
  - kkarakk 7y ago
    Well the article is on the internet and has a global audience(esp when amplified by aggregators like hackernews). i personally didn't know the origins of hot chicken(my first interaction with it was KFC)
pjmlp 7y ago
As Portuguese it was a surprise to discover that "our" recipe had lots of variations around the world, back when I started traveling. Naturally the idea to combine spicies and grilled chicken, is a natural thing to do in any community that has access to both. Regarding Nandos, having tried a couple of them in UK, the experience is quite different from what you would actually get in Portugal.
sciurus 7y ago

_9ijd 7y ago

For those in Tokyo, Soul Food House in Azabujuban has some very good Hot Chicken and delivers through Uber Eats.

bluedino 7y ago

It's popular enough that KFC is cashing in on the trend

tracker1 7y ago

For those that know... how is this difference more/less than the spicy/hot chicken from Church's (aka Texas outside US) or Popeye's Chicken?

sciurus 7y ago
First of all, the base fried chicken is usually much better than you'd get at a fast food chain. Second, it's legitimately spicy. At higher heat levels the chicken is dark red from all the cayenne. Eating it is more akin to eating a raw pepper than eating something like Church's spicy chicken.
wil421 7y ago
Those places and even Bojangles tend to have spices in the batter that might give a slight red/pink color to the skin. If you get the HOT Nashville Chicken, and I mean the hottest one hot they serve, it will be dripping red, almost smothered in red hot sauce and cayenne powder. I’ve been to Prince’s, Hattie B’s and Bolton’s. Bolton’s was crazy spicy and left the stomach in a state of fury for a few days. Marinate chicken pieces in equal parts butter milk and a Louisiana hot sauce (cayenne based) overnight to get a really tender and juicy fried chicken.
- sciurus 7y ago
  Don't make the mistake of thinking pouring a standard hot sauce on fried chicken == nashville hot chicken, though. This is what a lot of restaurants that don't specialize in hot chicken have done to jump on the craze, and it's not at all the same. Those sauces will have a lot of vinegar which affects both the flavor and texture negatively. Nashville hot chicken traditionally is coated in a mixture of lard (or oil) and cayenne.
  - wil421 7y ago
    I had more in my last paragraph but removed it so I wouldn’t confuse anyone. I’ll just give the marinade I like the most, that one and the one where you just use pickle juice overnight.
- 7y ago

auiya 7y ago

These are all cute folk-lore tales, but nothing more. Humans have used chili peppers and other hot spices for thousands of years on all manners of food, and commercially bottling hot sauce (in the US at least) since the early 1800s. To try and pretend putting hot sauce or dried pepper spices on fried chicken is something that originated in the post-war south is utter nonsense.

mywittyname 7y ago
It's the modern marketing machine at work. The heartwarming story and mythos are an important component for manufacturing that authenticity and uniqueness. It even encourages gaslighting by people in the region who pretend to have "grown up on the stuff" when they really only found about about it five years ago. Also, to anyone who loves hot chicken, next time you're at your favorite Chinese place, ask for Mala chicken, you won't' be disappointed.