Nashville-Style Hot Chicken Is Worthy Of The Hype
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Knicknamed “Music City,” Nashville is the home of country music, hot chicken and Johnny Cash. It also happens to be the vibrant capital of Tennessee. Just like Jersey has Taylor ham, egg and cheese on a bagel, and New Orleans has the po’boy, Nashville has live music and killer hot chicken around every corner.
When you bite into a piece of hot chicken, done right, your lips should burn, your nose should run and you might even start sweating. Crispy buttermilk fried chicken — usually made with a breast, thigh or leg — is slathered with fiery spices, mainly cayenne pepper. Some people like to add garlic powder, chili powder, ground mustard, paprika or brown sugar to the rub. The chicken is often brushed with spicy oil, topped with pickles and nestled in between white bread, which soaks up all of the sizzling juices of the hot chicken. The bread is just another vehicle for transporting all of that delicious spicy goodness to your mouth.
Nashville’s most iconic food is a relatively simple concept, but not simple when it comes to its flavor. Hot chicken went from one of the south’s best-kept secrets to a global obsession. In 2013, the James Beard Foundation gave Prince’s Hot Chicken the American Classic Award — given to restaurants across the nation that are distinguished by their timeless appeal — for inventing the popular dish.
Thorton Prince is known as the father of Nashville’s hot chicken. This is how the story goes: One night Prince’s girlfriend got tired and jealous of his scandalous late-night escapades and as a revenge tactic, she doused his favorite Sunday morning snack, fried chicken, with cayenne pepper. Instead of getting angry, Prince loved the concept and that’s how hot chicken was born. Along with his brothers, Prince perfected the recipe and opened a cafe in the mid-1930s, originally called BBQ Chicken Shack. While the addicting dish has spread like wildfire over the years, Prince’s Hot Chicken (the chicken shack’s current name) continues to serve up the gold standard.
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