Instead, Thornton decided he liked it so much that, by the mid-1930s, he and his brothers had created their own recipe and opened the BBQ Chicken Shack café. Her great-uncle Thornton was purportedly a womanizer, and after a particularly late Saturday night out, his girlfriend at the time cooked him a fried chicken breakfast with extra pepper as revenge. Although impossible to verify, Jeffries says the development of hot chicken was an accident. She has operated the restaurant since 1980 before that time, it was owned by her great-uncle, Thornton Prince III.

It is generally accepted that the originator of hot chicken is the family of Andre Prince Jeffries, owner of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. The dish may have been introduced as early as the 1930s however, the current style of spice paste may only date back to the mid-1970s. History Īnecdotal evidence suggests that spicy fried chicken has been served in Nashville's African-American communities for generations.

Some hot chicken restaurants also serve hot fish, but other restaurants may specialize in hot fish alone. Hot fish Ī variation of the hot chicken theme is hot fish, typically a breaded and fried whiting or catfish filet prepared using a similar cayenne paste as hot chicken, or using a cayenne powder blend sprinkled liberally over the filet. Recipes, cooking methods, and preparation steps for hot chicken are often closely guarded secrets, proprietary to the specific restaurant, so the appearance of the chicken may vary widely. The main variation to traditional hot chicken is in the application of the spice paste: before breading or after breading, and whether or not additional spices are applied. Variations Nashville-style hot fish Hot chicken strip on a stick The heat level of the chicken can be varied by the preparer by reducing or increasing the amount of paste applied. The paste is applied to the fried chicken by the server using a spoon and latex gloves it is lightly squeezed into the finished chicken by hand. Some restaurants vary the composition of the paste, adding sugar, garlic, or additional hot sauce. The two are mixed together, three parts pepper to one part lard, and heated until they form a thick sauce. Some preparations of hot chicken are breaded and fried after application of the spice paste the more traditional method has the paste applied immediately after the chicken is removed from the fryer.Ī typical Nashville-style hot chicken spice paste has two key ingredients: lard and cayenne pepper. Nearly all hot chicken is marinated in buttermilk to impart flavor and to retain the meat's juices upon frying (sometimes in olive oil). A pressure fryer or deep fryer can be used, although most restaurants serve a pan-fried dish. Preparation Īlthough the components of the dish largely remain the same, the preparation of the dish can differ greatly. The popularity of hot chicken has spread beyond the Southern United States due to the influence of Nashville's music industry.

There are many restaurants in Nashville that serve a variant of the dish, and there is a citywide festival and competition celebrating it. It can be viewed in similar context to other foods that have been tweaked to be unique in a regional way, such as the slugburger or the Mississippi Delta tamale. It is both the application of a spicy paste and the presentation that differentiates it from similar dishes, such as Buffalo wings. It is served atop slices of white bread with pickle chips. Spice blends, preparation methods, and heat intensity vary from recipe to recipe or depending on the chef. A richly pigmented seasoning paste gives the fried chicken its reddish hue. This method of preparation originates within African American communities in the Southern United States. In its typical preparation, it is a portion of breast, thigh, or wing that has been marinated in a water-based blend of seasoning, floured, fried, and finally covered in a paste or sauce that has been spiced with cayenne pepper. Hot chicken (or Nashville hot chicken) is a type of fried chicken that is a local specialty of Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States.

Nashville hot chicken shack menu