Nashville Hot Chicken

Nashville hot chicken is cooked in a deep fryer or a skillet, its heat elevated in one of several ways. The batter it’s coated should include pepper and the frying oil can be spiced or brushed with a pepper-hot paste after you take it out of the boiling oil. It always is served with white bread, which sops up the spicy chicken juice.  It is often served with tart pickle chips to compliment the chicken fried flavor for your taste buds.

Hot chicken first was served at Nashville’s still-thriving Prince’s Chicken Shack a couple of generations ago when proprietor Thornton Prince’s girlfriend, wanting to get even with him for his carousing one night, sopped his fried chicken in a painful amount of pepper. Instead of screaming for mercy, he yelled for joy. Hot fried chicken became Prince’s trademark and soon a passion throughout Music City. Today, Prince’s and every place that serves it offers different degrees of heat.