The best-known origin story for Nashville Hot Chicken goes something like this: One night, a man named Thornton Prince came home after a long night out doing who-knows-what. His girlfriend decided to show her displeasure with a revenge dish—the spiciest fried chicken she could concoct.
She realized her plan had backfired when Prince didn’t bat an eye; he loved it so much, he opened a restaurant based on her recipe—Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, the original hot chicken restaurant in Nashville, or anywhere else as far as anyone knows.
That was in 1936, and today hot chicken is a source of pride for Nashville. With heat levels ranging from “mild” to “shut the cluck up!,” it’s a rite of passage, an adventure, and a memorable meal rolled into one. The James Beard Foundation has even recognized Prince’s with an America’s Classics Award.
Beyond Nashvillians, visitors to the Music City are helping to fuel the hot chicken craze. Rany Burstein, who lives in New York City but has traveled often to Nashville on business as the CEO of Diggz, is a perfect example. “Labor Day weekend in 2022, a friend in New York who’s a foodie recommended Hattie B’s Hot Chicken,” he says. “I saw their location on Broadway with a line around the corner. Then another night I passed by and the line was short, so I figured I’d try it. I was hooked.”
Many fans come from even farther. Saddat Abid, the CEO of Property Saviour in the United Kingdom, travels often to the United States and has spent enough time in Nashville to know his hot chicken. He’s even tried the original, Prince’s, which is still around today and has grown to include multiple locations. “Nothing compares to sitting in a booth at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, sweating through a plate of fiery chicken served on white bread with pickles,” he says. “It’s not just food; it’s a tradition that connects people, from locals to tourists.”
Abid says he’s tried without much success to replicate it at home. “It’s never quite the same as the authentic Nashville experience,” he says. “The secret seems to be in the balance—enough spice to make you sweat but not so much that you can’t taste the crispy chicken underneath.”
What is ‘Hot Chicken’?
Recipes vary, hence the many debates around which of Nashville’s many hot-chicken places is the best. The fundamentals start with a balanced spice rub of salt and sugar combined with savory spices like onion and garlic powder combined with cayenne and maybe even some ghost pepper.
Mackensy Lunsford is the senior dining reporter for the Tennessean, food-and-cultural storyteller for USA TODAY Network’s South region, and editor of Southern Kitchen. She says anyone can spice up a chicken rub—the real secret is in the frying. “The thing that makes Nashville Hot Chicken Nashville Hot Chicken is the spicy finishing fat,” Lunsford says. “You bloom spices in this hot fat and then finish your already-fried chicken with it.” The other essential ingredients? White bread, which helps to soak up the spicy fat, and pickles. (“Pickles and hot chicken go together like lemons and tea,” Andre Prince Jeffries, who has kept her family’s legendary restaurant alive, once told the Los Angeles Times).
Almost any place that serves hot chicken allows diners to specify how hot they want it. Aron Solomon, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and businessman based in Quebec, visits Nashville often and has some advice for newbies. “Personally, I love extremely spicy foods, but there’s something about Nashville hot chicken that can just get you,” he says. “Even for me, ‘normal’ hot in Nashville at a truly authentic place is plenty. Don’t be that cowgirl or cowboy who decides to go for the hottest—it’s generally not edible or digestible.”
For Years, a Well-Kept Secret
While Nashville Hot Chicken is a global phenomenon today, its journey from Prince’s humble origins to international sensation wasn’t a straight path. Lunsford says that for decades, this fiery delicacy remained one of Nashville’s best-kept secrets, thriving in the city’s historically Black neighborhoods while remaining virtually unknown to outsiders.
“You’ll hear a lot of people who have lived in Nashville for a long time say, ‘I don’t remember this being a thing,’” she says. “That’s because while Nashville was the first major Southern city to begin desegregating lunch counters and that sort of thing, we still remained divided in a lot of ways.”
There were a few famous exceptions—performers who played the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, loved to step out and visit Prince’s nearby, defying racial divisions to enjoy what was for them a newfound delicacy.
Lunsford credits Bill Purcell, who became mayor of Nashville and Davidson County in 1999, with helping to finally give hot chicken its due. “He started championing hot chicken, and it became known to a wider Nashville audience,” Lunsford says. “After that, because of people visiting Nashville, hot chicken spread throughout the South, then throughout the country. Now it’s an international phenomenon. I’ve heard there are hot-chicken restaurants in Asia.”
More than Heat
In 2007, Mayor Purcell started the annual Music City Hot Chicken Festival, held every year on the Fourth of July. This year’s festival will mark its 18th anniversary of celebrating hot chicken with a parade of vintage fire trucks, chicken from local restaurants, and the Hot Chicken Festival Amateur Cooking Competition. Attendance has grown from 500 people in 2007 to more than 13,000 in recent years.
Beth Eggleston and Jasmine Alvarado, founders of the Nashville-based spice company Two Hot Mamas, won last year’s amateur cooking competition. Along with marinating their hot chicken with their own proprietary seasoning blends and serving it up with a side of tropical slaw and pina coladas, they say they also tried to infuse a heaping of heritage into their winning version of this storied food favorite.
“We took the time to learn about its rich history, deeply rooted in Black culture, and the resilience of the original business that thrived despite the hardships of segregation in Nashville,” Alvarado says. “That determination…inspired us to approach this dish with care and admiration.”
Saddat Abid, the U.K. businessman who’s become an unlikely hot chicken ambassador, has been to the festival himself. “At the Music City Hot Chicken Festival, you see folks bonding over their shared love of this iconic dish,” he says. “It’s not just about the heat; it’s about the stories and memories that come with it.” Abid adds: “If you’re ever in Nashville, don’t miss the chance to try it. Just be ready for a flavor that lingers long after the meal is over.”
