Nashville Hot Chicken
Brined, double-dredged fried chicken brushed with a fiery cayenne oil and served the Nashville way, on slices of white bread with pickle chips.
The James Beard Foundation tells the story it honored in 2013, when it named Prince's Hot Chicken Shack an America's Classic: Thornton Prince, a handsome man who liked late nights, angered a girlfriend, who doused his Sunday-morning fried chicken in cayenne pepper; the revenge backfired because he loved it, and by the mid-1930s he and his brothers had perfected a recipe and opened a café called the BBQ Chicken Shack. His great-niece André Prince Jeffries has run the restaurant since 1980 (Wikipedia:) and renamed it Prince's Hot Chicken Shack when she took over (Martin, below). The date and the details are DISPUTED: historian Rachel Louise Martin, in "Hot, Hot Chicken: A Nashville Story" (Vanderbilt University Press, 2021), writes that the story happened in the 1930s, or maybe the 1920s, or as late as the 1940s or 1950s, and that nobody knows what went into the first hot chicken (excerpt at Humanities Tennessee:). In a 2006 Southern Foodways Alliance oral history, Jeffries describes chicken cooked to order in mild, medium or hot, served on white bread with sliced pickles.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Brined, double-dredged fried chicken brushed with a fiery cayenne oil and served the Nashville way, on slices of white bread with pickle chips.
🇺🇸 The original
The oldest American printed recipe we found, from 1824, dusts cut-up chicken in flour, salts it and fries it in lard, served with a parsley gravy. No buttermilk soak and no spicy crust. See the 1824 Virginia Fried Chicken with Milk Gravy (Mary Randolph) recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Bloom the cayenne in hot oil
30 seconds in hot fat brings out the pepper's flavor and color and turns dry powder into a glossy paint that clings to the crust (ATK).
Season after frying
Brushing the heat on at the end, instead of frying it into the coating, keeps the cayenne from scorching in the oil and lets you control the heat piece by piece.
Step by step
- Step 1
Whisk the water, hot sauce, salt and sugar until dissolved. Add the chicken, cover and refrigerate 30 minutes (no longer than 1 hour).
- Step 2
Heat the 1/4 cup oil in a small saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the cayenne, paprika, salt, garlic powder, sugar and dry mustard and stir 30 seconds, until fragrant. Pour it into a small bowl.
- Step 3
Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Drain the chicken and dredge the pieces two at a time, shake off the excess and set them on a wire rack. Save the flour.
- Step 4
Heat the oven to 200°F. Heat the 3 quarts of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high to 350°F.
- Step 5
Dredge the chicken a second time. Fry two quarters, adjusting the burner to hold the oil between 300°F and 325°F, 20 to 25 minutes, until deep golden brown and the breast reads 165°F and the dark meat 175°F.
- Step 6
Drain on a clean wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Bring the oil back to 350°F and fry the other two quarters the same way.
- Step 7
Stir the spicy oil, brush it over both sides of every piece, and serve each quarter on a slice of white bread topped with pickle chips.
Nashville Hot Chicken
Serves 4 (one quarter each) · 4 chicken quarters · 1 hr 45 min total
Brine
- 2 quarts cold water
- 1/2 cup hot sauce
- 1/2 cup table salt
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 whole chicken (3 1/2 to 4 lb), quartered
Spicy oil
- 1/4 cup oil, taken from the frying oil
- 3 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp dry mustard
Coating and frying
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 3 quarts peanut or vegetable oil (minus the 1/4 cup above)
To serve
- 4 slices soft white bread
- Dill pickle chips
Method
- Whisk the water, hot sauce, salt and sugar until dissolved. Add the chicken, cover and refrigerate 30 minutes (no longer than 1 hour).
- Heat the 1/4 cup oil in a small saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the cayenne, paprika, salt, garlic powder, sugar and dry mustard and stir 30 seconds, until fragrant. Pour it into a small bowl.
- Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Drain the chicken and dredge the pieces two at a time, shake off the excess and set them on a wire rack. Save the flour.
- Heat the oven to 200°F. Heat the 3 quarts of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high to 350°F.
- Dredge the chicken a second time. Fry two quarters, adjusting the burner to hold the oil between 300°F and 325°F, 20 to 25 minutes, until deep golden brown and the breast reads 165°F and the dark meat 175°F.
- Drain on a clean wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Bring the oil back to 350°F and fry the other two quarters the same way.
- Stir the spicy oil, brush it over both sides of every piece, and serve each quarter on a slice of white bread topped with pickle chips.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, "Nashville Extra-Hot Fried Chicken" (May 14, 2013), as written, with 4 servings from ATK's "4 to 6". We cook the breasts to 165°F (USDA FSIS) instead of ATK's 160°F. Prince's recipe is secret; this is a home version, not theirs. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- For a milder chicken, use 1 1/2 tbsp cayenne and brush lightly; Prince's sells mild, medium and hot, so there is no wrong level.
- The white bread is there to soak up the red oil. Eat it last.
- Don't brine longer than an hour; the salt and sugar brine is strong.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Thornton Prince invented hot chicken. Disputed: the Prince family story is widely accepted (Wikipedia calls the family the generally accepted originator, and the James Beard Foundation repeats the story), but Rachel Louise Martin's history says no one knows the woman, the date or the first recipe.
- It started in the 1930s. Disputed: the James Beard Foundation and Wikipedia say the BBQ Chicken Shack opened by the mid-1930s; Martin writes the 1920s to the 1950s; one food magazine gives 1945 (search summary only).
- The cayenne paste is made with lard. Disputed: Wikipedia describes a traditional paste of lard and cayenne; ATK and many restaurants use hot frying oil. Both work.
- Served on white bread with pickles. Documented (Southern Foodways Alliance oral history, 2006; Wikipedia).
- Today's paste style is as old as the restaurant. Disputed: Wikipedia says the current paste may only date to the mid-1970s.
- The girlfriend was getting revenge. Folklore: Wikipedia calls the story unverified; even its sources disagree on girlfriend or wife.
Every other fried chicken
1824 Virginia Fried Chicken with Milk Gravy (Mary Randolph)
The oldest American printed fried chicken recipe we found: chicken dredged in flour and salt, fried light brown in lard, with fried parsley and a simple butter and milk gravy poured over the top.
Southern Pan-Fried Buttermilk Chicken
Chicken brined in salt water, soaked overnight in buttermilk, dredged in flour and cornstarch, and pan-fried in a skillet of lard and butter flavored with country ham, the Edna Lewis way.
Maryland Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy
Chicken seasoned with dry mustard and garlic, dredged, browned in a covered pot so it steams as it fries, finished with Old Bay and served with a peppery cream gravy made from the drippings.
Korean Yangnyeom Chicken (Double-Fried Sweet and Spicy Wings)
Chicken wings in a light potato starch and egg batter, fried twice for a shatter-crisp crust, then tossed in a glossy sauce of gochujang, ketchup, syrup and garlic and showered with sesame seeds.
Japanese Chicken Karaage
Bite-size pieces of skin-on chicken thigh marinated in soy, sake, ginger and garlic, coated in flour and potato starch, and fried twice in under three minutes.
Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken (Yan Su Ji)
Bite-size chicken thigh marinated with garlic, ginger, soy and five-spice, coated in coarse sweet potato starch, fried crisp and tossed with fried basil and five-spice salt.
Indonesian Ayam Goreng Kalasan
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Air-Fryer Fried Chicken
Skinless bone-in chicken breasts in a buttermilk and crushed cornflake coat, seasoned with poultry seasoning, paprika and cayenne, air-fried crisp with just a spray of oil.
Kentucky-Style Fried Chicken, Inspired by KFC
Buttermilk-brined chicken in a peppery coating of flour, white pepper, celery salt, garlic, ginger and herbs, fried in one covered batch to mimic a pressure fryer. Inspired by, not official.
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