Coming in hot! Our quest to find the best hot chicken in Nashville

Let's start at the very beginning, and we mean very beginning: July 7, 2012. Two 20-something Bostonians met at a lunch gathering and hit it off, which resulted in a long afternoon of strolling the city, talking and getting to know one another. One conversation topic of the many was about food, and as difficult as it was to come up with a favorite food of them all, one in particular was enthusiastically mentioned: fried chicken. That love, along with ours for each other, has not dwindled in the past 12 years.

So when we finally got the chance to visit Nashville, we weren't itching to hop the honky tonks or go to the Country Music Hall of Fame. We went for the classic Nashville delicacy: hot chicken.

In essence, Nashville hot chicken is buttermilk fried chicken drenched in a spicy seasoning blend. The seasoning, typically consisting of both a paste and a dry rub, contains cayenne pepper and other hot spices and sauces, combined with hints of sweet and savory. Legend has it that, in the 1930s, a Lothario named Thornton Prince III was the victim of revenge cooking by his girlfriend, who had gotten fed up with Prince's womanizing ways. One day, she decided to make a surprisingly spicy fried chicken, hoping to quell his hot pursuits by use of excess capsaicin. Unfortunately, Prince ended up loving the recipe, and later opened up his own restaurant to sell this chicken to the masses. The chicken has been offered to customers ever since, with the modern-day Prince's restaurant serving up plated punishments in Nashville's Assembly Food Hall. Numerous other establishments have followed suit, and Nashville hot chicken is now a staple of the city. You can find designated hot chicken locales, or restaurants including the dish among their other entrees. Hot chicken can come in the form of tenders, chicken parts, sandwiches, and more. Over time, Prince's has been awarded the OG hot chicken joint, but the most famous is now Hattie B's, a place that many locals and visitors alike deem the best hot chicken anywhere in the city.

However, this history was not yet known to us when we began planning our Nashville hot chicken quest. In fact, we knew practically nothing about it, besides the fact that it existed. And so we took to the internet to learn more, so we could devise our list of hot chicken to try during our 5 days in Music City.

First, Nicole came across an article by Cozymeal that detailed the author's own hot chicken quest. First told was the salacious backstory, followed by a list and synopsis of several of the restaurants in and around the city. Nicole put some on her list, namely the establishments that centered around hot chicken, as opposed to restaurants that simply include it in their menus.

Next up was the tried-and-true Google search, which yielded a not-yet-mentioned contender.

Thus, our list was formed. We planned to hit up 5 hot chicken establishments:

1. Prince’s Hot Chicken (Google rating 3.7)
2. Hattie B’s (Google rating 4.6 in both downtown locations)
3. Bolton’s Famous Hot Chicken and Fish (Google rating 4.1)
4. Red’s Hot Chicken (Google rating 4.9)
5. Moore’s Spicy Fried Chicken (Google rating 4.3)

The goal was to compare the hot chicken at the OG Prince; the most famous Hattie B's; Bolton's across the river; the highest rated joint on Google, Red's; and Moore's, located outside the city. Unfortunately, time constraints were real and we couldn't make it to every establishment, and so we ended up taking Bolton's off the list, leaving us with the remaining four. We made plans to head out to Hendersonville for Moore's and then hit the other 3 during our day spent in the city.

Traditionally, the chicken is served on white bread and topped with pickle slices. Meals typically include one or two selections from a list of sides, such as fries, grits, greens, mac & cheese, and other popular southern accompaniments. We knew, however, that we would need to focus on keeping our bellies free for all the downtown chicken we'd be eating in one day. Sticking with counter-serve locations helped, as many of them had options for snacks or smaller meals, and we didn't have the pressure of ordering more. The biggest decision, however, would be which level of heat to select. Each establishment listed different, varying levels, but the general consensus was that medium was respectably risky, and anything hotter would have you questioning your life choices. Some places offered a no spice option, but that was not the case at our first stop.

Moore's Spicy Fried Chicken

Hitting up the outskirts location first was, what we would later find out, an interesting choice. We thought that perhaps a joint appealing to the locals would be the best, leaving us to measure all the inner city locations up to it, but we were not factoring in the spice. Catering to the locals also means not needing to baby the tourists. If we can't handle the heat, then get out. That's exactly the vibe we got from the owner at Moore's. Granted, we probably did look like ignorant out-of-towners. What gave it away, the fact that he had never seen us before, or our lack of southern drawl? Both of the above, plus the fact that we were apparently supposed to call ahead to place our order because all the food is made-to-order and this place can get really busy. At least that was the owner's take. In reality, he was the only person working the whole kitchen, so of course there would be a wait, even though there were only about 4 orders in ahead of us. We didn't mind waiting. This was an experience!

We ordered our meals "hot" out of a range from mild to XXX-hot. This was immediately followed by a "Ya sure 'bout that?" Please, for the love of God, man, just cook my chicken! But we are nicer than that, and so Nicole responded with, "Don't worry, I've been to other spicy places." Whatever that means. Please, Nicole, wait until the food comes to get all hot and flustered!

At this point, Mr. Moore knew we were from Massachusetts, to which he rather pompously reminded us that we "don't have spice like this up there." He didn't know that we're not quintessential tourists, and we've been in the South for the past 2 months. Even setting that detail aside, we are certainly not spice novices. We have, in fact, been to other spicy places.

Let's start at the very beginning, and we mean very beginning: July 28, 2012. Your favorite couple had been gallivanting around Boston, basking in their budding love. After a day touring each other's almae matres, we went to Bon Chon for dinner. In case you aren't familiar, Bon Chon is a Korean chicken place, and their chicken is quite spicy. This was the first time we had the spice talk. We both claimed that we could handle it, but when the food came, it became clear that one of us was not as cool of a cucumber. Anthony began turning red, tearing up, and dripping out of his sinuses (yes, more than usual). But he claimed he felt fine, and over the years he never rescinded this claim.

So here we were, facing down hot level chicken, feeling that we had something to prove to Mr. Moore. After a 20-minute wait, he delivered our plates to our table, inserting one final reminder that "It's hot!" We got it, Dave. Keeping our fingers crossed that we weren't about to make fools out of ourselves, we took our first bites. Definitely spicy, definitely don't want to know what X, XX, and XXX-hot would taste like, but also definitely tolerable.

Dave came over a few minutes later to check on us, and seeing that we weren't dead and were instead taking bites and smiling, he immediately eased up on us. We had been accepted! We then got into the conversation that we were actually full-time RVers and had been all over the country. As is a common response, Dave exclaimed that his wife would love to RV. But then who would be there to man the kitchen and intimidate customers?!

OK, we get it. He has probably had people come in all puffy-chested like "OH WE CAN HANDLE THE HEAT" and then wind up in a puddle of sweat on the floor, thoroughly humbled. He was trying to warn us because he wanted us to enjoy our meal. Nothing to worry about though, D-Man. We know our limits. However, Anthony did end up having his red-faced, tearing up and snotting reaction. He said that it's just a physical reaction, like his butternut squash dermatitis! Just keep telling yourself that, Anthony.

We learned a few vital lessons from our visit to Moore's. Nicole ordered the chicken tenders, and since the pieces are small and thin, there is more surface area, and therefore, more breading. This made the chicken slightly spicier per bite than Anthony's breast and wing. In this case, sides were most welcome because they provided a palate cleanser between bites of chicken. This is also what we assume the bread is for, but sopping, soggy Wonder Bread was not at all appealing to us.

The chicken quality was fantastic, especially the chicken quarter, which was tender and juicy. However, the problem with choosing the hot level was that the flavor got a bit lost in the heat. We wanted to taste the other notes of seasoning, but we were too busy getting punched in the mouth. This tends to be the case with spicy foods. You choose the higher levels to endure pain and prove your virility, but what about the flavor? We're glad we could walk out of Moore's with our heads hot and held high, but we wanted more flavor and less fever.

Hattie B's (Lower Broadway location)

We had heard that Hattie B's often has lines of people looped around the block, waiting to get in, and now that we saw how "busy" Moore's gets, we didn't know what to think. We arrived at lunchtime on the Saturday of St. Patrick's Day weekend, so we thought we were in for a long wait. However, the Google live was saying "less busy than usual/about a 15 minute wait." Sure enough, the line was only wrapped around one corner. We timed our wait, which was actually between 15 and 20 minutes. Google live is scarily accurate! Once at the counter, we ordered our meals, deciding this time to go with medium heat level on the range of southern, aka no spice, to shut the cluck up!!!, aka you need to sign a waiver.

Immediately, we had realized the error of our ways. We had discovered the tourist babying. Medium did have some kick, but we could have easily ordered hot and it wouldn't have been nearly as spicy as Moore's. Our guess is that "damn hot" would have been comparable to "hot" at Moore's.

Our orders were the small 1/2 chicken (Nicole) and the hot chicken sandwich (Anthony). Nicole really enjoyed her chicken, but after taking a bite, Anthony said he thinks Moore's chicken parts were better texturally. The tenders in the sandwich, however, were better texture than the Moore's tenders. The flavor, which we could actually taste thanks to our milder heat choice, was good. It definitely touched on the notes of sweet and savory, but sadly, we were not too thrilled with the overall flavor. This wasn't a Hattie B's thing; it was a Nashville hot chicken thing. There was some seasoning in the blend that made us wonder what the chicken was trying to be. It was a little Sriracha, a little bit all-spice, and a little bit BBQ, but not quite hitting the mark on any. We guess that's what makes the hot chicken its own unique cuisine! It was all fine, but not anything we would crave. Give us a typical southern fried chicken over hot chicken any day.

Prince's Hot Chicken

Next door to Hattie B's is Assembly Food Hall, the current location for Prince's. We looked online to see if we could order ahead of time, but nothing on the website allowed us. We went inside the food hall and found several other restaurants that we would have rather eaten at, but we were deep into our quest now! We got in line at Prince's, which wasn't long at all, but we quickly noticed a sign with a QR code that said "Skip the line. Order online." Huh. We scanned it, and sure enough, it took us to a site that wasn't available through the main website home page. We discovered that they only want customers ordering when they're already at the location because they immediately put the orders in. Our online order was ready in no time. We only ordered a few tenders with no sides, since we had already had our full lunch at Hattie B's. The chicken did still come with bread and pickles, though. We ordered "hot" because we knew that if Hattie B's babied the tourists, Prince's would, too.

We had an inkling that this would be our least favorite, and we were right. Even the look of the chicken wasn't as appealing as the last two places. It was greasier and less plump. One bite and we were immediately smacked with a weird vinegary taste. The greasiness made the bread underneath extra soggy. As expected, the spice was far too mild for a "hot rating," but it lingered more once it did hit.

We often say that first is not always best, as was the case here. The problem is, ever since Thornton Prince recreated his angry girlfriend's recipe, he was kind of locked in. As other hot chicken places opened, they took their own liberties, making the chicken even better in quality and flavor. Prince's has been left in the dust of their dry rubs.

With only Red's and its 4.9 Google rating remaining, we wondered, had we saved the best for last?

We got on our hop-on, hop-off trolley and took it across the city to Centennial Park. Hello, Parthenon!

On the way over, the trolley guide asked who had been to Hattie B's yet, and we raised our hands. He asked what heat levels we got and we said medium. He told us we were brave. Yes, we were in fact brave, for eating "hot" at Moore's and for the sheer amount of hot chicken we were eating in one day, but for ordering "medium" at Hattie B's? No way. That heat level was way more Baby Spice than Scary Spice.

Red's Hot Chicken

Red's is located a block away from Centennial Park and is a popular haunt for Vanderbilt students. They have a walk-up window where we placed our order of tenders, which came with fries. Level: medium. We assumed Red's wouldn't baby the college kids. 15 minutes later, we had Styrofoam box in-hand. We immediately noticed that the tenders were thoroughly seasoned and had more dry rub than the other city restaurants. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and we determined that the sheer quality of chicken used at all four places was consistently above average. The breading had tons of flavor, but since we weren't really fans of the flavor in general, we actually would have preferred a little more subtlety. Perhaps we should have ordered "hot" and masked it a bit! Spice-wise, we could have handled the higher level, but we think of all the restaurants, Red's got their ratings most accurate. The "medium" did in fact taste like a solid, middle-of-the-road capsaicin punch. It aligns with our theory that, the further you get from downtown, the hotter the spice levels get.

Despite not being huge fans of the Nashville hot chicken flavor, we really can't complain about our excursion in general. We got to experience Nashville in a way that made sense for us. We may not bar hop, but we hot chicken hop! The only place we wouldn't recommend is Prince's. Their reign is over. The other 3 were all really good, and it would come down to preference. If you like the local vibe and don't mind the extra drive, head to Moore's. Just remember, call ahead of time and don't be surprised if Dave gives you a hard time. If you are downtown, head to Hattie B's. It may be the most hyped of all the hot chicken joints, but the hype is warranted. The Hattie B's location we didn't go to is in Midtown, not too far from Red's Hot Chicken, so perhaps you could engage in a quest of your own and order from both places! Wherever you choose, we hope you enjoy Nashville's spice of life.