No visit to Nashville would be complete without trying one of their local specialties, Nashville Hot Chicken. We tried all three of Nashville’s most famous hot chicken spots so you don’t have to.
Prince’s Hot Chicken
Many Nashville locals hold out Prince’s Hot Chicken as the ultimate Hot Chicken experience. We went to the original and did not order anything or take any photos, as it did not meet our standards of cleanliness. However, they recently opened a new location on the other side of town, so if you’re a Hot Chicken devotee planning to make a pilgrimage to Prince’s, we might suggest trying that location.
Bolton’s
This chicken would have been really good if we could taste it. Bolton’s is not for beginners, and the woman working behind the window where you order laughed at us. They pride themselves in having the hottest chicken in town, and they are not joking.
The “Mild” was completely inedible to us–choking and crying hot. There’s a sign that warns against touching “your eyes or babies” after eating the chicken. There’s actually a really funny scene in David Chang’s new Netflix documentary Ugly Delicious (Episode 6, “Fried Chicken”) where he describes his similar experience at Bolton’s in detail.
Hattie B’s
For your first hot chicken experience, we’d strongly recommend sticking to the most mainstream establishment, Hattie B’s. The line for chicken is ridiculous, but we thought the chicken and sides were really good and they have an interesting selection of local beers on tap.
Most importantly, their heat scale is probably the most accurate, ranging from “Southern (No Heat)” to “Shut the Cluck Up (Burn Notice!).” If you have never had hot chicken before, but you like spicy food, you could probably safely go as high as “Medium” without any problem. You can always ask for extra hot sauce on the side.
Click here for more of our travel tips for Nashville and download recipes from famous southern chef Sean Brock of Husk here.
