The Great Nashville Hot Chicken Exploration

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

As many on the web have noted, Prince’s Hot Chicken is a mainstay of hot chicken goers across the United States. Dubbed “Nashville’s Best Restaurant” by former mayor Phil Bredesen, you can be sure that when you go to Prince’s you can expect hot chicken (both from the spices & pepper and from the serious heat of skillet-frying), a fairly long wait (up to 45 minutes at the longest I’ve waited), and a memorable experience if you’re an average restauranteur.

The only thing I can say against Prince’s, aside from the lack of adequate air conditioning, which is much less a problem now that the weather is changing, is that they are not perfectly consistent in the heat of their chicken. They maintain a high standard for what is “mild,” “medium,” etc. but from visit to visit I find that the hot may be only has hot as the “medium” or the “medium” hot or hotter than the “hot,” depending on your perspective.

All the same, below are some photos & videos of our crew’s last visit to Prince’s–marking our first jaunt into the long and winding path of very hot chicken across the Nashville area (and beyond?).

Prince’s, in our regard, is par. It is the standard against which all of our stops will be judged. If you can beat Prince’s you are a truly exceptional eatery and if you can’t beat Prince’s then no one will fault you a few strokes. Prince’s can be relied on to deliver strong heat and tasty chicken. As you may note in future posts there are locations in town that can claim better taste, but Prince’s also carries the cachet of being a both a staple and a hub of Nashville hot chicken. You cannot, I repeat, cannot attempt to experience Nashville’s hot chicken without a quarter chicken at Prince’s. Medium if you like hot in a restaurant chain, hot if you like the pain, and extra hot if… well, none of us has actually tried it yet. Extra hot if you’d like to venture where few have trodden and all have suffered undoubtedly.