Prince’s Hot Chicken, Nashville

The Gates of Hot Chicken

David and Shauna, our Nashville hosts, were very excited to take us all to Prince’s Hot Chicken. David gave us a preview by showing a short YouTube documentaryabout the establishment which a little history and information. Apparently, the idea of hot chicken began with the owner’s uncle. The uncle was want to be wanton and his “ladyfriend” had enough of his womanizing. In order to set him straight and teach him a lesson, she devised the idea of making very hot fried chicken. The plan backfired when the uncle loved the chicken so much that he kept asking the aunt to make it for him. This hot chicken recipe is the one used at Prince’s and is emulated at a handful of Nashville establishments.

Prince’s Hot Chicken definitely deserves the dive designation. It’s in a shady strip mall with a hand-painted window sign and classic looking lighted sign. When you pull up, you know you might either die from poisoning or have some amazing food. In either case, you’ll have a good story and it’s worth the effort.

One point to be made is that the classic indie-rock band Yo La Tengo raved about Prince’s in the liner notes for their album Electr-O-Pura which features the tracks “Flying Lesion (Hot Chicken #1)” and “Don’t Say a Word (Hot Chicken #2).”  Prince’s Hot Chicken became a mainstay during the recording of their now-classic 1997 album I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One which opens with the track ”Return to Hot Chicken.” It’s clear that Yo La Tengo loves them some Prince’s Hot Chicken.

Shot Down

We actually went to Prince’s twice. We first attempted to go at noon on Saturday for lunch because that was their normal opening time. While waiting outside, someone came to the window with a napkin to tape to the window letting us know that the opening time was going to be 2pm this Saturday. We decided to abort the mission and return later. We went back about 7:45 in the evening for dinner and met up with some other friends in the area.

I would be lying to say that Prince’s wasn’t a little bit shady. We saw a few odd deals go down and some shadowy figures coming in and out of the premises. It also wasn’t the cleanest place you might eat at. But, the folks at the counter were actually very friendly and helpful, steering our friend Topp away from the hot chicken towards the more tolerable medium. I think they’re probably afraid that the white boy might catch on fire from so much heat. Shauna and The Coff did take the bull by the horns and ordered up hot chicken, but the rest of us were scared into at least medium or the more tame mild. There is an extra hot available, but I don’t know how easy it is to successfully order this, much less eat it. Jessica and I combined orders and got a quarter chicken mild and a quarter chicken medium. We also added on some coleslaw and fries. Plus plenty of lemonade. Then we waited.

Hot Chicken Platter

Now, we didn’t really pay attention to this, but David and Shauna had mentioned that they sometimes waited an hour for chicken. What we didn’t understand is that this wasn’t waiting in line to get the chicken, this was an hour waiting after the order was placed. This Saturday, the wait was nearly in the hour and forty-five minutes to two hour range. We had no comprehension it could actually take this long. I mean, seriously, you take some chicken, batter it up, and put it in hot oil. I could make my own chicken faster than this, including a stop at the store to buy all of the ingredients. In retrospect, we should have taken advantage of their call ahead ordering.

Hot Chicken and Pickles

The orders finally started to trickle out and I started to steal some nibbles from those in our party. It became evident that mild was actually pretty hot, hotter than most fried chicken you could get at an average restaurant and probably more in the range of the heat from hot wings. This was very well made fried chicken, the cooks in the back definitely knew what they were doing. Beneath the spicy breading, there was tender, juicy chicken. It was probably a little bit greasy, but most fried chicken is at least a little greasy. Prince’s solves this problem a bit by putting a couple of white bread slices under the chicken to catch stray grease and sauce. The chicken comes with some pickles (yes, Brit, I know you are vindicated) and that combination of hot and sour is a good one. The medium chicken was intensely hot, probably more on the order of extremely hot or inferno wings. I did sample some of the hot breading and it was even hotter, so hot that I couldn’t imagine putting the chicken in my mouth without it going numb. I’m not really an afficienado of all things hot, but I can tolerate some degree of heat. I couldn’t even being to fathom what extra hot was all about.

More Hot Chicken

The mild and medium pieces that I had were very salty, though a few of the other samples I tried were just spicy. In fact, by the end, I think the saltiness was actually more difficult for my eating than the heat. The lemonade did help to quench the heat, but I was still on fire. The salt just aggravated it all. Eating some of the white bread slices seemed like they might help, but they were saturated with hot spices and chicken grease. True hot chicken connoisseurs love them, but I couldn’t shake the thought that I was shortening my life with each bite. And then the spices added to the fire in my mouth.

The fries were krinkle cut with seasoning, a version similar to that in the mild chicken, so were hard to keep eating with my belly getting full and mouth on fire. I tried to keep eating them, but couldn’t do it. They were a little greasy, but definitely worth trying if you can handle all the heat.

Later in the evening, when my mouth had cooled down and I was getting hungry, The Coff warmed up some leftover mild chicken. I ended up eating a piece of it and it was quite a bit less salty, really delicious. I must have just gotten an off batch.

I was a little concerned about the next day’s “ring of fire,” if you will, but the return of the hot chicken wasn’t as vicious as I was expecting.

In the end, Prince’s delivered some delicious chicken that ranged from hot to very hot to nearly impossible to eat. The service was unbelievably slow and probably not really worth the wait. Definitely call ahead with your order if you find yourself in Nashville. But, I’m glad to have gone and experienced the Nashville institution that is Prince’s Hot Chicken.

Note: Here’s another interesting review from the Chicago Sun Times which apparently reveals more details about the slow cooking process. Also, Roadfood has a nice little blurb, as well.

Tags: chicken, french fries, nashville, white bread