Hot Chicken

Fried chicken? Check. Heat? Check. Pickle slices? Check. Sliced white bread? Check. Hot Chicken is in the house! A little over a year ago, on a sweltering July day in Nashville we made the pilgrimage to Prince's Hot Chicken. Having lunch in the heat of the day at a hole-in-the-wall joint with no AC, eating piping hot chicken straight out of the fryer, coated with burn-your-face-off fiery spices seems crazy. And it was crazy - crazy good! Here in San Diego, our heat wave continues and the conditions seemed right for attempting Hot Chicken at home. But how to make it? We decided that Justin Jones' contest-winning recipe from the 2008 Music City Hot Chicken Festival was a good place to start. His recipe is pretty simple - a paste predominantly of cayenne and lard that is applied to the chicken after frying. Adding the heat post-frying seems like the right thing to do logistically (keeping the spice out of the cooking oil and allowing different heat levels of paste to be used at the end to customize the hotness of the order on a piece-by-piece basis) and it rings true with anecdotes I've read about the method used at Prince's. It all starts, however, with good fried chicken: We do an overnight buttermilk soak, then dredge in seasoned flour and fry until crisp. Fried chicken was one of Sherry's favorites growing up. Her chicken-frying skills have atrophied over the years, but they are starting to get back in form. The heat comes from the chile paste. This is what it looks like when you first mix it up: After 10 seconds in the microwave on high, the lard loosens up nicely and it can be easily brushed onto the chicken. How to serve it? That's pretty much established tradition - over a couple of slices of white bread, with several pickle slices skewered to the chicken with a toothpick. I will note, however, that these pickles were homemade - hence the lack of the characteristic fluorescent-green color. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying fluorescent-green is bad in a pickle, we just haven't been able to achieve it yet... Once everything is properly assembled, it's time to chow down. Biting into the chicken, the crust crunches nicely, its temperature and spice level challenging with their aggressiveness. The meat inside is savory and juicy, just as fried chicken should be, and temporarily diminishes the burn. But only temporarily - the burn is not to be denied, and builds with each bite. Until you're done, left only with bones and the remaining chile-stained bits of bread. Now for the critique: Was it good? Absolutely. Very good indeed. Some of the best fried chicken I've had. How did it stand up to Prince's Hot Chicken? We've got a ways to go. First, the chicken we had there was extremely well cooked. Ours is good, and getting better, but not yet in the same league. That's on us, though, and not the recipe we used. Ok, how about the Hot Chicken recipe? I think it works well, but I'm not sure that it is quite what Prince's actually does. First off, the color is too dark. Have a look at the "medium-spicy" leg quarter I had at Prince's: This was very hot - certainly hotter than the chicken that we made - but isn't very dark-colored at all (aside from the top of the drumstick, which is dark from cooking and not chile). Similarly, the oil on the bread was much more light-orange rather than the deep red we got. Another factor is the bitterness of the cayenne. I really like the complexity you get from powdered dried chile, but in large quantities on its own, you really taste and smell the bitterness. In summary: We definitely think that application of the "hot" after frying is the way to go. Exact composition of the "hot" merits further experimentation. Stay tuned!

City House

While we were in Nashville we had a very nice dinner at City House, a great place tucked away in Germantown. Their Sunday menu seems to be a reduced version of their normal menu:



We were not grabbed by any of the entrées, so we instead ordered all three of the available starters and a pizza:

House Cured Lardo, Purple Hull Pea Salad Served chilled, the salad consisted of the peas (a close relative of black-eyed peas), celery, carrot and onion all covered with very thin slices of lardo. Very nice, simple, fresh dish. The lardo had a fantastic, but not overpowering rich pork flavor.

Stuffed Squash Blossoms, Mozzarella, Anchovy, Preserved Lemon Perfectly fried (with a light tempura style batter) squash blossoms very sparingly stuffed with mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil and garnished with small pieces of preserved lemon. The preserved lemon was not at all salty like most that I've had, which I thought was perfect for the dish. If there was anchovy, we didn't notice it (or miss it, for that matter). Our only complaint was that three squash blossoms seemed a bit stingy for the $10 price point.

House Cured Salmon, Pickled Red Onion, Parsley Beautifully cured thin slices of salmon with a hint of smokiness. The pickled onion and parsley both went very well with it (as did the preserved lemon from the squash blossom dish).

Pizza with Manila Clams, Marinara, Salt Pork European-style thin crust, uncut pizza, perfectly cooked. The marinara had nice, spicy flavor and the matchstick pieces of bacon added a nice fatty, salty depth. It was topped with a bunch of clams in their shells, which we ate separately. They were nice and plump and full of clam flavor. The juice that dripped down onto the pizza added another layer to the taste.

The dishes above were a perfect amount of food for a light dinner for two.

We had an 8:00 reservation, but ended up arriving at 7:30 and they had no problem seating us. I'm glad we arrived early, as the place was nicely busy when we arrived but definitely started tailing off soon after (not surprising, for a Sunday night).

Others have commented on the high noise level. It didn't bother us, but I could see it being a problem if they were packed. I think part of the problem is that their tables are wider than normal (I'm guessing to easily accommodate family style shared plates in the middle) and you are thus farther away from the person opposite you.

Cocktails were also very good - we had a Sazerac and a Genoa (house-infused oranga vodka, Campari, orange juice).

City House
1222 4th Ave N.
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 736-5840‎

Prince's Hot Chicken

I had read that one thing we needed to try in Nashville was Hot Chicken and that the place to get it was Prince's. So, on a blisteringly hot day we made the pilgrimage. We joined a bunch of other sweating customers patiently waiting for their food as the kitchen meticulously cooked up one order at a time.

Finally, our order was up. I got a leg quarter, medium spicy with extra pickles and bread. I knew from my research that I probably didn't need to go spicier than medium, and sure enough it was very hot (both in temperature and spice level). It was also very tasty - nice and crunchy outside and perfectly moist on the inside.



Sherry got a breast quarter, mild. It was still plenty hot, though - not a bad way to go if you don't like really spicy food.



Good eats. Definitely not to be missed when visiting Nashville.

Prince's Hot Chicken
123 Ewing Dr.
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 226-9442‎

Meat and Three in Nashville at Arnold's Country Kitchen

Although we'd been traveling through the South for several weeks, somehow we had neglected to hit a Meat and Three place so far on the trip. Now was the time to remedy the situation and Arnold's Country Kitchen was the place to do it.



Arnold's was busy, but very efficiently run by a friendly staff. We soon had our food and were happily chowing down. Everything we tried was fantastic.

Roast beef and turnip greens (with mashed potatoes in the back):



Fried chicken, mac 'n cheese, green beans and a dish of pinto beans:



Corn bread served two ways - muffin and griddle cake.



While I'm sure this wasn't the healthiest lunch we've ever had, it did not feel heavy or greasy. Just very flavorful and highly satisfying.

Arnold's Country Kitchen
605 8th Ave S.
Nashville, Tennessee
(615) 256-4455‎