Nashville Hot Chicken is only authentic in and is a specialty of Nashville Tennessee. Here in Phoenix you can find Nashville Style Chicken….and other Hot Chicken…….we should just call it Hot Chicken. The Chicken should be marinated, floured and fried. It needs to be sauced either before or after flouring (or breading) with what they call a dry sauce or paste. If a wet sauce is applied then IT IS NOT NASHVILLE STYLE CHICKEN according to the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition. Nashville Hot Chicken IS HOT because the paste is suppose to be 1/3 fat (often lard) OR it can be OIL and 2/3rds cayenne pepper that gets cooked and reduced till thick.  A few other seasonings are sometimes added. Nashville Hot Chicken is not just about heat as it’s is also suppose to be about flavor. Authentic places serve the chicken with dill pickles over the chicken and one-two slices of white bread under the chicken to soak up juices and flavors.

Here’s the Hot Chicken Sandwich from 6 Degrees Urban Kitchen in Scottsdale.

This sandwich was stuffed with a plump juicy marinated notable crispy chicken breast that was topped with honey hot sauce. House made pickles were tucked inside and the sandwich was served on a grilled eggy bun. (*****UPDATE***Sadly 6 Degrees Urban Kitchen has CLOSED for business since)

The Hot Chicken Slider from PNPK in North Scottsdale.

This Hot Chicken Slider is seasoned fried chicken, topped with dill pickles, slaw and spicy aioli sauce. It’s tasty….not scorching hot but hot that might be mellowed by the slaw.

Hot Chicken from Starlite BBQ in Scottsdale.

Here was a plump juicy breast and leg quarter. Both were SCRUMPTIOUS flavored chicken in a crisp HOT but delicious crust. It was just delightful with house made pickles and this really tasty whole grain mustard.

From Famous 48 in Old Town Scottsdale.

By far the most stingingly HOT! I almost couldn’t eat this one. This one had some sort of Mayonnaise applied to the chicken. This one was topped with an insanely HOT but delicious Buffalo kind of sauce with a good TANG. It topped the crunchy chicken and they gave me extra hot sauce on the side. You had to open your mouth a mile deep to eat this one as the eggy bun was extra thick and was difficult to eat… (I do note that Famous 48 was recently opened when I tried them and it’s possible this sandwich has been toned down or tweaked since to please the masses…….Another note is that Famous 48 has closed for the summer 2018. (*****UPDATE****Famous 48 closed and happened to re-open in a different location in Scottsdale) I recently tried the Famous 48 Nashville Style Chicken at a festival and it’s a completely different sandwich. It will be pictured at the bottom after the fork.

I also tried the Hot Chicken Sandwich at Mingo’s Louisiana Kitchen in Phoenix. It’s a LOUISIANA Style Hot Chicken Sandwich and Not a Nashville Style…..But it’s Hot Chicken so this sandwich is included here.

Mingo’s Chicken is flavorful and very moist. The chicken coated in a seasoned  Corn meal and has a much better texture than than other corm meal coated foods I’ve tried. I know it’s the best cornmeal coating I’ve ever tried.  The sandwich has a generous application of Tangy Hot Sauce with a great bite.  There is some shredded lettuce, tomato, pickle chips and a slathering of remoulade that is a French style of Tarter Sauce that is more detailed and complex than any I remember trying before. Old Bay dusted Fries came with the sandwich as a side.

Tried the Hot Chicken Sandwich from The Larder + The Delta in Phoenix. This was one of the milder of the Hot Chickens but WOWEEE this chicken was just DIVINE….This was the BEST of the boneless chickens in flavor, texture and juiciness. It’s tough to say but this chicken really was among the best…It had a quality about it unlike the all the others…..It was a very large amazing thigh. The coating was different. It was thin but sort of shattering crisp and caramelized. I could taste cayenne, onion and other flavors in or on the coating. The chicken was topped with an apple slaw and B&B pickles that were thick and delicious and hot sauce aioli ……This one here was off the charts!

Maybe you are curious about GENUINE Nashville Hot Chicken.

There are only SIX Restaurants that are Certified in the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition.

They are Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish, Pepper Fire Hot Chicken, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, 400 Degrees, and Deezie’s in Murfreesboro.

Here it is! Hattie B’s Famous Hot Chicken from Nashville Tennessee.

Somebody brought me back a piece of Hattie’s Hot Chicken to try. Here it is………..

I put in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 to heat up.

This one has a strong cayenne aroma. (the most aroma of all the hot chickens I tried)

I pick it up and it’s a bit greasy. It’s not crisp but I was told even fresh made it’s not particularly crisp but better than what I had.

I tried the one that sold as hot. First bite seems very HOT (stingingly)…..I taste mostly cayenne…..followed by onion. The Chicken is very moist and flavorful…..for some odd reason it doesn’t seem that HOT to me as the first bite did. It’s just flavorful moist chicken.

These were a few of the places for Hot Chicken in Metro Phoenix pre Mrs. Chicken (soon to come…Phoenix’s first Nashville Style Hot Chicken Restaurant) (****UPDATE***Mrs Chicken did indeed open since I wrote this)

******Slight update…since I wrote this back August 2018 Monroe’s Hot Chicken has opened in February 2019 in downtown Phoenix and became the First Hot Chicken Restaurant in Phoenix. I did happened to try a few items and wrote about them but I was there opening week and read somewhere that recipes were tweaked since so I can’t describe what you might taste there today. This week (last week of April Mrs Chicken did open. I expect to try it out sometime but didn’t yet)

EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT to change and your experience may or may not differ. 

Some more updates are below the FORK.

www.Hot-Chicken.com

www.Wikipedia.com

Another notable Hot Chicken Sandwich I tried since was the Carolina Style Hot Chicken Sandwiches from The Root and Soul in Phoenix.

I remember that this one was among the better Hot Sandwiches of what I tried. It was a mighty tasty delicious sandwich with very juicy flavorful chicken.

A new chicken restaurant opened up in Scottsdale called The Hot Chick. I enjoyed the HOT Chick sandwich very Forking Much!

This one had tons of spice flavor, a little sweet, very scrumptious and super crunchy and juicy. This new one is close to the best! I also liked that they offer Hot Chicken on the Bone….

Famous 48 Nashville Style Chicken that I tasted this time was plump, juicy and developed with flavors. It wasn’t as spicy as last time and was a different exterior texture.