Nashville is famous for its hot chicken, aspicy fried chicken .- The restaurant responsible for creating the dish is Prince's Hot Chicken, which officially opened in the 1930s and continues to be wildly popular today.
- Miss André Prince now runs the family-owned restaurant and continues to keep her great-uncle's legacy alive.
The following is a full transcription of the
Herrine Ro: Nashville, Tennessee, may be famous for country music, but nothing compares to the city's specialty, hot chicken.
It's chicken that's fried, then bathed in a mixture of hot oil and a blend of spices.
Tomiko Harvey: So, I've been in Nashville about six years now, and Prince's is really our go-to for hot chicken. I can't wait to show you all what Prince's is all about. This is so delicious. Herrine: You'll find variations all throughout the city, but Prince's Hot Chicken is where it all started. I visited the restaurant last summer with my cohost, Alana, when we were filming best hot chicken in Nashville for "Best of the Best" season two.
Alana Yzola: The flavor explodes. It's not just hot. Herrine: This time, though, it's all about Prince's. We're gonna talk about the history, the culture, and the heat. Since the early 2000s, new restaurants specializing in hot chicken started opening up all across the city.
Tomiko: While I'm sure it's great to be duplicated, and other restaurants, chains popping up and putting their spin on it, nothing still compares to the original.
Herrine: This is Miss André Prince. She is the owner of Prince's and the great-niece of the man who first sold hot chicken.
Miss André Prince: Well, they call me chicken queen.
Herrine: How did hot chicken start? Miss André: With a mad, mad woman. [laughs] Almost 90 years ago, women didn't really voice their feelings. But, they acted it out.
Herrine: The story goes that Miss André's great-uncle came home late one night. Very, very late. And to show him how angry she was, the woman he was living with at the time cooked him up some fried chicken. The spiciest fried chicken anyone's ever seen.
Miss André: And decided she was gonna put something on Thornton's chicken. [chicken clucks] So that's why I give credit to the woman, but we don't know who the woman was.
Herrine: As much as it was a punishment, he liked it enough to start a business with it? According to state archives, Thornton Prince set up BBQ Chicken Shack in 1936, the first time hot chicken was sold to customers.
Miss André: It's still going on today! Hey.
Tomiko: All of the locals know about Prince's. Prince's Hot Chicken has been a staple in the Black community for as long as I can remember, even before I moved to Nashville.
Miss André: It just grew by word of mouth. And of course, back then, people of color didn't have too many businesses. I'm sure the word spread throughout the community. And it just became a staple in the neighborhood.
Herrine: The popularity eventually reached white people when the restaurant moved in the late 1950s from the corner near Tennessee State University to near the Grand Ole Opry.
Announcer: The Grand Ole Opry of Nashville. [lively music]
Miss André: In the time of segregation. We had a lot of Grand Ole Opry people that would come in after the shows and sit down. They came in through the back door. And, of course, they came in through the front door.
Herrine: Since the restaurant opened, it's been kept in the family. Miss André took over in 1980. Miss André: Well, it's been four generations. It always stayed in the family, and we had family members working there.
Herrine: What were the things that you changed or added to the business?
Miss André: It was called BBQ Chicken Shack, but I don't ever remember the chicken being barbecued. That's why I changed it. It was one way. That one way was the mild chicken. But I started the different variations. Plain, hot, medium, extra hot. People wanted their children to eat it.
Herrine: Where does the heat come from?
Miss André: Well, the main thing that we always say, it's cayenne. Cayenne is the basis. Tomiko: That first part kinda gets you a little bit. Oh, my gosh. I mean, let me let you get in. Look at here. You can squeeze it. [crust crunching]
The best part of the hot chicken for me is the crust. It is so crispy, so full of flavor. Whereas some of the other spots, they're just hot for the sake of being hot.
Herrine: With the rise in popularity, hot chicken has become a Nashville specialty.
Tomiko: And one of the things too that we talk about here in Nashville a lot is that the hot chicken has become gentrified. And some of the other places have sort of taken over the popularity of hot chicken in Nashville.
Herrine: For more perspective, I called multicultural expert Marie Sueing.
Marie Sueing: The popularity and expansion into other restaurants and on other menus probably within, came in the last 10 years. My name is Marie Sueing, and I am the senior vice president of diversity and inclusion for the National Convention & Visitors Corporation.
Herrine: How do you think Prince's reputation and legacy spread throughout the community and the world?
Marie: I think for something special like this to become a phenomenon, if you will, the community has to embrace it, right? And so it grew here locally.
Alana: The flavor explodes. It's not just hot.
Marie: Nashville has many hot chicken restaurants now, or restaurants that have hot chicken on the menu. And I do believe that's paying homage to Prince's. Any chef that makes hot chicken knows where it's coming from.
Austin Smith: If you're gonna do hot chicken in Nashville, one thing you need to do is kiss the ring. Everyone knows where this started, and there's one person in town that you gotta pay homage to, and that's Miss André.
Tomiko: I keep coming back to Prince's over and over and over again. The crust on the chicken, the hot pickles, the bread, the seasonings, the flavor, everything is just so good.
Herrine: While restaurants both near and far have tried to replicate Prince's Hot Chicken, Prince's continues to be popular not only for its delicious hot chicken, but the story behind the dish. How do you carry his legacy through the restaurant?
Miss André: By continuing to be open and serving it hot. [laughs] That's how you carry it on. That was my intention, to keep something in the family. Mom-and-pop places are just disappearing due to big business.
Competition is good. And it gives you more recognition, because everybody wants to know, where did it start? Hey, they got to come to Prince's Hot Chicken. That's where it all started. Oh, baby, people are always curious.