Then and now: A look at hot chicken’s historic backgroundThen and now: A look at hot chicken’s historic background

The oldest extant fried-chicken recipe has been sourced to The Art of Cookery Made Easy, published in England in 1747. That demand for the dish continues unabated over 250 years later is testament to its enduring appeal and its adaptability. Both are evident in the current craze for spicy fried chicken, which has popped up on menus around the country and topped off numerous “what’s hot” lists. An irresistible combination of the classic and the contemporary, the product also benefits from some beguiling backstories.

Thornton Prince was a ladies’ man in Nashville who stepped out once too often. Legend has it that to exact revenge for his cheating ways, his long-suffering girlfriend put an extra-heavy dose of pepper in his fried chicken. Far from teaching him a lesson, it was a big hit with Prince, who subsequently built a restaurant around the bird spiked with cayenne sauce after frying and served atop white bread with pickle chips. Prince’s Hot Chicken became a local favorite, and rechristened as Nashville Hot, it has been taking menus by storm. Nashville-based O’Charley’s Southern Roots promotion features a Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich, while KFC’s Nashville Hot Chicken is part of a meal; both are topped with the requisite sliced pickles. It’s the centerpiece of the menu at Carla Hall’s Southern Kitchen in Brooklyn, and it takes pride of place at Southern in St. Louis, which boasts that it makes the best hot fried chicken in town. Nascent chains focus on it, too, like Joella’s, which is operating in Lexington and Louisville, Ky., and Hattie B’s, which has two stores in Nashville and is reportedly scouting sites in Atlanta.

Capitalizing on the appeal of the flavor, chefs are applying it to other proteins. White Oak Kitchen and Cocktails in Atlanta, for example, offers a shrimp appetizer that is prepared hot-chicken style and served on brioche toast. And last fall, Captain D’s in Nashville launched a limited-time-only promotion that included a whole fillet of Nashville Hot Fish topped with pickles.

General Tso Tsung-tang was a 19th century warrior from Hunan province in China who never consumed the Chinese-American menu standard that bears his name. Its origins are a little cloudy, but many food historians credit General Tso’s Chicken to a Hunanese chef who ultimately landed in New York City. The dish consists of breaded, fried chicken in a sweet-and-spicy glaze. Its taste profile has become so popular that last year Bon Appétit magazine heralded “General Tsoification” as a major trend and noted the addition of General Tso’s sauce to such disparate dishes as fried shiitake mushrooms at Sausage & Meat in San Diego and to chicken-fried sweetbreads at East Ender in Portland, Maine.

General Tsao’s Lobster at Oceana in New York City has been the best-selling item on that menu since its introduction two years ago, while Roots Asian Kitchen near Princeton, N.J., offers another variation on the theme with its General Roots Bowl that marries protein with crispy sweet-and-spicy Chinese vegetables. A culinary and cultural phenomenon, General Tso’s Chicken has its own Facebook page and even inspired The Search for General Tso, a recent documentary that tracked the origin of the popular entrée.  

Alvin Charles “Al” Copeland has, perhaps, been unfairly overlooked in all the hot-chicken hubbub, but his influence is arguably the farthest reaching and most impactful. Copeland was the entrepreneur who founded Popeyes, the purveyor of spicy chicken from his native New Orleans.

Its assertive flavor profile was truly new to most Americans in the 1970s, and it caused a sensation as the chain expanded beyond its home base. Now branded as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in homage to its origins, the chain continues to push the flavor envelope: It initiated 2015 with super-spicy Ghost Pepper Wings, and it rang out the year with Spiced Pepper Barrel Tenders marinated in Tabasco.  An American original, the operation has had immeasurable impact on our collective palate and set the stage for the current fried-chicken trend. When he opened Popeyes back in 1972, Copeland created one of the most forward-looking backstories in the business.