Super-hot-spiced fried chicken has been percolating along quietly in Nashville, TN for, oh, about 80 years. Through the decades the fiery bird received little national attention nor, for that matter, all that much local attention. Suddenly, within the last two or three years, the yardbird has flown the coop and is nesting in spots like New York City, Lexington, KY, and Birmingham, AL. Why now? Or, more to the point, what took so long? All it takes is a taste for a lifelong love affair. We know; we’re addicts as well.

Hot chicken at Big Shake's Hot Chicken & Fish, soon to be in Lexington, KY

Hot chicken at Big Shake’s Hot Chicken & Fish, soon to be in Lexington, KY

Check out this story in the Lexington (KY) Herald Leader about Nashville hot chicken. They talk to Timothy Davis, author of The Hot Chicken Cookbook, discuss hot chicken’s history, its growing popularity, and the impending opening of  Joella’s Hot Chicken (a budding regional chain) and Big Shake’s Hot Chicken in Lexington.