Prince’s hot chicken. Sean Russell / flickr / 2010 / CC BY-SA 2.0
The 30th of March is Hot Chicken Day.
Hot chicken is a spicy chicken dish to come out of Nashville, Tennessee, where it was popularized at a restaurant named “Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.”
The cut of chicken used can vary and typically can be breast, thigh or wing.
The chicken pieces are floured, fried then coated with a paste made of lard and cayenne pepper. Sometimes people apply the cayenne paste before flouring and frying. Cooks vary the paste by adding their own secret ingredients.
This gives the fried, coated chicken a spicy taste.
The dish is now spreading in popularity outside of Tennessee.
Note this is not the same as a Hot Chicken Sandwich, which is chicken gravy, slices of roasted boneless chicken, and bread.
#HotChickenDay
See also: Chicken
Twitter: https://twitter.com/hotchickenday
History
The first mention that CooksInfo has found of a 30th of March “Hot Chicken Day” in print archives dates from a 2018 Kroger’s advertisement in Tennessee:
Kroger Advertisement, full page. Murfreesboro, Tennessee: The Daily News Journal. Wednesday, 28 March 2018. Page A7.
Sources
Miller, Adrian. The Best Bone-In Nashville Hot Chicken in Denver and Beyond. Denver, Colorado: The Westward. 28 March 2019. Accessed March 2021 at https://www.westword.com/restaurants/james-beard-award-winner-adrian-miller-shares-his-nashville-hot-chicken-picks-in-denver-11287430