Hot Chicken

Every Monday night at Holeman and Finch Public House, you'll find one extra item on the menu: Hot Chicken. If you've never heard of it, the information in this blog post will hopefully do 3 things for you: 1. Give you a short culinary history lesson, 2. Make you want to take a road trip to Nashville, TN and 3. Make you a regular on Monday nights at Holeman and Finch Public House.

The Hot Chicken at Holeman and Finch is our tribute to Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville. The story of the Hot Chicken starts, as many stories do, with family. The owner of Prince's Hot Chicken is Ms. Andre Prince Jeffries and her story goes that Ms. Jeffries’ Uncle was a bit of a womanizer, so one night after being out way too late, his live-in lady friend decided to take revenge the next morning by pouring all the hot pepper she could find on his fried chicken. As it turned out her attempt at vengence was a failure. Unc liked the stuff so much he started telling all of his friends about it and asked his lady friend to keep making that super spicy chicken. Somehow or another this turned into a restaurant and there is probably another story or two  beginning with family at the origin of the business. Not to mind those details, the point is Prince's is a Nashville icon, every bit as important to Nashvillians as the Opry. They even have a Hot Chicken Festival every year.

Holeman and Finch's Hot Chicken consists of 1 chicken thigh which is doused (and by doused, we mean completely saturated, soaked smothered and covered) in the perfect amount of pepper and spices, served atop a slice of H&F Bread Co. Southern Sandwich bread. The dish is then topped with house made Bread and Butter pickles for a touch of sweet relief.

Sous Chef, Jackson Anderberg says,  “Hot chicken to me is a celebration of why it is great being from the south and why I am proud to work for Holeman and Finch Public House. The basic idea is that we are paying homage to legendary food that takes its origin in our culture. Picant foods are celebrated all over the world and this is our way to bring that home. Many try to replicate the success of Prince’s Hot Chicken but what makes ours special is that we do it out of respect for something great in our neighboring state.”

If you want to know more about Hot Chicken, watch this short documentary on Prince's Hot Chicken, filmed by Joe York for the Southern Foodways Alliance here: http://southernfoodways.org/documentary/film/hot_chicken.html

And even if you don't want to know more, watch it anyway. It's pretty great and funny.