There is no consensus answer, which is itself useful information. Nashville’s hot chicken landscape has expanded dramatically in the past decade and the spots worth visiting fall into different categories depending on what you are actually looking for.
The Originals
Prince’s Hot Chicken is the founding restaurant, operating since around 1945. Andre Prince Jeffries, great-niece of founder Thornton Prince, runs it. Multiple Nashville locations exist now. The chicken uses a traditional cayenne-lard paste on a bird that has been marinated in pickle brine for days. Prince’s Mild is already significant heat by most standards. Several professional Nashville chefs, including Arnold’s Country Kitchen’s Kahlil Arnold, cite Prince’s as their personal top pick.
Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish at 624 Main Street in East Nashville is the second oldest serious hot chicken operation in the city. It opened in the 1980s, closed, and reopened in 1997. Bolton’s uses a dry application method: rather than mixing the spice paste with oil, the dry spice blend is shaken directly onto the chicken immediately after it comes out of the fryer, where the thin slick of oil still on the surface binds the spice to the crust. The result is a different heat texture than the wet paste method. Bolton’s Medium is roughly equivalent to the hottest level at most other Nashville restaurants. Anthony Bourdain visited Bolton’s in 2016 and reported that the hottest level caused him to hallucinate. The hot fish at Bolton’s, a catfish sandwich made in the same tradition as the hot chicken, is considered by many food writers to be the best hot fish sandwich in the country. The Infatuation rated Bolton’s the top hot chicken restaurant in Nashville for years before noting some inconsistency after recent staff changes.
The Accessible New School
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, with multiple Nashville locations and national expansion, offers six heat levels from Southern (no heat) through Shut the Cluck Up (ghost pepper base, over one million Scoville units). Founded in 2012, it democratized hot chicken for Nashville’s exploding tourist market and remains consistently excellent despite the “tourist chicken” label it gets from purists. Their sides are better than most, their pimento mac and cheese is excellent, and the dining experience is comfortable. Get the Damn Hot level if you actually want to feel it.
The Current Critical Favorite
Red’s Hot Chicken at 115 27th Ave. N., near the Parthenon, is The Infatuation’s current top-ranked hot chicken spot in Nashville. It does not do bone-in pieces, focusing on tenders and boneless thighs with what critics describe as an exceptional breading-to-meat ratio. The hot chicken crunchwrap, stuffed with comeback sauce, pimento mac and cheese, and hot chicken, has become a cult item. There are no significant lines. Walk-up window operation means you can grab and go. A nearby bar, reportedly the oldest in Nashville, is steps away for washing it down.
400 Degrees at 3704 Clarksville Pike is the only major Nashville hot chicken restaurant that deep-fries rather than pan-fries. Owner and chef Aqui Hines has been running it for years and the technique produces a crunchier exterior than most competitors. One serious local food ranking puts 400 Degrees at the top of the entire Nashville list. Heat levels run from 100 degrees through 400 degrees (the namesake level), with a 900-degree option available off-menu. The 400-degree level is roughly equivalent to Prince’s Hot.
Worth Knowing
Pepperfire at 5104 Centennial Blvd in The Nations neighborhood claims to have been the first Nashville restaurant to serve hot chicken tenders and the first to put hot chicken on a bun, innovations that happened around 2010. Their Tender Royale, hot chicken tenders served on top of a deep-fried grilled cheese sandwich, is one of the more creative items in the local scene. Note: their original Gallatin Avenue location has closed; the current location is on Centennial Boulevard.
Helen’s in North Nashville, near Fisk University, started as a food truck. Multiple Nashville chefs cite it for consistent heat levels and chicken that never comes out dry.
Party Fowl serves hot chicken in a full-service bar environment, putting it on nachos, po’boys, bloody marys, and tacos. It is not where a hot chicken purist goes. It is where someone goes when they want a fun Nashville experience and find the traditional chicken shack atmosphere intimidating.
Sources
- The Infatuation Nashville, “The 9 Best Nashville Hot Chicken Restaurants, Ranked,” https://www.theinfatuation.com/nashville/guides/best-hot-chicken-restaurants-nashville
- Eat This, Not That, “5 Best Hot Chicken Spots In Nashville In 2024,” https://www.eatthis.com/best-hot-chicken-in-nashville/
- Cozymeal, “Best Hot Chicken in Nashville for 2025,” https://www.cozymeal.com/magazine/best-hot-chicken-in-nashville
- Timeout Nashville, “11 Best Hot Chicken Spots in Nashville According To A Local,” https://www.timeout.com/nashville/restaurants/best-nashville-hot-chicken
- H.D. Miller, “The Nashville Hot Chicken Rankings,” https://eccentricculinary.substack.com/p/the-nashville-hot-chicken-rankings