We Ate Tennessee Hot Fried Chicken And Didn't Know What We Were Getting Into
Too hot to handle.
BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Staff
BuzzFeed Staff
There's really no wrong way to cook fried chicken, amirite?
But there are most definitely levels of hotness, which is where two of our BuzzFeeders come in.
Watch Chris and Keith try Nashville Hot Chicken!
View this video on YouTube
Welcome to "Chicken Watch," where Chris and Keith sample some of the best fried chicken this country has to offer, while bringing you along for the ride.
In this episode, they hit up Howlin Ray's in Los Angeles with Chef Johnny.
They serve Tennessee hot chicken, which as the story goes was a dish inspired by a woman's anger and revenge. Hmmm.
But before they got to sample the chicken, Chris and Keith got a cooking lesson, where they learned to put the chicken through the restaurant's thorough "dry-wet-dry" process.
Okay, so Chris totally burned his arm while throwing the chicken in the deep fryer. Doh!
It was time for their big taste test, and the chicken would be rated based on its moisture, crispiness, and also by its sauce.
They would start out slow in terms of hotness and work their way up. Oh man.
They started out with plain old fried chicken with no sauce, and immediately noticed how easily the meat fell from the bone. Yum!
But that's not what they were there for, was it?
So they stepped it up a notch on the spice level with some mild chicken, and quickly realized that if that was the mild, they were in for some seriously hot ass chicken!
Chris said, "I don't wanna go above this."
After getting over the initial tongue burn, they tried the next level of spice in a chicken sandwich, and they thought it was incredible.
Keith said, "This sandwich is serenity."
But then it was time for spice level three, and they were scared. Once they bit into it, it was official: they were in trouble.
They immediately went for the mac 'n' cheese, and milk ā anything that would help. LOL!
Then they begrudgingly moved it up to spice level five (the hottest), and simultaneously realized it was as unbearable as they imagined. Yikes!
They said it was a different type of heat that they could feel in the back of their mouths. Keith said, "My tongue is trying to leave my mouth." Ha!
Once they regained feeling in their tongues, they considered: Was it the best fried chicken in the world? Who knows?
What Chris and Keith did know is that it was definitely the spiciest. Keith said, "I've never felt like this from fried chicken."
Now you know. Eat responsibly.
