Hot Chicken Across The U.S.A.

Having lived 27 years outside of Tennessee, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to watch the places I’ve lived in grow and change with the times. My hometown of Aurora, IL, has changed dramatically in the past three decades, especially since I moved out as an adult to become a journalist. It’s even changed dramatically in the four years since I moved. 

It was curious, then, to return to my roots after years of working abroad to discover that Nashville came back with me. Not only had Nashville slowly transformed into the trendy vacation capital that all my friends wanted to go to and an economic mecca to be migrated to, but its culture was being exported back to the Midwest in the form of hot chicken. 

In the past few years, both Dave’s Hot Chicken and Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken and Wings franchises had opened within a short distance of my family’s home. These franchises have ballooned in the past decade, with Dave’s alone having opened nearly 300 locations since launching in 2017. And they aren’t alone. Nashville Hot is a popular spice in grocery stores and restaurants. Popeye’s, Hardee’s, Raising Cane’s, Chick-fil-A, and Buffalo Wild Wings have rolled out Nashville Hot products. Kentucky Fried Chicken celebrated this New Year’s by announcing its hot chicken menu would expand nationwide. As CNBC reports, hot chicken products spiked 65.7% in menu mentions between 2018 and 2023.

Nashville’s cultural impact has ballooned as its exposure has increased, reflected in this newfound national demand for hot chicken. Just as companies are fleeing here for the cultural benefits, food is becoming a symbol of Nashville’s dominance. As the economic center of gravity has shifted from Memphis towards Middle Tennessee, hot chicken has overshadowed Memphis BBQ as the state’s primary culinary export. 

A decade ago, I was completely unaware of Nashville’s hot chicken culture. But now, the people around me couldn’t get enough of it. Small country restaurants in the middle of nowhere are making bank selling it, even in states without a penchant for high spice tolerance. 

Settled against the rolling hills of unincorporated rural communities east of Madison, WI, Crawfish Junction is a destination Cajun-themed pub that holds the unique distinction of having its head chef be a former Nashville resident. Nate Moralez only spent a year here in 2010—just before the Nashville explosion—but he spent that year busking as a musician, working odd jobs, and falling in love with the local cuisine. When he found the opportunity to co-own the mid-sized local restaurant in Wisconsin two years ago, one of his first decisions was to roll out the “Music City Hot Chicken Sandwich.”  

I met Chef Nate this past Wednesday, alongside the Wisconsin Supper Club Chasers, for a joint dinner to experience Crawfish Junction’s unique menu and rustic location along the Crawfish River. 

“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “It’s a destination. Anything we put on a plate has to be perfect. People came here for that. They didn’t just show up or walk down the street. I always tell my chefs and servers that if something doesn’t look right to send it back and remake it.” 

Crawfish Junction doesn’t specialize in hot chicken but includes it among its Cajun and southern comfort offerings, including chicken and waffles, biscuits and gravy, alligator tail bites, crawfish bites, Cajun walleye, frog legs, and beignets, alongside pub staples and Wisconsin favorites like cheese curds and beer-battered cod fish fry. 

His interpretation of Nashville Hot is slightly untraditional, avoiding the cayenne pepper flavor that is usually the base of hot chicken. Instead, his pickle-brined, beer-battered, deep-fried chicken breasts are coated in a mix of Frank’s RedHot and in-house Cajun seasoning that balances the meat’s moisture with the savory sauce, and served with a liberal topping of pickles. It’s on the lower end of the heat scale you’ll find in most hot chicken restaurants, but it is still an excellent twist on classic hot chicken.  

“I had this in my back pocket for years, but I didn’t have an avenue to put it out,” says Nate. “I think when it first kicked off, it was something different on the menu. They tried it and came back for it.”

Nate doesn’t necessarily know why hot chicken has become so popular, but he said that it is one of the most popular items on his menu, comparable in sales to his popular craft burgers at a ratio of roughly 3 to 1. “Why do I think it’s popular? I couldn’t say. People give it a chance, and it promotes itself. People who have had it come back for it, and it's what they come back for.” 

Nate’s passion for Cajun cuisine and the decision to expand the restaurant’s offerings have certainly set it apart from nearby restaurants, which have stuck with normal pub menus. At peak season during Lent, the modest dining hall has been crowded with as many as 500 guests per night. He even intends to continue filling out the options with more Cajun classics like jambalaya and gumbo and also aspires to dabble in Italian food in the future. 

For now, though, his excellent hot chicken sandwiches remain one of his menu’s star attractions—a strange testament to the continued popularization of Nashville’s culture into the deepest reaches of rural America.