In the cult of spicy food in the United States, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville is a holy site. Today’s featured video from the Southern Foodways Alliance documentary series visits the famed Tennessee restaurant to cover its burning, addictive, debatably aphrodisiacal fried chicken, and the fans who return to enjoy it/torture themselves again and again.
James Thornton Prince opened Prince's Hot Chicken Shack in 1945, after allegedly learning the fiery recipe that would make him famous from a jealous girlfriend (the first batch was intended as edible punishment for straying). Ownership of the restaurant transferred to André Prince Jeffries, his great-niece, who appears in the video above, in 1980. Under Jeffries, Prince's has gained nationwide acclaim, and is often credited as the birthplace of a dish that has since popped up on menus coast to coast.
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