Hide your hot sauce, Southerners: As of this week, KFC is rolling out it's Nashville Hot Chicken to all locations across the country. The move also marks the introduction of a new "Nashville Hot Colonel,"—featuring Mad Men actor Vincent Kartheises dressed up as a white-haired Elvis—as well as the full swagger-jacking of the iconic, fiery poultry first served by Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.
According to Foodbeast, the Colonel will be offering its take on the spicy, southern specialty in the form of chicken strips, on-the-bone pieces, and a sandwich. All of the items will be smothered in Nashville-style hot sauce, and served with pickles—for that real, "authentic" vibe, of course.
If you've never heard of Nashville hot chicken, you should do yourself a favor and take a brief history lesson on the Music City delicacy. The dish exists as a true regional phenomenon, and serves as a source of local pride and comfort.
Sow have real Nashville residents reacted to KFC's version? Well, Nashville journalist and hot chicken expert Timothy C. Davis put it this way in a piece for First We Feast earlier this year: "Test-marketing the dish in Pittsburgh, PA, KFC’s take on it—which was advertised as both “smoky” and “sweet,” two things Hot Chicken most decidedly isn’t—was roundly mocked in Nashville."
Still, according to CBS8, Google searches for "Nashville Hot" shot up by over 700 percent when KFC introduced the item in January, and customers—both in Nashville and beyond—have clearly been liking the dish. "In a nod to the flavor's authenticity, the bestselling city for KFC's Nashville Hot was Nashville, Tenn.," the affiliate writes.
Still, even if KFC's Nashville Hot Chicken is tasty in its own fast-food kind of way, it might make sense for the Colonel to stay in his own lane and stick to Double Downs and $5 Dollar Fill Ups.
[via Foodbeast]