Without the blistering heat, hot chicken would be just plain-old fried chicken — not that there's anything wrong with that. But fans of Nashville hot chicken are in search of something different: the endorphin rush that comes calling following the consumption of those fiery capsaicins.
If that describes you, then you're in luck. This week only, Hot Chicken Takeover (242 Main St., 440-638-1117) has rolled out a new heat level that is available for all of its fried chicken dishes. Typically, menu items like wings, drums, thighs, breasts and sandwiches come in degrees of heat dubbed cold, warm, hot and holy. For the uninitiated, hot is indeed hot and holy is on par with real-deal Szechuan food.
So what must this new Unholy spice level (available through September 27) be like to eat? Made by combining the signature cayenne spice blend with the infamous ghost pepper, which clocks in at around 400-times the heat of an average jalapeño, the results are bound to be incendiary.
"The first couple bites were no problem and I was worried this was going to fall short because the normal cayenne is such an in-your-face heat," says actual diner Jensen Laatsch (who tipped us off to the off-menu Extra Holy). "But the heat caught up and wasn't a disappointment at all. Someone who is used to HCT should come prepared for a different kind of spice."
Muy caliente!
"Heat-seekers" are encouraged to snap a sweaty selfie in the act of anguish and submit them here for bragging rights and "access to special events," the details of which we elect to ignore.
