I tried Hattie B's and Prince's, 2 of Nashville's most popular hot chicken spots. Here's how the famous restaurants stack up.

Nashville is famous for its hot chicken: crispy fried chicken that's doused in oil and hot spices. The chicken's oil-based sauce differentiates it from Buffalo chicken, which according to Fox, is typically made with butter and some variety of cayenne-based sauce. 

Once a delicacy only enjoyed by Nashvillians, the dish's popularity has boomed in recent years, with hot chicken restaurants sprouting up from Los Angeles to Washington, DC.

It's built a rabid fan base on TikTok, and according to Eater, the chicken has become so beloved that it's even inspired a slew of spin-off dishes around the city, including hot tater tots, hot hummus, and hot doughnuts. 

It can be found at restaurants all over Nashville, but the two hot chicken giants are Prince's Hot Chicken and Hattie B's.

I visited both to see whose chicken reigns supreme. 

Prince's Hot Chicken is the originator of Nashville hot chicken. 

In 2019, Insider's Herrine Ro spoke to André Prince, the current owner of Prince's, about her family's business and the hot chicken phenomenon. 

According to André, in the 1930s, her great uncle Thornton Prince was unknowingly served spicy chicken by an angry lover, and the heat of the chicken, intended to burn his mouth, actually lit a fire of a different kind.

Thornton loved the chicken so much he started his own business and opened the first hot chicken restaurant, called BBQ Chicken Shack, in 1936. André continues to honor her great uncle's legacy by serving this spicy specialty to Music City.

What started as popular fare in Nashville's Black community is now a worldwide hit, with other restaurants replicating the dish.

"Competition is good. And it gives you more recognition, because everybody wants to know, where did it start? Hey, they got to come to Prince's Hot Chicken. That's where it all started. Oh, baby, people are always curious," André told Ro. 

Prince's has three restaurants in the Nashville area: South Nashville, Broadway, and a food truck on 6th Avenue. I visited the South Nashville location. 

The dining room is casual with photos and Prince's memorabilia lining the walls. 

My four tenders cost $7.85, and side items like baked beans, macaroni and cheese, and coleslaw were à la carte, starting at $2.50. That seemed to be a reasonable price for the amount of food I got. I decided to just get the chicken as that, to me, is the star of the show. 

The tenders were topped with pickles and came in a paper basket piled on a piece of white bread.

Hot chicken is customarily served on top of white bread. Excess oil and spices soak into the bread leaving behind a spicy slice to enjoy. 

The tenders were a good size, hot (temperature-wise), and crispy.

There are seven hot chicken heat levels at Prince's, and I opted for medium. I figured this would be a good level to gauge how fiery their chicken actually is.

I actually think I could have gone up a level or two in terms of spice. Don't get me wrong, the chicken was hot, but not as hot as I had expected. Next time I'm definitely taking it up a notch.

Regardless, it was delicious and packed with hot chicken flavor. 

Like Prince's, Hattie B's started with family.

According to The Tennessean, Nick Bishop Jr., one of the restaurant's founders, had the food business in his DNA. Both his father and grandfather operated their own successful Tennessee restaurants before Bishop Jr. opened Hattie B's with his dad in 2012. 

"We knew we had great fried chicken, really for any Hot Chicken place, starts with great southern fried chicken and here is something Nashville did well, that the rest of the world doesn't know about, so we thought we could do a really good job with it," Bishop Jr. told WKRN. 

Hattie B's has ten locations: five in Tennessee, two in Atlanta, and one in Birmingham, Dallas, and Las Vegas. 

I visited the location on 8th Avenue in an area called Melrose. 

The atmosphere is laid back and fun with pops of bright red and plenty of seating. Similar to Prince's, there is plenty of merchandise for sale and on display. 

I would advise going on the earlier side or later in the afternoon. The line can get lengthy at peak lunch hours. 

My meal, which came with three tenders and two sides, was $12.00 — about the same price as Prince's. Sides included Southern favorites like potato salad, greens, and grits. For sides, I ordered fries and coleslaw. Both were very tasty.

The first thing I noticed about the Hattie B's chicken was the large size of the tenders. They were also served with pickles and the standard white bread.

As for heat, I, again, opted for medium, which is the third option on Hattie B's six-level heat scale. It did not disappoint. 

It wasn't unbearably spicy, but for sure had a kick. Much more than Prince's medium tenders. 

Just looking at the chicken you can see how red it is from all of the oil and seasoning, and in addition to being spicy, it had a great flavor too. 

To be honest, I really can't pick a winner. 

Taste-wise they are both top-notch. Prince's is juicy and crispy, and Hattie B's is spicy and flavorful. The prices were comparable, and the sides, at least at Hattie B's, were great too. You really can't go wrong with either.

However, if you were a tourist visiting Nashville for a brief time and are forced to choose between the two, perhaps Prince's would be your best bet. Afterward, you can tell people that you ate at the home of hot chicken. 

Hattie B's is not to be overlooked though. With more locations, it can be more convenient depending on where you are in the city.