People from the south automatically assume that they’ll never find a fried chicken as delicious as one served north of the Mason-Dixon line.
But that prejudice gets thrown into the deep fryer after eating the Nashville-style hot chicken at Peaches HotHouse in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
An order of chicken — go for the “hot” version unless you really want to burn — costs only $12 for three pieces of bird, cornbread, pickles and a side of collard greens. The sides were great and all, but the star of the show was the chicken.
The crust is covered in cayenne, pepper, and other tongue-teasing tastes before the bird is fried hard — a style unique to Tennessee.
That means the skin packs some real crunch to go along with spice.
Indeed, the chicken is fried so hard that it isn’t too greasy. The white bread slice that sits under the bird — it’s a Southern thing, folks — is barely wet after the meal.
But that doesn’t mean the chicken is dry, quite the contrary. It’s juicy and delicious, beckoning you to put out the fire in your mouth by eating more.
This HotHouse isn’t blowing hot air: it has quickly leaped to the top of the soul food scene, right alongside Mitchell’s on Vanderbilt Avenue and Ruthie’s on DeKalb Avenue.
The more fried chicken the merrier, we say.
Peaches HotHouse [415 Tompkins Ave. at Hancock Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (718) 483-9111].
