How Nashville hot chicken took over the world

I once ate a Hot Ones-style lineup of hot wings that would make Sean Evans blush. I completed the challenge, profusely sweating and hiccuping, and regretted it for days.

And I didn't learn a thing. I order spicy food all the time.

Apparently, I'm not the only glutton for punishment.

The fiery heat of Nashville hot chicken has spread its wings across the US and is now taking over the globe, per Marketplace.

Some like it hot

Like all good food trends, Nashville hot chicken began with a scorned lover.

Legend says that in the 1930s, Thornton Prince's girlfriend sought revenge on her philandering partner by spiking his fried chicken with a "devilish" amount of spices. Instead of suffering, Prince loved the heat and opened a hot chicken shack with his brothers. Prince's Hot Chicken still serves its bright brick-red chicken, available plain to XXX hot.

For decades, the dish remained popular among Nashville's Black communities and musicians from the Grand Ole Opry.

Then, in 2007, the first annual Music City Hot Chicken Festival solidified the city's signature dish, promoting the spicy bird to a wider audience and inspiring countless imitators.

Over the next decade, Nashville hot chicken restaurants flocked across the US, including chains like Hattie B's and Dave's Hot Chicken. Soon, fast food giants like KFC, Popeyes, and Chick-fil-A were battling for spicy supremacy.

Now the trend is global:

• ~2.4k restaurants worldwide sell Nashville hot chicken.
• 65% increase in menu mentions from 2018 to 2023.
• Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken & Wings was 2024's fastest-growing chain, and 2025's was Wingstop.
• Dave's Hot Chicken has nearly 500 franchise locations — a 58% increase from 2025 — including 30 international locations and 300 more already sold.
• The global hot chicken restaurant market was worth $7.8B in 2024 and is expected to reach $16.1B by 2033.

The trend is partly attributed to a growing demand for protein, and chicken offers an inexpensive option.

But why so spicy? Researchers say the way our bodies respond to capsaicin in hot peppers could be "benign masochism," akin to enduring initially unpleasant experiences like watching horror movies or running (yikes!) that eventually release endorphins for a mild high.

At least I can blame science the next time I take on a dumb spicy challenge.