The Biggest Mistake To Look Out For At Hot Chicken Restaurants - Exclusive

From Music City to Salt Lake City, Nashville hot chicken has become a growing food trend all over the country. Just consider the spicy chicken sandwich wars that have been happening across fast-food chains in recent years. People seemingly love their fried chicken — and they like it hot.

However, before you head to the nearest hot chicken joint and prepare to set your taste buds on fire, one expert chef wants you to take a beat. Chef Viet Pham, who's gained celebrity status on the Food Network for beating Bobby Flay with his Nashville hot chicken recipe (among other achievements), says not all hot chicken is created equal, and there's one major downfall to look out for when seeking out your spicy culinary adventure.

"Nashville hot chicken tends to be very singular... It's just varying levels of heat," he told Tasting Table in an exclusive interview. And while that can very well be delicious, "heat can overpower everything" and ruin the dish if it's not applied properly. The true test of a good hot chicken recipe is balance. "The skill and the... discipline is being able to understand certain peppers and how they burn and applying that to certain spices, and finding that equilibrium," he explains.

There is such a thing as too much spice

The truth is that "at the end of the day, anybody can make any dish spicy," says chef Pham. You can toss chili powder with anything until it's hot enough to make you cry. Unfortunately, chef Pham says that many restaurants will do just that, focusing only on the spice level, and not the complexity involved with balancing the flavors. "And that's where it requires a lot of work. That's where a lot of self-restraint happens."

He points out that "a lot of hot chicken places will tend to use Carolina Reapers because it's the hottest." The problem with that is "the way that Carolina Reapers burn on your palate ... it's right up front," meaning that the only thing you're going to taste is flames. The result is that "all the hard work that gets put into the sandwich basically is for nothing because the heat has overpowered everything."

His restaurant, Pretty Bird Chicken, does things differently. "We use ghost chili pepper ... because it tends to burn from the back and comes to the front." What that means is "the first couple bites that you eat, you get to taste all the flavors," before the heat hits your palate. Sure, at that point you'll just be gulping down water, but there are those "two to three bites that you get initially that you get to taste everything." And isn't that what you came on this fiery journey for?