I love spicy food. Even though I’ve traveled to Nashville for business many times, I usually eat barbecue there.
Then, last year, I discovered that Nashville hot chicken was a thing, not in Nashville, but in Louisville, by accident, when I was just looking for a dinner spot and would up at a place called Joella’s. Turns out they’re a franchise with Nashville-style hot chicken.
Then something I can’t remember triggered my cravings; maybe from seeing that Los Angeles has a newish food craze of Nashville hot chicken. That started my search for Nashville Hot Chicken in Orange County, California, the place where over 3 million live. Because I don’t want to drive to LA for them, not if I don’t have to.
(A friend mentioned that KFC had them. I tried it twice. Disappointed both times. First time they had drizzled the sauce on chicken tenders. I hoped another KFC location would do better by tossing the tenders in the sauce, which they did, but still a let down.)
On a more thorough research using the power of the internet, I found these hot spots. I’ll leave it to Yelpers to write up the reviews. Please add a comment if you know of others.
Restaurants with Nashville Hot Chicken in Orange County, California
Cluck Kitchen cluckkitchen.com, Irvine – opened in July 2020 (cf. Cluck Kitchen will serve Nashville hot chicken and regular fried chicken when it opens in Irvine – OC Register)
Spice-C @ spice-c.net – opened in July 2020, located in the District, next to AMC Theaters.
Fowl Play, in Mess Hall Market, Tustin
Crack Shack at 196 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa
Hotties Chicken in Orange and Chino Hills
Wing Ferno – has Nashville Hot Chicken wings, tenders, sandwiches, and other flavors too – in Orange and Gardena
Dave’s Hot Chicken in Fountain Valley
Clyde’s Hot Chicken at 513 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton
Bred’s Nashville Hot Chicken has a food truck that gets around the OC and Southern California.
Joe Schmoe’s, Cypress
The Cut, Irvine
Alternatives
There are other kinds of spicy fried chicken sandwiches served by restaurants like Two Birds, Chick-Fil-A, Popeyes, Yard House, Buffalo Wild Wings, Sweetbird, but that’s not the same as a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich. Not there’s anything wrong with that.
Rojos Hot Chicken renders a Mexican Hot Chicken sandwich, inspired by the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich, at occasional pop-ups – follow instagram.com/rojoshotchicken to get some
Rooster Republic @ McFadden Public Market at 515 N. Main St., Santa Ana. (closed)
Featured Articles
Nashville hot chicken is taking over Los Angeles (LA Times, May 2019)
Clyde’s Hot Chicken Brings the Nashville-Style Bird to Orange County (OC Weekly, April 2019)