#66 – HOT CHICKEN at PEACHES HOTHOUSE

Once again Time Out New York released their Top 100 Dishes of the year and once again, I’m going to eat my way through every one. And no price point or subway delay will stop me. In no particular order, here’s my take on their Top 100.

I visited Nashville last summer on a road trip between New York and Memphis. And I guess I didn’t do my research thoroughly enough because we didn’t try any hot chicken while in town. I always try to find a city’s most iconic dishes and try the best version of it. That was part of my inspiration for the webseries.

And while we did sample a meat and three (Arnold’s) and some Mexican popsicles (Las Paletas), we somehow spared our stomachs from the hot spicy fried chicken that Nashville is known for. It’s sort of funny that it took coming back to New York and starting the new Time Out journey to get an authentic taste of Nashville.

Everything Southern seems to be taking over the city (Brooklyn in particular). I’m convinced the entire borough will have a heart attack in the next few years. Peaches HotHouse is from the same owners as The Smoke Joint, which is an old-time barbecue shop in Fort Greene that I finally tried earlier this year. It was decent, but not as good as some other BBQ spots in Brooklyn (namely Fette Sau).

And while we tried their pulled pork sandwich at Peaches (which was better than the one at Smoke Joint) and the BBQ shrimp appetizer (which was quite flavorful with awesome fried grit cakes), it was the Hot Chicken that made TONY’s 100 best list and the thing we were most focused on.

You get an option of Mild, Hot, or Extra Hot for their famous chicken and there’s an addendum to the menu warning that the extra hot is extremely spicy. I guess they take no responsibility for spontaneous combustions. We decided to play it safe and go with the more modest hot chicken. I didn’t want to put out any fires tonight.

I got nervous when the chicken arrived and I could see miniuscule red flecks (from peppers) covering the golden skin. I overcame my fear and picked the thigh up and took a bite. It was actually sweet at first. It took a while for the heat to become apparent and even when it did, it never hit the atomic levels I was expecting. But it gave the skin a flavor balance and imparted an intense flavor throughout the meat. Most of the heat came from the skin, but the flesh certainly did not suffer in the process.

The plate consisted of three generous pieces of chicken, pickles, and a side (we ordered collard greens although got delivered kale, which also had some serious heat). The first piece of chicken I had was succulent, moist, and as flavorful as possible. The second piece scared me a bit because the meat was bright pink. I’m all for cooking things as little as possible, but I’m not into chicken tartare. And this was sort of borderline. The texture was mostly firm, which lead me to believe it was safe, but the pink color gave off a warning to not eat too much. I might not have worried if there was a written warning on the menu: “Chicken is Extremely Spicy and Slightly Undercooked.”

Would Peaches HotHouse’s Hot Chicken make my Top 100 of the year? Aside from the disconcerting cooking inconsistency, the flavors were good and the chicken unbelievably tender. And happily, Bed-Stuy is a lot closer than Nashville. 7 out of 10.