Fast Food Watch: Shake Shack's Hot Chicken Sandwich Brings the Heat

There are spicy chicken sandwiches – like those from KFC and McDonald’s, which, while fine as a way of sopping up all the booze in your liver after a night of drinking, don’t amount to much heat at all on the Scoville scale – and then there’s Shake Shack’s Dark Meat Hot Chick’n Sandwich.

It’s unabashedly inspired by Nashville hot chicken, a variety of fried chicken – spawned way back in 1945 by Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack – coated in a cayenne pepper concoction before frying, and then coated with yet more cayenne after.

The result is fried chicken with a dark red hue that brings a heat that grows with each bite. And it looks like Shake Shack have gotten this formula down quite well.

While Nashville hot chicken is typically served on a piece of white bread (better to sop up any excess cayenne-laced oil) with a few pickle slices on top, Shake Shack’s sandwich (RMB 52) comes on a normal old bun topped with cole slaw and pickles. This isn’t a bad thing, though, as the slaw works to mitigate the heat of the chicken – which has a lovely kick to it.

When we ordered, we asked for 加辣 jiala (literally add spice), because we never want to take chances with too little heat. Upon first bite, the heat is timid, but it grows with each consecutive munch.

Verdict – this is a truly spicy chicken sandwich, and washed down with some Abita Root Beer (RMB 28) – it’s not from Nashville, but still a quality root beer – it hits the spot.

While new to the menu, there’s no telling on whether or not the Dark Meat Hot Chick’n sandwich is a seasonal or temporary item, so it’s best to head to Shake Shack and grab it while it’s hot.

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Images: Vincent R. Vinci, Wikipedia