Fiery, crispy Nashville hot chicken is coming to Delaware. Here’s what we know — and where

The hottest trend in chicken is coming for Delaware.

Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken & Wings — one of a steaming bouquet of fried chicken chains looking to capitalize on the newfound national popularity of fire-engine-red, cayenne-dipped fried chicken — will open this year in Dover’s new Capital Station shopping center, Capital owners R&R Commercial Realty announced this week.

The Dover Hangry Joe’s will be the chain’s first outlet in Delaware, and one of the only hot chicken spots in the state so far — though it’s unlikely this situation will last. Hangry Joe’s is already scouting the Wilmington area for another location, according to its website.

Hot chicken restaurants, whether corporate chains like Dave’s Hot Chicken or locally owned halal spots, have been sweeping the nation over the past year. Some blocks in New Jersey and Philadelphia now boast side-by side hot chicken spots. In Philly’s Old City neighborhood, four hot chicken spots exist within three blocks of each other.

Other chains like Colbie’s Southern Kissed Fried Chicken and Burger King have already gotten in on the game by offering their own, somewhat milder takes on Nashville-style hot chicken.

So what’s so hot about Nashville fried chicken? And precisely where and when will the Hangry’s open? Here’s what we know.

What’s Nashville hot chicken?

Nashville hot chicken is in fact Prince’s Hot Chicken.

Most of a century ago, Nashville’s Thornton Prince was a lean, smoldering-eyed and dashing man, a breaker of hearts who married five times and left romantic wreckage behind. One such broken heart, known by legend as “Girlfriend X,” decided on revenge. And so she made him fried chicken spiced so hot with cayenne and black pepper that it should liquefy your innards and burn out your soul.

Well, Thornton loved it, the story goes. He asked for seconds. He loved it so much he sold terrifyingly spicy chicken out of his home, then founded Prince’s Hot Chicken in 1945.

Now 80 years later, his family still serves bright-red cayenne-butter-pickle fried chicken at the famous Prince’s Hot Chicken shack in Nashville — a flavor that became known as “Nashville” hot chicken after the flavor spread to other restaurants around town and eventually the rest of the country.

What makes it different? Heat. Big heat. Actual heat. Earthy, toe-numbing, coma-inducing cayenne heat. Crispy breading, brined chicken, and bright red sauce made mostly of fat and cayenne pepper. Plus a pickle. What else would you ever need?

Anyway, over the past decade or so, “Nashville hot chicken” has gone from local delicacy to cult item to ubiquitous flavor — spawning several chains devoted to hot chicken that include Nashville’s own Hattie B’s in addition to Dave’s Hot Chicken, Joella’s Hot Chicken, Howlin’ Ray’s and, of course, Hangry Joe’s.

What’s different about Hangry Joe’s, and when will it open in Delaware?

Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken and Wings, founded in Northern Virginia by partners Derek Cha and Mike Kim, devotes itself both to Nashville-hot fried chicken sandwiches and Korean-style wings — a duo of hot chicken tastes. Korean-born Cha is also a co-founder of the Sweet Frog frozen yogurt franchise.

Hangry Joe’s, founded in 2021, already boasts around 30 locations in Virginia and Maryland alone — plus multiple in the hot-chicken home of Tennessee, four within Philadelphia city limits, and a location in … Dubai.

The Dover location at the Capital Station shopping center on Division Street and DuPont Highway is slated to open in late fall or early winter this year, according to R & R construction, making it likely the first in Delaware. According to the Hangry Joe’s website, another Delaware location is already planned for Elsmere.

Charles Rodriguez, of R&R Commercial Realty, says the deal will mean that Capital Station is nearly fully leased.

“Capital Station has grown into one of Dover’s top business hubs,” Rodriguez wrote in a statement. “It has a strong mix of business types now and it attracts consistent traffic. It’s come a long way from its past life as the old, shuttered Playtex factory.”

Where else in Delaware can you find Nashville hot chicken?

Philly and the whole state of New Jersey are filling up with hot chicken restaurants — so much so that hot chicken restaurants sometimes open across the street from other hot chicken restaurants.

But a true cayenne-red, Nashville-style, hot fried chicken sandwich can be interestingly hard to find in Delaware at the moment. Delaware restaurants dedicated entirely to hot chicken are even harder to locate.

But simply cross the Pennsylvania border, and you can find yourself at FIRE Nashville Hot Chicken in West Chester and at the Booths Corner Farm Market.

Matthew Korfhage is business and development reporter in the Delaware region covering all things related to land and money: openings and closings, construction, and the many corporations who call the First State home. Send tips and insults to mkorfhage@gannett.com.