Last week my colleague and I went to Amerigo for lunch. It’s a good Italian restaurant, so I expected to order one of the traditional pasta dishes I’ve had before, a caeser salad or maybe a Panini. I hadn’t been in a while and the menu had changed. Immediately the special of the day jumped out – hot chicken pasta. Fits perfectly in my strict high-carb diet.
Unless you are from Nashville, have visited Nashville, or some Southern city that replicates hot chicken, you can’t truly understand hot chicken. If Emeril were to describe it, he might call it Southern fried chicken “kicked up a few notches,” followed by a “BAM!”
It’s a secret combination of spices that somehow adds a firey kick without compromising the juiciness. To understand it is to experience it.Check out this video as background.
Former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell is so obsessed with it that he created the Nashville Hot Chicken Festival. Mrs. H-CC and I attended this year for the second time. Only a glorious celebration of fried chicken and locally-brewed beer would lure us to stand in line for an hour to eat hot food outside, in the middle of the day, in 100 degree weather, with thousands of strangers.
But back to Amerigo…
While it may not be on par with Nashville’s Prince’s, it tastes pretty authentic. And the pairing with fettuccini and cream sauce is unique. It’s not something you could pair with a tomato sauce. Could have done with more scallions on top, for variety if nothing else.
The dish was good enough that I’d order it again. But it really just made me want more hot chicken.
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