Very on-trend Shake Shack adds hot chicken to the menu

Hot chicken, or “Hot Chick’n” as it will be known, will debut at Shake Shack nationwide on August 1.

Shake Shack is up to something. Specifically, they’re expanding their menu from the burgers and shakes on which they made their name to a beloved southern style of fried chicken that’s rapidly going national. Yes, we’re talking about hot chicken.

According to Eater, reporting a press release from the chain, Hot Chick’n is a chicken breast “slow-cooked in a creamy buttermilk marinade” and “dusted with a guajillo and cayenne pepper blend.” It’s, of course, deep-fried as all good hot chicken is, and topped with slaw “made with Louisiana hot sauce.”

The expansion into chicken is not totally unprecedented. The chain introduced a chicken sandwich — chick’n shack — in 2015 to wild success. The Hot Chick’n is essentially just a spicy version of that successful sandwich.

But, of course, the name appeals to the popularity of Nashville hot chicken, which has increasingly popped up in cities outside Tennessee at both specialty chains and general purveyors of fried chicken alike.

Hey, hot stuff! We’re spicing things up with a brand spankin’ new Hot Chick’n, a crispy chicken breast dusted with a…

Posted by Shake Shack on Thursday, June 15, 2017

If this is something you’re into — it certainly sounds better than the last piece of hot-chicken-related news —  you can order the sandwich on Shake Shack’s app on July 28, a few days before it appears on menus in stores August 1.

Hot chicken will be available nationwide, however, it won’t appear in outlet locations such as airports, stadiums, ballparks, etc.

Shake Shack has not been terribly secretive about the items they plan to add to the menu. The May 2017 cookbook — Shake Shack: Recipes and Stories — has an entire section titled “The Taste of Things to Come.” And yep — the chain’s recipe for hot chicken was included therein.

The cookbook also includes a recipe for chicken tenders, so fingers crossed, we get that next. And then hot chicken tenders? Now we’re cooking with oil.