(playful piano music)
(chicken clucking)
♪ Chicken breast, better than all the rest ♪
♪ Chicken breast, Better than all the rest ♪
- Chicken watch. - 2k18.
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- Nashville. - Nashville.
- Like Nashville, Tennessee.
- That's where I'm from.
(dubstep music)
- This is where Elvis is.
- Yeah, no, he's from Memphis.
- Oh. - Yeah.
Alright, it's chicken watch, baby.
In this series we're boiling it down just to fried chicken.
We're going to try some Japanese fried chicken,
we're trying Taiwanese fried chicken,
we're gonna try Jamaican fried chicken,
but today we're going out there to see
if this Nashville hot chicken
is the best chicken in the world.
- [Both] Chickenwatch 2K18!
(clucking)
- [Keith] Alright, do you wanna like rise up?
- Nah. I'll just stand here. - Yeah, you're good.
- Awesome.
Doing good, I like it, very creative.
(slide whistle)
- Hey, how's it going?
- How are you guys doing? Where'd you guys come from?
- We just came from the floor!
- Right, but they're...
- [Keith] So, what is Nashville hot chicken?
- [Johnny] It was a dish that was
based out of revenge and anger.
So a guy comes home, smells like other women.
She smelled it and got really upset,
so she's like, alright, I'm gonna light him up.
I'm gonna burn him, burn his palette.
- Don't want to touch your wiener with hot pepper hands.
- Exactly, see, I--
(shudders)
- Gotcha! - This is good.
It turns out he liked it, so next day,
he invites his friends over, asked her to make it
for his friends, his friends liked it.
- And she was just like, no don't invite your friend over,
I was trying to hurt you.
- Exactly. - Because you're hurting me.
- It's like putting a glass of water on the door,
and then the guy opens it
and the glass of water stays there.
- And then he's like, can you do this again for my friends?
- Ooh, yum, water.
- So yeah, he invited his friends over,
and they started a hot chicken shack.
She's actually the creator of this recipe.
- Chicken wouldn't be here
- [Together] If it wasn't for her.
- So this is really a story about strong women.
- [Keith] Yeah. - Hey, for sure.
We should do the point thing again.
- [All] Chickenwatch 2K18!
♪ We're the fried chicken guys. ♪
♪ We the fried chicken guys ♪
♪ Yeah yeah yeah ♪
♪ Y'all straight outta Nashville ♪
♪ We feeling good, eating so much chicken ♪
♪ Like you knew we would, and it's spicy ♪
♪ It's spicy, it's heating us up ♪
♪ And we're havin' lots of milk in our plastic cup ♪
♪ And we're feelin' really good now feelin' really hot ♪
♪ Feelin' like I'm gone, or we're just doin' stuff ♪
♪ Feelin' on the breasts and the legs and the thighs ♪
♪ Ooh, we the fried chicken guys ♪
♪ Chickenwatch 2K18 ♪
- [All] Chickenwatch!
(cheering)
- [Keith] Howlin Ray's Cooking Lesson, take one!
- So, you're gonna work with Chef Matt, here.
- Chickenwatch 2018!
- How do you make the fried chicken?
- So, it starts with sourcing really good chicken.
- With some nice, hot, sexy chicken.
- Exactly, and you go through a two-step process.
It's basically like a dry-wet-dry.
- [Keith] No bald spots!
- No bald spots. - No bald spots.
- So, it's like braised in the fryer.
We're talkin' like 20 minute cooking times.
- Slowly, away!
(oil pops) (screaming)
Away from you! - I burned myself.
- [Keith] Chris, no!
- I burned myself. - Are you okay?
- No, it just continues to like--
(lapping) Mmm.
- I was doing fine dining circuit, 11 years in the industry,
I was like you know what, I wanna do my own concept.
Life's short, risked everything
to start a restaurant in Chinatown.
- [Keith] In Chinatown, which is also very confusing.
- We need more chicken dreads, we need more chicken dreads!
- So much fried chicken back here.
- There's probably about like, 160 people.
- [Keith] 160 orders before 11 AM?
- Yeah.
- [Matt?] We've gotta drop some more chicken over!
- I feel like we're on a game show.
Chris, how do you feel?
- Unqualified.
- Are you getting in a groove now?
- Yeah, kinda.
Okay, you know what, this is really soft.
- [Both] Chickenwatch 2k18!
- Did somebody cheat on you, Chris?
(Chris grunts) Get in there!
- Oh yeah? You'll see how this feels!
This'll teach you not to fool around!
- [Johnny] The sauce is made, the chicken will
get dipped in that, and then we'll apply
different levels of heat to it.
- [Keith] This is before and this is howlin.
- And we'll serve it in these little cute boxes that we have
- Nice, great.
Then maybe everybody will join us for some chicken raps?
- Chicken wraps?
Oh, chicken raps. - Yeah, like rapping.
(hip-hop beat)
♪ Yeah, get it started, get some flour ♪
♪ Cover it up, and then you get power ♪
♪ 'Cause you take that chicken, you beat it too ♪
♪ You beat it like that chicken just cheated on you ♪
♪ Now I've never cheated on a girl before ♪
♪ So I've never been ♪
(laughs)
♪ Gonna eat a bunch of fucking chicken ♪
- Now, do we have a rubric for Nashville hot chicken?
- Moisture, crispiness, sauce,
- [Both] You're the only Tenn-I-see.
- This is really a beautiful frame.
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- So we're starting out with country,
this is just the plain, no sauce, this is just
plain. - Good fried chicken.
- The meat is falling off the bone in fried chicken.
I've never seen that before.
Oh the flavor of the meat itself is tremendous.
But its not like a (extreme crunch),
but it has a nice (small crunch), to it.
- Here's a crunch sound effect,
(chewing)
I'm putting my mic next to his face.
- They know what we're doing.
Do you think that this chicken is the only Tenn-you-see?
- I don't think this is gonna be the only Tenn-I-see.
- I'm loving it, but we're here to try Nashville hot chicken
so we need to turn up the heat.
- Ooh, a little darker. - It looks and smells
totally different, and this is mild.
- Look at how beautiful this chicken is.
- Oh my gosh, it's dripping with hot oil.
(chewing)
- Mild is pretty spicy. - Uh-huh.
(dramatic music)
- Mild is pretty spicy.
Oh no, it's gonna get so hot if this is mild.
- Some of the peppers we're using, just to give you an idea,
the ghost pepper is used to deter elephants
from walking across a fence.
They'll smell it and then they'll just, boom, turn around.
Go the other way.
- No, is this mild?
- And the second one, Trinidad scorpion?
That's used in Thailand, and they
eliminate colonies of bacteria on boats with it.
- They clean boats with the spice you put in your chicken?
- I don't wanna go above this.
- [Both] Chickenwatch.
- So this is the medium in their sandwich.
Their sandwich has some of this sauce on it,
has pickles, sauce, more sauce and a vinegar slaw.
- [Johnny] Trying to maintain the
highest quality for everything we're doing.
We use a high-grade, French, clarified butter for our buns.
That's what I'm talking about, high brow, low brow.
- Oh wow, that incredible with the slaw and
the sauce. - The balance.
This is like one of the best chicken sandwiches
I've ever had in my life. - This sandwich is serenity.
- I am also gonna give this my sexy nod.
When it came out and me and Keith bit into it
for the first time, look at how beautiful it was.
- Wow, look at us. Is there something going on between us?
- I don't know. - What should we look for
when we're tasting the chicken?
- Obviously you're looking for the heat buzz.
- The buzz? - The buzz, yeah.
- Like a high? - Exactly.
Some people do that, some people just get really quiet.
- The spice buzz has significantly increased.
- I'm Buzz Aldrin over here.
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- I think this is where the fun stops.
- Is this a glove moment, do we start putting gloves on now?
(glove squeaking) (burp)
- Okay, they gave us this mac 'n' cheese
because they said it helps with the spice.
- First person to eat mac 'n' cheese is a loser.
(baby crying)
- You just doing wing?
Oh god, it was really good for a second.
- Oh fuck.
(slurping)
I'm happy to be a loser, sometimes it's nice to lose.
- Oh no.
- I wish my body worked only inhaling.
- No, it's okay.
It really got all over my lips is what happened.
(coughing) (dramatic music)
Oh no, oh no.
It's all over my tongue.
Shall we go milk, can I have some milk?
- I'm lactose intolerant.
You got milk on the chicken and the chicken drank it.
- Are your lips bad?
- And my tongue, man, my tongue's fucked up.
I gotta fucked up tongue.
- I do feel kinda fucked up.
(magical chime) - Heat buzz, heat buzz.
- I would go do it in the forest,
with a group of good friends.
- This is the hottest chicken I've put in my mouth.
- Lets talk about the rubric. - Crispiness: I guess.
The heat is there, the heat buzz, how?
- I think its the same amount of crispiness and juiciness,
I just can't taste anything 'cause
as I talk like, my--
I'm freaking out!
I'm freaking out. - I'm quivering.
- How do you get spicier than this?
How do you do that to yourself?
(sniffing)
(evil laughing) (dramatic orchestral music)
- [Keith] Next up, very hot, oh god.
- By the way, this girl in line just now, told us,
"My friend ate howlin, and he was in the bathroom
for 30 minutes immediately."
- They said not to have any coke.
- I don't know what that means.
- What does that mean?
- I don't know what that means.
Alright, one--
Hang on, I was about to throw up before I even tried.
- What do you mean you were about to throw up?
- 'Cause I'm scared.
- Don't be scared - Okay.
- If I'm doing it, you can do it.
- That's very true. - I'm a baby.
- Alright, ready?
One, two, three, chickenwatch!
(chewing)
- Oh shit. - Okay.
- Oh that is a different kind of heat.
- It's down, it's actually a different kind of heat.
Okay. - Huh?
- Okay. - What?
- It's stuck at the back of my mouth.
- It's on the back on my tongue, it's on the back.
- It's a different heat.
(grunting and coughing)
It's okay. - It's like my tongue
is trying to leave my mouth.
Ooh, it's getting worse quickly.
(groaning)
- So, different pepper affect the palette differently.
So, habanero is right here.
(heavy breathing)
Ghost pepper is like right it, it hits you right here.
(groaning)
- Taking over your body.
- Then when you introduce the Carolina Reaper,
it's actually up here too, so--
- In the brain?
It's in my chest, its in my head.
- As I'm talking, my body's like,
fucking stop talking, dude.
- I feel like it's in my ears.
- Also, it feels like your scalp is coming up.
- Oh god. - Heat buzz.
- My body's warm, (shivers)
(heaving breathing)
- You okay?
- It's crispy, I don't know.
- Fucked up, the high is evolving.
- I feel fucked up. (suspenseful music)
(distorted) - Heat buzz.
- I'm like blacking out a little bit.
(bollywood song)
(magical chimes) (distorted voices)
(chickens clucking)
- I'm gonna be honest, that experience...
- That was an experience.
- Like I understand the miracle of child birth
better than before. - Yeah.
- Part of me is thinking about doing it again.
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- [Keith] This probably isn't a very good shot.
I feel great, I feel relaxed, I feel euphoric.
- I feel like I have a different sense of the world now.
- My perfect 10 is that sandwich,
'cause it really just is all the elements.
It was what told me, that that was a high end chef
making a low end food.
- I would say that chicken sandwich was the only Tenn-I-see.
It's hard 'cause I actually kinda
see a few 10s, in different spectrums.
- Part of my skin of my mouth just started peeling.
(laughs)
- Chickenwatch. - [Both] Chickenwatch!
- Chickenwatch.
Lastly, do you think that this chicken
is the best fried chicken in the world?
- No, because every different fried chicken shop
does it a little bit differently.
Your hair's different than my hair, right?
And that's a beautiful thing about life,
is that everybody's different,
and everybody has these different qualities to it,
and no one's really the best, and, the one day you think
you're the best, that's the day that you stop learning,
so, I wanna keep learning on this.
- Sick.
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- Is this the best fried chicken in the world?
Who knows?
Is it the spiciest and most euphoric experience
I've ever had from chicken?
Yes, I've never felt like this from fried chicken.
- It's like chickenwatching with your third eye.
- Wow. - You know?
- We came here to chicken-watch,
and at the end, we chicken-saw.
- I see you. - I see you.
- I chicken-see you.
- [Both] Chickensee 2k18.
♪ Stickin' the dick in led to chicken, see ♪
♪ Chickenwatch 2k18 ♪
♪ Here's a chicken lesson, and we got out masters ♪
♪ Eat it once, its a disaster ♪
♪ But then it spreads, it gets faster ♪
♪ Chicken buzz, no I'm chicken-plastered. ♪
- [Both] Chickenwatch!
- 2k18.