It's winter again, not sure if you noticed, and with it means grilled cheese season! Here in Red Bank, the river had it's now annual 3-day freeze this week. (It's already melted, and yes I'm aware of the climate ramifications of a river that used to be frozen solid every winter now only lightly freezing for 3 days, please don't lecture me.) Taliercio's touts nine different variations of grilled cheese, all with a different city flair added to them. You may have noticed back when I covered The Golden State and The Dirty South, that they held pretty true to their namesakes. (I confirmed with multiple people from California that simply putting avocado on something makes it Californian.) Sadly, I am not traveling to Nashville this week, though, my basic ass has been inside Honky Tonk Central multiple times so this makes me now an expert. Now you know that I'm more than qualified to pass judgment on the New Jersey iteration of Nashville Hot Chicken. But before I bring the heat, allow me to douse you in some hot chicken history.
Nashville hot chicken, a local specialty, is a type of fried chicken that's marinated in a secret blend of seasoning (cayenne pepper), floured and fried before being covered in a paste that has also been spiced with cayenne pepper. Typically, the fried chicken is then served on top of slices of white bread with pickle chips. This spicy fried chicken dish had been served in Nashville's' African-American communities for generations, but the current dish may have been introduced in the 1930s by the family of Andre Prince Jefferies, the owner of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. Legend has it that the original owner Thorton Prince was a womanizer and after coming home from a late-night out, his girlfriend at the time cooked him a fried chicken breakfast with extra pepper as revenge. What started as revenge ended with one of the most popular late-night food staples in Nashville, and here we are decades later eating hot chicken for fun in New Jersey. But is it the real deal?
Nashville Hot Chicken: Buffalo Chicken, Pepper Jack, Cheddar Cheese, Pickles, Hot Sauce
Authenticity aside, I loved, loved, loved this sandwich (grilled cheese? panini?). Anytime you can give me buffalo chicken, hot sauce and pickle without ruining it with bleu cheese, I have to declare you a winner. Really, this was maybe the perfect panini for me. But as you can see, this is not what you would "traditionally" think of as hot chicken. This is a chicken cutlet breaded with some extra pepper and maybe cayenne with Frank's Red Hot and there's nothing wrong with that! It's just not real Nashville Hot Chicken. The real deal would look a little like this (please disregard my usage of the "Nashville" Instagram filter.)
This chicken is a little more deep-fried, has a darker, spicer flour, and does not have cheese. Here's the thing, folks. You can like both! I loved this grilled cheese from Taliercio's just like I loved the authentic hot chicken in Nashville. Yeah sure I might be rating these things akin to a 9th grader rating the girls in his class but really the important lesson here is the journey. So let's rate this shit.
Overall (as a Taliercio's sandwich): 9.5/10
Overall (as Nashville hot chicken): 5.5/10
A real role reversal would be me going to Nashville and having someone make me a pork roll, egg, and cheese.
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