Why Hot Chicken And Pickles Go Together So Perfectly

When you're ordering a meal out, you almost expect to see classic food combinations on a plate — a burger with fries, a French dip sandwich with a side of au jus, or a plate of pasta with a piece of garlic toast. When ordering a plate of hot chicken or even a fast-food chicken sandwich, a pickle spear or a few crunchy pickle slices will often accompany it.

More than just a garnish, pickles have many practical uses on a plate. With a plate of Nashville hot chicken, pickles provide a tangy contrast to the chicken's heat. Pickles can help counteract the extreme heat of the chicken, which can run anywhere from 10,000 to more than 100,000 Scoville units depending on how it's prepared (roughly the difference between a jalapeño and habanero pepper). The vinegar (a key element in pickles) helps cut through the spice so you aren't grabbing for an endless stack of napkins or fighting tears during your meal.

Pickles can also act as a culinary reset button in general. A bite of a crunchy pickle can serve as a palate cleanser that removes stronger flavors from your mouth and resets the tongue's taste receptors so you can enjoy the flavors of other foods.

The tradition of serving pickles with deli sandwiches dates back to the mid-1800s when European immigrants opened delicatessens and served flavorful pickles alongside stacked sandwiches. The origins of pairing pickles with chicken are a little less clear, but at places like the famous Prince's Hot Chicken in Nashville, pickles have been served alongside chicken for decades.

Southern-style chicken sandwiches — a fried chicken breast and pickles on bread — trace their origins back to the mid-1800s. The popularity of the sandwich was renewed in recent years thanks to the fast-food chicken sandwich wars that began in 2019 with the introduction of Popeye's Chicken Sandwich. As the popularity of chicken and pickles was also renewed, customers enjoyed the iconic pairing on chicken sandwiches from Popeye's, KFC, Wendy's, Chick-fil-A, and many others.

The next time you order chicken, don't skip the pickles. Whether they top a sandwich or come on the side, this tangy, dilly addition can provide the perfect balance of flavor, neutralize heat, and hit all of the right notes on the tongue so that even a fast-food chicken sandwich can become more of an experience than a simple meal.