More hot chicken is coming to Fort Worth. Look for Korean fried chicken (and karaoke)
We are now two years into the Great Hot Chicken Invasion, and it shows no signs of losing steam.
A Fort Worth location of Seoul-based BB.Q Chicken — it stands for “Best of the Best Quality” — will be the next to open, bringing spicy Korean fried chicken wings to 2880 W. Berry St., near TCU.
That’s after a peppery fall of Nashville hot chicken openings, now including the flashy Dave’s Hot Chicken chain from California at its new location, 4608 Bryant Irvin Road.
On top of that, the Richardson-based Golden Chick fast-food chain is now serving chicken tenders that aren’t chicken at all.
The Golden Chick location at 2820 E. Berry St. is testing the highly praised Beyond Chicken tenders, a plant-based protein
Chicken and karaoke
BB.Q Chicken is known as one of the world’s largest restaurant chains, serving mild olive-oil fried Korean whole chickens, wings and boneless thighs, all available with a selection of sauces and spices.
The Fort Worth location will be the chain’s second with a separate bar and karaoke room.
The restaurant offers a choice of 10 flavors led by the honey-garlic boneless chicken, franchisee Danny Doan wrote by email.
There’s a mild “golden original” and various levels of sweet or spicy flavors, plus gangnam wings, kimchi fried rice and spicy tteokbokki rice cake stew,
The chicken is brined, and frying in olive oil makes the chicken “cleaner and crisper,” Doan wrote.
He wrote that he knows BB.Q Chicken will be explaining “new culture and food” to the TCU audience.
An Arlington location, 1827 SW Green Oaks Blvd., opened last year to large crowds last year just when the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“We had to evolve and restructure our whole concept days before the grand opening,” Doan wrote.
Instead of a wings restaurant with Korean specialties and a busy bar, BB.Q Chicken shifted to selling mostly takeout and sending boxes of chicken to feed the staff at nearby hospitals.
Now, BB.Q Chicken is a busy hangout again for wings and soju, a Korean liquor.
But supplies are the latest problem. Doan said the costs of everyday items such as to-go boxes and napkins have gone up.
During a recent visit, a steady parade of delivery drivers picked up wings to go.
The BB.Q Chicken near TCU is expected to open near year’s end. It’s a corner anchor that was formerly a soul food restaurant and befroe that, a Cafe Brazil.
The Arlington location is open for lunch and dinner daily; 682-323-8449; bbqchickenarlington.com.
More hot stuff
Dave’s Hot Chicken quickly drew a line to Cityview Centre for hot-and-spicy and extra-hot chicken sliders and tenders.
Dave’s, founded in East Hollywood, joins a flurry of new Nashville hot chicken restaurants:
▪ Helen’s Hot Chicken from Nashville, 2812 Horne St.;
▪ Ricky’s Hot Chicken, a Richardson-based company under construction at 3810 S. Cooper St. in Arlington;
▪ and Hattie B’s, a Nashville legend opening in Dallas at 3000 Main St.
The newcomers join The Cookshack, 500 University Drive, a local company with new locations in Houston and South Texas; Hot Chicks Chicken, 337 Shops Blvd., Willow Park, selling tenders, sandwiches and “boozy slushies”; Red Claws Hot Chicken, 5278 S. Hulen St., a spinoff from an Arlington crab-boil restaurant; and Rule the Roost, a California startup at 6635 Westworth Blvd.
(Gus’s Fried Chicken, 1067 W. Magnolia Ave., is a 50-year Tennessee tradition specializing in Memphis hot chicken tenders and platters, plus chess, pecan and sweet potato pies. It’s cayenne-fried but not quite the same as Nashville-style.)
This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
