Best Hot Chicken and BBQ Road Trip Stops

Prince's Hot Chicken Shack

The Prince family's Nashville shack is where hot chicken was born, the story going that a jilted lover's revenge recipe of fiery cayenne paste turned into a dynasty. Decades later, pilgrims still wait in a strip-mall parking lot for the 'XXX Hot' that reduces grown adults to tear

Founded: 1945Signature Dish: Nashville hot chicken (XXX Hot)Avg Meal Price: $12Crowd Rating: 9.5/10Avg Wait Time: 15 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJRPrince's Hot Chicken Shack

Hattie B's Hot Chicken

Hattie B's took Prince's blueprint and scaled it into a slicker, multi-city empire without losing the burn, its 'Shut the Cluck Up' heat level becoming an internet-famous rite of passage. The lines wrap the block on Nashville's Charlotte Avenue location daily, tourists and locals

Founded: 2012Signature Dish: Shut the Cluck Up hot chickenAvg Meal Price: $14Crowd Rating: 8.8/10Avg Wait Time: 45 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJRHattie B's Hot Chicken

Franklin Barbecue

Aaron Franklin turned a backyard smoker into the most talked-about brisket in America, with lines forming before sunrise and regularly selling out by early afternoon. President Obama famously jumped the line during a 2015 visit, cementing Franklin's status as barbecue's biggest c

Founded: 2009Signature Dish: Central Texas brisketAvg Meal Price: $25Crowd Rating: 9.7/10Avg Wait Time: 120 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJRFranklin Barbecue

Kreuz Market

In Lockhart, Texas's self-declared barbecue capital, Kreuz Market still refuses to serve sauce or forks, a stubborn holdover from its 1900s meat-market roots. The brisket and prime rib are cut on butcher paper and eaten by hand in a cavernous, smoke-blackened hall that feels unch

Founded: 1900Signature Dish: Sauceless brisket and pork chopAvg Meal Price: $20Crowd Rating: 9/10Avg Wait Time: 20 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJR

Snow's BBQ

Snow's only opens Saturday mornings in tiny Lexington, Texas, yet pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz, smoking meat into her nineties, drew national headlines and a Texas Monthly 'Best BBQ in Texas' crown. The whole hog shoulder sells out by mid-morning, forcing road-trippers to plan thei

Founded: 2003Signature Dish: Whole hog pork shoulderAvg Meal Price: $18Crowd Rating: 9.2/10Avg Wait Time: 45 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJRSnow's BBQ

Rudy's Country Store and BBQ

Rudy's built a beloved Texas chain out of a gas-station gimmick, its self-deprecating 'sause that ain't for the sophisticated' slogan hiding genuinely solid brisket and turkey. With dozens of locations across the highways of Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond, it's become the reliable i

Founded: 1989Signature Dish: Brisket sandwichAvg Meal Price: $15Crowd Rating: 8/10Avg Wait Time: 10 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJR

Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que

Housed inside an actual gas station in Kansas City, Kansas, Joe's built its reputation on the towering Z-Man sandwich, stacked with brisket, provolone, and onion rings. Anthony Bourdain and countless food shows made the unlikely filling-station setting into a bucket-list stop for

Founded: 1996Signature Dish: Z-Man sandwichAvg Meal Price: $16Crowd Rating: 9.3/10Avg Wait Time: 30 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJR

Arthur Bryant's

Kansas City's oldest barbecue institution traces its lineage to Henry Perry, the city's founding pitmaster, with Arthur Bryant's carrying the torch since the 1940s. Calvin Trillin once called it 'the single best restaurant in the world,' and the burnt ends still draw politicians

Founded: 1946Signature Dish: Burnt endsAvg Meal Price: $18Crowd Rating: 8.7/10Avg Wait Time: 15 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJRArthur Bryant's

Skylight Inn BBQ

In tiny Ayden, North Carolina, the Skylight Inn's dome-shaped building itself declares it the 'Barbecue Capital of the World,' chopping whole hogs skin and all for a rustic, vinegar-tangy plate. The Jones family has run it since the 1940s, and its influence stretches across the e

Founded: 1947Signature Dish: Whole hog with skinAvg Meal Price: $12Crowd Rating: 9/10Avg Wait Time: 10 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJRSkylight Inn BBQ

Payne's Bar-B-Q

Housed in a converted Memphis gas station with a hand-painted sign, Payne's chopped pork sandwich topped with slaw and mustard-based sauce is a cult favorite that outlasts flashier competitors. Locals guard it jealously as Memphis's best-kept secret even as its reputation spreads

Founded: 1972Signature Dish: Chopped pork sandwichAvg Meal Price: $10Crowd Rating: 8.5/10Avg Wait Time: 10 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJR

Central BBQ

Central BBQ grew from a single Midtown Memphis storefront into a multi-location favorite, prized for ribs dry-rubbed and smoked low and slow over charcoal and hickory. It threads the needle between old-school Memphis grit and modern road-trip convenience, with patio seating and a

Founded: 2002Signature Dish: Dry-rub ribsAvg Meal Price: $16Crowd Rating: 8.3/10Avg Wait Time: 15 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJR

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q

In Decatur, Alabama, Big Bob Gibson invented white barbecue sauce in the 1920s, a mayonnaise-and-vinegar concoction that transformed smoked chicken into a regional icon. The restaurant has won more Memphis in May grand championships than almost any competitor, proving its backyar

Founded: 1925Signature Dish: White sauce chickenAvg Meal Price: $15Crowd Rating: 8.6/10Avg Wait Time: 15 minJames Beard Honor: ✓

added by IJR

Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken

Gus's grew out of a tiny Tennessee juke joint into a genuinely 'world famous' fried chicken chain, its double-dredged, spice-crusted bird earning devotion far beyond Memphis. The original Mason, Tennessee location still feels like a roadside secret despite the brand's national ex

Founded: 1953Signature Dish: Spicy fried chickenAvg Meal Price: $13Crowd Rating: 8.4/10Avg Wait Time: 20 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJRGus's World Famous Fried Chicken

Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish

A neighborhood East Nashville favorite long before hot chicken went viral, Bolton's combines fried chicken and whole fried fish under one roof, both dunked in the same fiery oil. It lacks the tourist lines of Prince's or Hattie B's, which locals consider a feature, not a bug. It'

Founded: 1995Signature Dish: Spicy fried chicken and fishAvg Meal Price: $12Crowd Rating: 8/10Avg Wait Time: 15 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJR

Pappy's Smokehouse

St. Louis's Pappy's Smokehouse turned a modest storefront into a Food Network-famous destination, its baby back ribs regularly cited among the best in the Midwest. The line forms early and often runs out of meat by mid-afternoon, a badge of honor for regulars who know to arrive b

Founded: 2008Signature Dish: Baby back ribsAvg Meal Price: $17Crowd Rating: 8.9/10Avg Wait Time: 30 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJRPappy's Smokehouse

Salt Lick BBQ

Just outside Austin in Driftwood, Texas, the Salt Lick's open-pit design lets diners watch whole racks of meat smoke in full view, a spectacle as much as a meal. Its sprawling, family-style all-you-can-eat plates and BYOB policy make it a favorite group road-trip stop rather than

Founded: 1967Signature Dish: Open-pit brisketAvg Meal Price: $20Crowd Rating: 8.2/10Avg Wait Time: 20 minJames Beard Honor: —

added by IJR