In the next few months, Henny Penny will be rolling out a “Nashville Heat” melt-on topical seasoning. We’ve tried it at here at the office and we’ve gotta say – – its’s got a KICK!

“A bold blend of spices that will treat your taste buds to the Music City’s famous hot chicken. Apply this topical melt-on seasoning to taste after frying in your favorite Henny Penny breading.”

In celebration of this new product, we’ve decided to give you the run-down on how the original Nashville Hot Chicken is made! Born at Prince’s Chicken in Nashville, TN, “hot chicken” has a pretty funny origin story.

“More than 70 years ago, Thornton Prince came home after a night of tomcatting to find his lady waiting at home, none too pleased. To teach him a lesson, she doctored his Sunday morning chicken with a wallop of spice. “Hot peppers from the garden, I’m sure,” says Andre Prince, the restaurant’s current owner, and great-granddaughter of that fabled philanderer whose infidelities birthed the now-iconic dish. “She was furious—but he liked it! He liked his punishment. It’s just a rumor,” she adds; “I wasn’t there, have mercy. But I know how the Prince men are. They’re known for being ladies’ men.”

There are plenty more hot chicken locations in the Nashville area now, so let’s see how Hattie B’s gets their chicken so hot!

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How Do They Do It?

“Much fried chicken begins with brining, but since he’s not dealing with whole chickens, Lasater opts for a sort of mini-curing process. He first readies his breading mixture, another proprietary blend of flour, spices, garlic, and salt and pepper, in a contraption that shakes it into fine crumbs and weeds out any large clumps. When the bottom of the sifting bin is removed, the breading falls into a bin beneath, and it’s here that our raw breast takes its first dip in the breading.”

 

 

“Once the breast is thoroughly coated, Lasater dunks it in a wash of eggs, water, milk, salt and pepper, and a splash of Crystal hot sauce. Then it’s back to the breading for dip two. ‘Always keep one hand wet, one hand dry.’ A double-dip in the breading ensures that the chicken will have a thick, crispy crust, traditional Southern-style. Then the breast is off to the fryer. Hattie B’s uses a soy-based shortening for frying, ‘the closest thing we can get to lard,’ Lasater says. ‘It has a nice creaminess to it that mixes really well with our breading blend.'”

 

 

“18 to 20 minutes later, the breast is cooked through and ready to exit the fryer. This is the magic moment: Lasater readies a bowl of that blend of dry spices. Into it he pours in the magma of chickeny shortening, fresh from the fryer, to make a sauce. ‘If the oil is hot, it keeps the crust crispy,’ says Lasater, ‘You bite into it and get that crunch.'”

 

 

“As traditional preparation dictates, the breast sits upon a slice of white bread (Hattie B’s uses Klosterman’s, a Nashville bakery), crowned by a couple of pickle chips. It’s a fierce, mouth-watering sight: Hattie B’s has an especially rich, red hue, and their portions are not skimpy.”

 

[Excerpts via Susannah Felts’ article “The Bird That Bites Back: How Nashville Hot Chicken is Made” on SeriousEats.com]

[from hennypenny.com]

Thrasher’s French Fries has been an icon on the Ocean City, MD boardwalk since J. T. Thrasher served up the first batch from a window at the city pier in 1929. After 85 years Thrasher’s French Fries still offers only one item, made the way it’s always been made. Les Morris started working there in 1974 at age 16. Two years later he was running the place, and he’s been doing it ever since. Things don’t change much at Thrasher’s. So replacing the fryers at the 8th street location was a pretty big deal.

“I wasn’t overly happy with the current situation”

Thrasher’s goes through potatoes by the train-car load. His old-style manual fryers struggled to maintain temperature. They were constantly breaking down, and it was getting harder to find parts and reliable service. “I thought we could be getting more for our money. I wanted something that worked, that was reliable. I wanted fryers that would recover temperature all day long.”

“We needed fryers that would cook at temperature non-stop 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day. Henny Penny didn’t disappoint.” – Les Morris, General Manager

Thrasher’s worked with Taylor AFS, a Henny Penny distributor in Landover, MD, changing the first location over to the new Henny Penny 320 Series gas fryers. The initial conversion would match current vat capacity with 16 half basket drops. (The current configuration actually allowed for 18 drops to make up for slow temperature recovery.) What happened next was interesting. The Henny Penny fryers basically recovered temperature in seconds. The resulting increase in throughput made one of the new fryers unnecessary!

“My guy at that store wasn’t sold on the whole idea at first. But he went from ‘I don’t know if this is going to work…’ to ‘hey, take that extra fryer out. We don’t need it.’ It sold him and that sold me.”

Les Morris started out simply looking for fryers that were more reliable than what he had. He wound up needing fewer new fryers and using 15% less oil. Les plans to convert the other two locations of Thrasher’s Fries to Henny Penny.

“It’s been a great experience. Henny Penny has exceeded my expectations. Everything they said… the experience has been better.”

Henny Penny received the Arby’s Red Hat Supplier Achievement Award at the recent 2016 Arby’s Worldwide Franchise Convention. Henny Penny was specifically recognized for their high-quality products, responsiveness and exceptional service. See an excerpt from the press release below. To view the entire release, click here!

 

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ARCOP Honors Suppliers with Red Hat Supplier Achievement Awards at 2016 Arby’sWorldwide Franchise Convention

ATLANTA (September 20, 2016) – Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. (ARG) and ARCOP, Inc., the national supply chain cooperative for Arby’s, honored twelve of its suppliers with Red Hat Supplier Achievement Awards during the 2016 Arby’s Worldwide Franchise Convention in Orlando held September 12-14.

The Red Hat Supplier Achievement Awards recognize suppliers and distributors for their outstanding performance and superior levels of service and support to the Arby’s system.

“Arby’s supplier community is an integral part of the Brand and plays a pivotal role in its success,” said David Cox, President, ARCOP, Inc. “These awards recognize those organizations that have most exceeded expectations in the quality, service, competitiveness and innovation they’ve brought to the Arby’s system.”

For high-quality products, responsiveness and exceptional service, Henny Penny also received the Red Hat Award Supplier Achievement Award. Henny Penny’s fryer product has helped reduce ARG’s oil usage by 35 percent, and drives up to $2,900 per restaurant in total savings.

 

About Arby’s:

Arby’s, founded in 1964, is the first nationally franchised sandwich restaurant brand, with more than 3,300 restaurants worldwide. The Arby’s brand purpose is “Inspiring Smiles Through Delicious Experiences®.” Arby’s® restaurants feature Fast Crafted® service, a unique blend of quick-serve speed and value combined with the quality and made-for-you care of fast casual. Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc. is the parent company of the franchisor of the Arby’s brand and is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Visit Arbys.com for more information.

Henny Penny Oil Shuttle Solutions

Did you know that the Henny Penny ODS 300 with 50 lb. oil capacity can be used with Evolution Elite as well as PFE 500 and PFE 600?

One of Henny Penny’s most popular Oil Shuttles, the ODS 300, can be used with 4 Head pressure frying models. This provides excellent flexibility for customers who have an Evolution Elite Fryer as well as a 4 Head pressure fryer.

To use the ODS 300 with a PFE 500 or PFE 600, a removable collar (pictured below) will need to be purchased. This is just another option that provides customers with maximum flexibility for their oil disposing needs.

Contact the sales department today for a price quote!

Sometimes our biggest advocates are also our best customers. Henny Penny recently uploaded a bunch of these awesome videos to their YouTube page. Check out these video testimonials from some of the biggest names in QSR and see why they pick Henny Penny over the competition! [Read more…] about Henny Penny Testimonials: What Others Are Saying

The Three P’s of Achieving Consistent Food Quality (from HennyPenny.com)

Discover the procedures, products and programs that can help your operation serve the best with every order.

While today’s most successful foodservice operations may offer a range of menus and pricepoints, one thing they all have in common is consistency, defined as “the achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly in quality over time.” In fact, no facility can be considered effective or successful in the current foodservice landscape without the ability to reliably replicate customers’ favorite dishes time after time.

By implementing proven systems — including the latest procedures, products and programs for cooking — operators can more accurately control the variables that affect food quality and consistency.

 

Procedures:

From ordering ingredients to standardizing recipes, operators can take several steps to optimize their procedures for maximum consistency. By sourcing food products from the same vendors — at the same specs for size, brand and delivery temperature — facilities can limit the challenges that can threaten consistent results when replicating dishes.

When standardizing recipes, it’s important to consider details like unique titles, ingredients, itemized weight/volume and specific preparation instructions. Other notes about cooking time and temperature, serving size, recipe yield and necessary equipment and utensils can also be helpful to staff on different shifts as they replicate each recipe.

 

Products:

Cooking equipment is a critical part of the consistency equation for any operation, large or small. Whether it’s the performance and capability of the equipment itself or the information it conveys to kitchen staff, every factor plays a key role in ensuring customers get the results they expect.

For example, by using a combi oven in place of a traditional oven, operators can prepare a much wider variety of menu items without sacrificing control — plus, the latest technological advances in the category allow users to store a full range of settings and cooking programs based on food type, desired preparation and volume.

The FlexFusion combi oven from Henny Penny features the Chef’s Touch control panel with a state-of-the-art, full-color touchscreen that gives users total control with both customizable and preset AutoChef programs.

Other areas of the kitchen also offer opportunities to build in greater consistency, such as a facility’s fryer lineup. With today’s technology in place, the latest fryers can store between 40 and 160 unique programs — and with features like load compensation (adjusting cook time when the standard load is incorrect), proportional control (preventing oil from exceeding its set-point temperature) and filter tracking (giving management total visibility over filtration frequency), these advanced models can help cut costs, save labor and ensure control throughout the cooking process.

The new Evolution Elite with Smart Touch Filtration™ from Henny Penny features push-button filter activation with automatic drain operation — with on-the-fly filtering complete in just four minutes or less. With filtration being the most significant contributor to consistent oil quality, these types of automated features play a vital role in preserving the flavor, appearance and texture of fried menu items.

 

Programs:

Once the necessary procedures and proper equipment are in place, implementing equipment programs can help simplify workflow, reduce preparation time and ensure finished dishes are consistent when they leave the kitchen. Whether it’s a varied batch in the combi oven or a one-off fryer load, it can be extremely beneficial for operators to program select repeatable preparations based on the current menu — allowing kitchen staff to work smarter, not harder, with the touch of a button.

Consistency is a foundational goal for any foodservice operation — regardless of service style. By considering the cooking equipment, team procedures and specific programs at work in the kitchen, operators can guarantee a higher level of food quality with every order, every day.