I Highly Recommend: Ricky’s Hot Chicken

Photo credit- @dallasmorningnews

I think in the era of everything getting a score, numbers and stars have become arbitrary. If we’re being honest, most people scroll straight past any restaurant that scores less than 4, when oftentimes it’s a handful of Karens or clowns dragging the total down by giving 1/5 for some insane reason. I object to this new standard, so will simply recommend or not recommend a visit. At the end, I’ll give different categories a win (W), loss (L), or neutral (N).

Located in the southwest corner of the Preston Creek Shopping Center, with a tiny dining room and one bathroom (and a sign begging diners to treat the…throne with respect), lies what I believe to be the best hot chicken in D/FW.

I’ve always recommended Ricky’s (not to be confused with the previously mentioned Rocky’s of Asheville, NC) in person, and so here I’ll make it internet official.

I highly recommend Ricky’s Hot Chicken.

If Ricky is a real person, he gets it. However, any restaurant is a team effort, so I’ll refer to them as they/them. They have respect for the history of hot chicken and bring the spice, with a full spectrum of hot pepper-dipped chicken (that means spiced oil, not just spice powder) from plain to A-bomb. They also have respect for their customers. You see this in the value on the menu and the blessedly short wait times. The dining room is a bit tight, but I’ve never seen a customer complain if they need to take it out and eat it off the trunk of their car or around the fountain just outside.

On the topic of heat, Ricky’s comes correct. Extra hot and A-bomb are worthy of their names, and are exactly what you should expect when you walk into a shop that claims “hot chicken.” A-bomb still gives me the signature spice hiccups and a few beads of head sweat.

The menu is short and sweet. Everything can be à la carte, but it comes down to chicken in your preferred form, from traditional bone-in to nuggets for the baby dragons out there, slaw, fries, a couple of apps, and a rotating side. No fluff. No salads. No burgers. No, they’re here to spread the hot chicken gospel and I’m a joyful member of the congregation. There’s even a nugget flight, with one of each heat, if you truly don’t know where you lie on the scale. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.

They have a sandwich or thigh if you prefer, but I think their signature is absolutely the Bird’s Nest: A mountain of crispy crinkle-cut fries, pickles, a scoop of cooling classic cole slaw, a couple of chopped tenders dipped to your tolerance, all topped with a healthy drizzle of comeback sauce. Does it look like a mess? Yes, but it still looks appetizing. The first time I saw the comeback sauce I knew I was at the right place, as this is a callback to a signature chicken sauce of Tennessee and the Carolinas. It makes you want to come back!

Oh yeah, and you get a drink. That you can replace with more sauce or more food if you wish. All this for $12. Didn’t I mention value!

Now, does the “Bird’s Nest” deter from the golden path of hot chicken tradition? Technically yes. However, since eating bone-in chicken with a fork is an effort in futility since you’re forced to enjoy your hot chicken as delicately as possible to avoid covering every inch of your hands and face in Capsaicin. So as I see it the Bird’s Nest, best eaten with a fork, is simply glorious evolution. We set ourselves apart from the rest of the animal kingdom in part by our use of tools, and thusly I can equip myself with my weaponized fork and destroy my A-bomb chicken with un-singed hands.

As a note on the rest of the menu: When the desserts are rotated in, they’re good. The fried pickles can be skipped.

If the line is out the door on a Thursday at any restaurant, you can bet it’s worth waiting for. Ricky’s is one of those. They even need to break from 1:45-4 every day to reset their phalanx and prepare for the next battle.

Ricky’s has grown to three locations, with one in Arlington and one in Plano. If you’re a spicelord (or spicelady) then run, don’t walk, to your closest option. And if you do visit the Richardson store, tell them ‘Duck’ sent you.

Heat: WW

Value: WW

Appearance: N

Taste: WW

Misspelling customer names, and owning it for eternity: W