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The delicious new Nashville hot doughnut is available at East Nashville’s Status Dough and all Middle Tennessee Party Fowl locations.
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Party Fowl and Status Dough Collaborate to Create the First-Ever Nashville Hot Doughnut

And it’s really, really good

by Delia Jo Ramsey

Nashville hot chicken experts Party Fowl and go-to Tennessee-based doughnut destination Status Dough have collaborated to create the first-ever Nashville hot doughnut. The recipe marries Status Dough’s old-fashioned buttermilk doughnut with Party Fowl’s pure spice blend (a pleasant, milder form of heat) and is topped with Status Dough’s traditional glaze.

The new hot doughnut launched over the weekend and is available for purchase at East Nashville’s Status Dough, as well as during weekend brunch at all Middle Tennessee Party Fowl restaurants (Nashville, Donelson, Murfreesboro, and Cool Springs). It will also soon be available for purchase at the newly opened BNA airport location of Party Fowl, and Status Dough Knoxville.

Party Fowl owner and Nashville native Austin Smith tells Eater Nashville that he’s been wanting to create a Nashville hot doughnut for years, so when Status Dough’s co-owner Joe Seiber approached him and Smith tried the doughnuts, he was “all in.” Party Fowl’s executive chef Bart Pickens and Seiber set out testing the different heat levels for the doughnut and playing with a few different glazes before deciding the original glaze complemented the heat best. ”The heat is present, but not overwhelming, and the heat and the sweet together is so addicting,” Smith says. “Y’all gotta try these doughnuts!”

From the outside, the doughnut looks like a traditional old-fashioned buttermilk doughnut; the first bite, however, reveals a telltale orange-tinted interior. There is the savory illusion of fried chicken in its flavor, complemented by the pleasant cakey interior and added texture from the glazed crunch. (The doughnut itself does not contain chicken or meat.) As you eat, there’s a slight build-up of heat, but the aftertaste is mostly the sugary sweet doughnut glaze — no pepper-coating on your throat after this.

The Nashville hot doughnut is available during brunch at Party Fowl, which kicks off at a bright and early 8 a.m. on Friday through Sunday. Party Fowl brunch is known for its colossal, over-the-top “brunch for two” (a 55-ounce bloody mary topped with two whole fried Cornish game hens, two whole scotch eggs, eight fried okra, and a whole avocado) alongside fun takes on the fiery dish like a hot chicken and pimento cheese omelet, hot chicken Benedict, and Nashville hot loco moco.