The Nashville hot chicken supply chain has been hit by a ‘perfect storm’

Dollye Matthews at Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish clued us in about the problem: a shortage of chicken.

“We have to take whatever we can get,” she said while giving a tour of the location. She says sometimes, they can’t even get breasts.

Mike Rapp with Off The Dock Hobson Foods — Bolton’s wholesale distributor — says that’s an issue for pretty much all restaurants right now. At the core of the issue is a bad bird flu.

“PETA reports they had to euthanize upwards of 27 million chickens (and turkeys),” Rapp said.

Combine that with a shortage of workers in processing and transportation, and he says “it’s just become the perfect storm.”

Rapp says it’s led to unpredictable deliveries for companies that have been putting in the same orders for years. “I mean, we got customers that have used the same size chicken breasts for years, and, you know, they just kind of have to go with what’s available when they need chicken, unfortunately.”

To adapt, he says, some clients are having to switch over to market pricing, or run specials on the cuts of meat that they do have.

Back at Bolton’s, Matthews is staying flexible.

“We have to get whatever they have that’s available. So, it don’t matter to me. I can cook a cutup wing, a small wing, a jumbo wing. A wing is a wing to me,” she laughs. Regardless of which part of the bird they use, it’ll still be hot chicken.

Paige Pfleger contributed to this report.