Why the Fried Chicken pepper is called Fried Chicken
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Because the ripe pods look like fried chicken. The skin is blistered and bumpy, and it ripens to the orange of fried batter. The breeder did not pick the name: the pepper went by BubbleSkin for years, and Fried Chicken is the nickname people gave it around 2023, after growers posted photos of the pods. In our SpiceQuest chili grinders, two harvests of it tested at 1,035,308 and 1,000,542 Scoville heat units (SHU).
BubbleSkin came first
Fried Chicken is credited to Rocco Maltesi, an independent breeder in Italy, as a cross of 7 Pot Bubblegum Orange and Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion made around 2016 to 2017 and selected for its extreme surface texture. Its first name was BubbleSkin. One seed company also records it as Bubblegum Skin. Both describe what the later name describes: the skin.
By one grower's account, seeds reached a small circle of growers in 2018, and the pepper stayed a collectors' variety under the BubbleSkin name until about 2022.
A name from the comments
Three of the accounts tell the same story about what happened next. Around 2023, growers shared photos of the pods on social media. People who saw them said the pods looked like fried chicken, and the name stuck. One account points out that there was no press release and no marketing campaign behind it.
None of the four accounts names the person who said it first, so we do not name one either.
Where the accounts differ
Three of the four accounts tie the pepper to Italy. The fourth, from a seed seller in the United Kingdom, says the pepper was bred in the United States, and still names Maltesi as the original developer. The Bubblegum parent is written three ways: "BBG7 Orange", "BBG Mammp" and plain 7 Pot Bubblegum.
For a buyer, the practical point is the label. One seed seller warns that the strain may not be fully stable. One grower's account says different seed sources trace back to different selections of the original line. Other peppers sold under a Fried Chicken label may be selections by other growers.
What is under the name
It does not taste like chicken. Our flakes open with grapefruit, turn floral and finish sweet and earthy. The heat builds over several minutes.
Our two results are for two harvests. The 2026 harvest tested at 1,035,308 SHU and the 2025 harvest at 1,000,542, about 3.5 percent apart. Both are just above no. 9 Reaper X, our pure Carolina Reaper, at 975,612. That comparison has its own page, Fried Chicken pepper vs. Carolina Reaper, and every result is in the Scoville chart.
The name does suggest one use. Try it on fried chicken while it is still hot. Start with one press, and read our ultra-hot safety page first.
Fried Chicken is a limited release, and each product page shows whether that harvest is available. Flavor and heat are covered in full in the Fried Chicken pepper profile.
Questions people ask
Who named the Fried Chicken pepper? No one person is on record. The breeder it is credited to called it BubbleSkin. Fried Chicken came from people reacting to photos of the pods around 2023.
Is BubbleSkin a different pepper from Fried Chicken? No. It is the earlier name for the same cross. Different seed sources trace back to different selections, so two peppers sold as Fried Chicken may not look identical.
Sources
- Harmony Peppers, article on the Fried Chicken pepper, for the credit to Rocco Maltesi, the cross, the BubbleSkin name, the years it circulated among collectors, the 2023 photos and the note on different selections
- Refining Fire Chiles (Super Hot Chiles), Fried Chicken pepper seeds, for the Bubblegum Skin name, the 2023 photos on social media, the batter color and its wording of the Bubblegum parent
- Fatalii Seeds, Fried Chicken, for the BubbleSkin name giving way once growers posted photographs, and breeding in Italy
- South Devon Chilli Farm, Fried Chicken chilli seeds, for the statement that it was bred in the United States and the warning that the strain may not be fully stable