A spicy hot chicken concept from California has debuted in Texas: Called Burnin' Mouth Chicken, the restaurant just opened in Fort Worth at 1229 8th Ave. #127, advantageously located right in the thick of the Near Southside/Medical District, where it's serving its version of the Nashville hot chicken sandwich, along with chicken strips, wings, and fries.

The restaurant is going into the same building as Wabi House, next-door to Ober Here, the equally exciting Filipino food truck that just opened its first brick-and-mortar location there in April.

Devoted to delivering the best Nashville hot chicken sandwich ever, Burnin' Mouth debuted in January 2021 in Oxnard, California, and also has a location in Las Vegas. So far, they're kiosk driven, opening in malls or food halls.

It's a fast-casual concept that specializes in one thing: chicken. The menu is straightforward, with four combo options:

• Bang Bang chicken sandwich with spicy sauce, their signature, comes on a brioche bun, with coleslaw, onion, pickles, ranch, comeback sauce, and fries.
• The Coo Coo (Nashville) chicken sandwich is a dry powdered rub, also on a brioche bun, also with coleslaw, onion, pickles, comeback sauce, and fries. No ranch, though.
• Chicken wings, with toast, pickles, comeback sauce, and fries.
• Chicken strips, also with toast, pickles, comeback sauce, and fries.

They strive to go above and beyond with touches such as toasted buns, house-made coleslaw, brine, flour dredge, and spices.

The Fort Worth location is a franchise brought to Texas by Eric Chen and Jiyou Xu, who have lived in the DFW area for more than 30 years. The two are realtors, but they also have some distinctive restaurant history.

"I grew up in the restaurant world, as my parents used to run one of the first and oldest Chinese buffet restaurants in Dallas," Xu says. "The restaurant was called China Gate and located next to the old Valley View mall off of Montfort."

He says they chose to open in Fort Worth because of the people.

"We lived on the Dallas side of town and what we noticed was that the city of Fort Worth was more hospitable and laid back," he says. "That's the atmosphere that we try to promote at Burnin Mouth — a place that does chicken really well, with a family friendly environment."

They also felt that the Medical District was sorely in need.

"For this specific location, to be honest, there were no food choices in the Medical District," Xu says. "Eric's wife is a labor/delivery nurse and we felt that we wanted to provide a great restaurant and another choice for people to enjoy."

A lot of the feedback that we received was that people really missed the SuperChix that used to be here, so hopefully we can satisfy the chicken craving for everybody," he says.