The make-or-break pivot changed everything for Chix Hot Chicken
Singapore has no shortage of fried chicken joints, from Korean fried chicken to American fast food. But amid this sea of options, there’s one brand of homegrown chicken that claims to be the first and only choice of Nashville chicken burgers—and that’s Chix Hot Chicken.
The brand first gained popularity as a chicken joint owned by Singaporean singer-songwriter Taufik Batisah. However, over the years, it has come into its own, becoming one of the most popular fried chicken joints in Singapore, especially among young diners.
Vulcan Post spoke with the trio behind Chix Hot Chicken: Taufik Batish, 45, Ismail Bober, 40, and Shehzad Hussein, 46, who share how they grew the Nashville hot chicken concept into a brand that has sold over a million chicken burgers.
A recipe for something great
As of 2013, Taufik was looking to start a new business, alongside his career in interior design, real estate, and a music career spanning more than a decade.
He went to his longtime friend Ismail, who had spent 10 years in the nightlife business. At the time, Ismail ran the New Orleans-style Southern restaurant, Life is Beautiful Kitchen & Bar, with Shehzad, who had two decades of experience in F&B.
In 2014, Ismail and Shehzad introduced a Southern fried chicken dish to the restaurant that proved unexpectedly popular. This sparked an idea for Taufik to turn that one dish into a great idea for halal fried chicken.
After Life is Beautiful Kitchen & Bar closed in 2015 due to high rent, Ismail leaned on the idea. Taking a regular family trip to Louisiana, he traveled through South America, sampling as much fried chicken as he could.
[As I] ate at various chicken joints in Nashville and learned from the masters… I thought to myself that this is something Southeast Asia has never seen.Ismail Bober, founder of Chix Hot Chicken
While Ismail and Taufik were fully on board, Shehzad was initially skeptical about another brand of fried chicken in the Singapore market. “But when they talked about Nashville, and the name Chix Hot Chicken, I thought that was clever, the name and the food creates curiosity,” he added.
Pivot or close risk
In 2018, the trio officially launched Chix Hot Chicken, housed in a 1,000 sqft shophouse along Jalan Pisang.
While staying true to its Nashville roots, the brand introduced its own twist—fried chicken seasoned with a dry rub instead of being drenched in an oil-based hot sauce.
At the time, the menu was deliberately simple. Beside the fried chicken, Chix Hot Chicken also offered one burger: the Soul Slider.
Ironically, that one burger kept selling chicken parts, despite the menu being so focused. It was also the star of the menu that helped the product break even two years after opening amid COVID-19, the founders said.
This performance led the founders to question their direction—should chicken still be the focus of their menu despite the success of their burger?
At the same time, chicken parts were becoming more expensive to produce and came in very small quantities. When customers inevitably compared them to mainstream chains like Popeyes or KFC, Chix struggled to compete on price while maintaining its commitment to quality.
After about two years, the founders made the painful call to ditch the chicken parts altogether. It came down to a stark choice: fully commit to a new approach or risk closure in the next few months, forcing a complete pivot to keep the business alive.
But going all-in on chicken burgers turned into product development. “The minute we listened to the customers, we were different,” Shehzad said.
That change boosted product growth. Today, Chix Hot Chicken has sold more than a million chicken burgers and expanded in 2025 to a second location—a 3,000 sq ft location on Prinsep Street, three times larger than its original Jalan Pisang outlet.
Turning up the heat
Today, the Chix Hot Chicken menu has expanded to 12 burgers, including three waffle sandwiches that wrap the classic Chix Hot Chicken, with seven additional in-house sauces to choose from. Each burger starts at S$9.90 ala carte.
The burger buns are intentionally small, while the portions of the fried chicken are intentionally large—a visual signature Ismail coined early on. “When you send a chicken burger, it’s always the same,” he explained. “But if you see a small bun and a big chicken, that’s Chix Hot Chicken.”
The brand is known for its spice levels, and it’s serious business.
The brand was initially launched with three levels—mild, hot, and crazy—but the team soon realized that the medium level was already too strong for many customers. They eventually expanded the range to six levels, adding mild options at the low end, including a no-spice option, and introducing the Atomic at the top.
Atomic is made using Carolina Reapers, which have long been considered one of the hottest peppers in the world. The trio said Chix Hot Chicken is not only the first restaurant in Singapore to use Carolina Reapers, but may be the only one in Asia to use them in a dry scrub format.
Customers ordering the Atomic level must sign a return form. “We saw people falling. Ambulances came,” said Shehzad.
Ismail sources his own pepper from the US and the Caribbean, a supply chain he so closely monitors that even his founders are not fully aware of its origin.
Establishing more stores and expanding throughout Asia
Today, the Chix Hot Chicken team stands at about 30 people, including the three founders, who are still sitting down.
Three work in clearly defined roles. Taufik leads the way in marketing and drives customer traffic as the public face of the brand. Ismail is solely responsible for the food, and everything on the menu comes from him. Shehzad oversees the operations and day-to-day operations of the business.
“We call it the trinity,” said Taufik. The rule is simple: anyone can share an opinion, but the person with the right information makes the final call. “I have to respect that that is his contribution to the team. That is the way we have been working for the last eight years.”
For Taufik, one of his favorite milestones is also surprisingly simple—getting into any place without being seen. “Chix Hot Chicken is now living on its own. It has gone beyond me being the person who brings people in. Now the group brings people in alone,” he said.
Looking ahead, the founders intend to establish stores all over Singapore, especially in the east and west. “It took us eight years to grow,” said Shehzad. “There is a reason for that, and why we are rejecting venture capitalists. We want to strengthen our processes and our operations, and make sure that this is the menu that we want to present to people.”
Beyond Singapore, the trio is also setting their sights on regional expansion, with plans to bring their take on Nashville-style fried chicken burgers across Asia.
Many people think that F&B is a place to make quick money. They are very wrong. It takes time and a long-term plan to build a food business and get through tough times.
Taufik Batisah, founder of Chix Hot Chicken
- Read more about Chix Hot Chicken here.
- Read more articles we’ve written about Singapore businesses here.
