Taufik Batisah killed most of Chix Hot Chicken’s menu to save it. Now, it’s sold 1M burgers.

A make-or-break pivot changed everything for Chix Hot Chicken

Singapore is not short of fried chicken joints, from Korean fried chicken to American fast food. But amid this sea of options, there is one homegrown chicken brand that claims to be the first and go-to option for Nashville chicken burgers—and that’s Chix Hot Chicken. 

The brand was initially best known as the chicken spot owned by Singaporean singer-songwriter Taufik Batisah. Over the years, however, it has carved out its own identity, becoming one of Singapore’s popular fried chicken joints, particularly among younger diners.

Vulcan Post spoke with the trio behind Chix Hot Chicken: Taufik Batish, 45, Ismail Bober, 40, and Shehzad Hussein, 46, who shared how they grew a local Nashville hot chicken concept into a brand that has sold over a million chicken burgers.

A recipe for something bigger

As early as 2013, Taufik had been looking to embark on a new venture, alongside his work in interior design, real estate, and a music career spanning more than a decade.

He approached his long-time friend Ismail, who had spent 10 years in the nightlife business. At the time, Ismail was also running a New Orleans-style Southern restaurant, Life is Beautiful Kitchen & Bar, with Shehzad, who had nearly two decades of experience in F&B.

In 2014, Ismail and Shehzad introduced a Southern fried chicken dish at the restaurant that proved to be unexpectedly popular. This sparked an idea for Taufik to turn that single dish into a larger halal fried chicken concept.

After Life is Beautiful Kitchen & Bar closed in 2015 due to high rent, Ismail leaned into the idea. Drawing from frequent family trips to Louisiana, he travelled across South America, sampling as much fried chicken as he could.

[As I] ate at various Nashville chicken joints and learned from the masters… I thought to myself, this is something Southeast Asia hasn’t seen yet.

While Ismail and Taufik were fully on board, Shehzad was initially sceptical about launching yet another fried chicken brand in Singapore’s saturated market. “But when they mentioned Nashville, and the name Chix Hot Chicken, I thought that was brilliant, with the name and the food creating curiosity,” he added.

Pivot or risk closing

In 2018, the trio officially launched Chix Hot Chicken, tucked away at a 1,000 sqft shophouse along Jalan Pisang.

While it stayed loosely true to its Nashville roots, the brand introduced its own twist—fried chicken seasoned with a dry rub rather than drenched in an oil-based hot sauce.

At the time, the menu was intentionally simple. Alongside the fried chicken, Chix Hot Chicken also offered just one burger: the Soul Slider.

Ironically, that single burger consistently outsold the chicken parts, despite the latter being the focus of the menu. It was also the star of the menu that helped the brand break even within two years of opening in the midst of COVID-19, the founders said.

This performance led the founders to question their original direction—should chicken still be the main focus of their menu despite the success of its burger?

At the same time, chicken parts were becoming more expensive to produce and came with thinner margins. 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 drop the chicken parts entirely. It came down to a stark choice: either commit fully to the new direction or risk closing in the next few months, forcing a complete pivot to keep the business alive.

But going all-in on chicken burgers turned out to be the making of the brand. “The minute we listened to the customers, we became unique,” Shehzad said.

That shift propelled the brand’s growth. Today, Chix Hot Chicken has sold over a million chicken burgers and expanded in 2025 to a second location—a 3,000 sq ft space at Prinsep Street, three times larger than its original Jalan Pisang outlet.

Turning up the heat

Today, Chix Hot Chicken’s menu has expanded to 12 burgers, including three waffle sandwiches that wrap around Chix Hot Chicken’s classic meat, with seven additional in-house sauces to choose from. Each burger starts from S$9.90 ala carte.

The burger buns are intentionally small, while the fried chicken portions are deliberately oversized—a visual signature Ismail conceived early on. “When you post a chicken burger, it always looks the same,” he explained. “But when 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 originally launched with three tiers—mild, hot, and insane—but the team quickly realised the middle tier was already too intense for most customers. They eventually expanded the range to six levels, adding milder options at the lower end, including a no-spice option, and introducing Atomic at the top.

Atomic is made using Carolina Reapers, long considered one of the world’s hottest chillies. The trio claims Chix Hot Chicken is not only the first restaurant in Singapore to use Carolina Reapers, but possibly the only one in Asia applying them in a dry rub format.

Customers ordering the Atomic level must sign an indemnity form. “We have seen people collapse. Ambulances came,” Shehzad said.

Ismail personally sources the peppers from the US and the Caribbean, a supply chain he guards so closely that even his co-founders are not fully aware of its origins.

Establishing more outlets & expanding across Asia

Today, the Chix Hot Chicken team stands at around 30 people, including the three founders, who are still regularly on the ground.

The trio operate with clearly defined roles. Taufik leads marketing and drives customer traffic as the public face of the brand. Ismail is solely responsible for the food, with every item on the menu originating from him. Shehzad oversees operations and the day-to-day running of the business.

“We call it the trinity,” Taufik said. The rule is simple: anyone can share an opinion, but the person with the relevant expertise makes the final call. “I have to respect that that is his contribution to the team. That is how we have been functioning for the past eight years.”

For Taufik, one of his favourite milestones is also a surprisingly simple one—walking into either outlet and not being recognised. “Chix Hot Chicken is now living on its own. It has transcended beyond me being the guy bringing people in. Now the team is bringing people in on their own,” he said.

Looking ahead, the founders aim to establish outlets across Singapore, particularly in the east and west. “It took us eight years to expand,” Shehzad said. “There’s a reason for that, and why we turn down venture capitalists. We want to tighten our processes and operations, and make sure this is the menu we want to present to people.”

Beyond Singapore, the trio is also setting their sights on regional franchising, with plans to bring their take on Nashville fried chicken burgers across Asia.

A lot of people think that F&B is the place to make a quick buck. They are very mistaken. It takes time and a long-term plan to build a food business and to get through hard times.