In just a few weeks I’m going to Nashville for a friend’s wedding and I can’t wait! Is it bad that I’m most excited to nosh on Nashville Hot Chicken while I’m there?? I didn’t think so. J To prepare for our trip, I thought it would be fun to make our own version before we head out east and enjoy the real deal! Some of my favorite things about summer are picnics and barbecuing and fried chicken always screams summertime to me. I also love how portable it is and how cold fried chicken is still so tasty! So we took our Nashville Style Fried Chicken with us to the park and enjoyed a nice little picnic in the middle of the day.
Since we were on the go, we wanted to keep things simple and efficient, so we packed up a roll of paper towels, some wooden forks (for our mac and cheese on the side) and a pack of Dixie Ultra Plates. I’m always skeptical about paper plates because I tend to LOAD my plates up with tons of food and am always worried that they’re going to rip or that the wetness of my food will create a ‘wet hole’ that my food will just fall straight through. Luckily the Dixie Ultra Plates totally held up! We couldn’t believe it! Fried chicken is not only a bit of a gut puncher itself, but it’s also a food that’s heavy in weight…pair that with creamy, gooey mac and cheese and you’re bound to rip a couple of plates, right? Seriously, not with the Dixie Ultra Plates. They literally held up to 2 pounds of food per plate! It’s crazy! It’s also really nice that I can leave food on the plate for awhile without having to worry that the plate will have weakened when I get back to it!
If you guys are looking for a great summer recipe that you can enjoy al fresco, we highly encourage you to make this Nashville Hot Chicken recipe with a huge side of creamy mac + cheese of course. Enjoy!
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Nashville Hot Chicken
INGREDIENTS
brine
- 4 cups water
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 bunch fresh sage
chicken
- 2 whole fryer chickens, cut into pieces
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 2 cups buttermilk
- oil for frying
hot chicken sauce
- 5 tablespoons cayenne pepper can go as high as 7 and as low as 4
- 3 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 stick (½ cup) melted butter or fryer oil
INSTRUCTIONS
- For brine: Pour water, sugar and salt into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once the sugar and salt dissolve, remove from heat and stir in the peppercorns, coriander seeds and sage. Place chicken in a large container. Add 3 cups ice to the hot brine and once the temperature comes down, pour over the chicken. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Remove chicken pieces from the brine and pat dry.
- For chicken: In a shallow baking dish combine flour, baking soda, garlic powder, and salt and whisk together. Pour buttermilk into another shallow baking dish.
- Dredge each piece of chicken into the flour mixture, shaking off any excess.
- Next, dip each piece into the buttermilk followed by the flour mixture for a second coating. Place each dredged piece onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
- Pour 3 inches fryer oil into a large cast iron skillet and preheat to 350˚F.
- Once the oil is hot, place a few pieces of chicken into the oil, with about 1 inch of room between, making sure not to overcrowd the pan.
- Fry each piece of chicken for about 10 to 12 minutes on each side or until golden brown and the chicken has an internal temp of 160˚F.
- Remove chicken from the oil and transfer to a baking sheet lined with a cooling rack. Repeat until all of the chicken has been fried.
- For sauce: Combine all ingredients together and whisk together until a thick and even paste forms.
- Brush a thin coating of the paste onto each piece of fried chicken. Serve.
NOTES
- *Makes 2 whole chickens
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Oh wow! I’ve never had Nashville Hot Chicken, but spicy food is a thing of my dreams! Definitely going to try this sometime!
Hi! This is a beautiful recipe and I’m really sad I can’t make it because it’s fried. Is there any way you could point me on how to make it work in the oven?
If you make this more of a “shake n’ bake” type of coating…by pouring the flour mixture into a plastic bag, adding the chicken and shaking until evenly coated…then place onto a well greased baking sheet + spray the tops of each piece of chicken in oil before baking. That should work in getting a crispy coated baked chicken :)
Nashville Hot Chicken is my FAVORITE type of fried chicken, have had it multiple times and have only ever made it with boneless skinless chicken thighs. Definitely need to make it using this method.