Nashville Hot Fried Chicken

Nashville Hot Fried Chicken

Poultry
Main Dish, Classics

Serves 6-8

This Nashville specialty was not well-known until recent years. You’ll be amazed at the deep, complex flavor. This is genuinely hot, however. You can adjust the quantity of cayenne to control the burn, but you’d miss something of the experience if this didn’t make you sweat.

This isn’t hard to make, but there are a few steps here – read through the ingredients and instructions before starting to be sure you’re ready. In particular, you get better results if you marinate the chicken overnight, so you’ll want to plan for that.

The very salty marinade - a brine, really - is the key to keeping this chicken juicy and succulent. A brine effects changes to meat at a molecular level, binding water to proteins and keeping the tissue moist through long cooking.

I like to serve this with potato salad, coleslaw, and homemade sweet pickles. You’ll be wanting something cool, I promise.

Ingredients #

  • For the marinade: #

    • 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
    • 2 tbsp kosher salt
    • 2 cups buttermilk
    • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
    • ½ cup Louisiana-style hot sauce (Crystal preferred)
    • 1 whole chicken cut into 10 pieces (cut the breasts in half crossways) plus 4 more thighs or drumsticks.

  • For the coating: #

    • 2 cups all-purpose flour
    • 1 cup corn starch
    • 2 tsp kosher salt
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tbsp ground black pepper
    • 1 tsp white pepper
    • ½ tsp garlic powder

  • For the dip: #

    • 1 cup buttermilk
    • 2 eggs, beaten
    • 2 tbsp Louisiana style hot sauce

  • For the spiced oil: #

    • 3-6 tbsp cayenne pepper (you can use as little as a tsp, but make sure the volume of cayenne plus paprika equals 3-4 tbsp)
    • 1 heaping tbsp packed dark brown sugar
    • 1 tsp chili powder
    • ½ tsp garlic powder
    • ½ tsp paprika
    • Peanut oil for frying.

Instructions #

Combine the black pepper, salt, buttermilk, cayenne and hot sauce in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces and make sure they’re evenly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or overnight.

For the coating, combine the flour, corn starch, salt, baking powder, pepper, white pepper and garlic powder in a medium bowl. Whisk thoroughly.

In a shallow bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and hot sauce.

Remove the chicken from the marinade, and dry each piece with paper towels. Dip in the buttermilk-egg mixture, allowing the excess to drip off. Dredge in the coating mixture, pressing the flour into the surface to form a good crust. As you coat the pieces, place them on a wire rack placed over a rimmed baking sheet. When all the pieces are coated, refrigerate uncovered for 30 minutes to set the crust.

Place the oil in a large Dutch oven or large deep skillet. Heat to 360F on a candy thermometer. Preheat the oven to 200F. Place a wire rack on a rimmed baking sheet.

Dredge each piece lightly in the remaining flour and lay gently in the hot oil.

Fry the chicken in two or three batches, turning the pieces occasionally until they are golden brown and an instant-read thermometer shows 165F (for white meat) to 175F (for dark meat). Place the finished pieces on the wire rack and keep warm in the oven.

In a small metal bowl, combine the cayenne, brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder and paprika. When the chicken has finished cooking, turn off the burner and add 1 cup of the hot cooking oil to the seasoning mixture, whisking carefully to combine.

Brush each piece of chicken with the spice oil. Serve immediately.