It sounds crazy, but it's basically like being able to put lots of hot sauce on fried chicken, without it getting soggy. For the record, I’ve never been
to Nashville, so I can’t tell you how authentic this is, but it works for me,
and is fairly easy to pull off.
By the way, do yourself a favor, and toss the
chicken with a tablespoon of kosher salt the night before you fry, and you’ll
get a nicely seasoned, moister bird.
By the way, do yourself a favor, and toss the
chicken with a tablespoon of kosher salt the night before you fry, and you’ll
get a nicely seasoned, moister bird.
You can cut up a whole chicken, or just buy a package of leg
sections, which work great in this recipe. If you want to see how to cut up a
chicken, check out this old buttermilk fried chicken video. I cut the breasts in
half in that one, but the technique is the same. I really hope you give this
amazing fried chicken recipe a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for Nashville Hot Chicken:
1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces, tossed with 1 tablespoon kosher salt, and refrigerated overnight.
For the marinade:
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup pickle brine
2 tablespoon Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 large egg
For the flour:
2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons fine table salt or 4 teaspoon kosher salt
For the sauce:
1/4 cup lard
1/4 cup butter
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Heat oil to 350 F. and maintain temp of 325 F. during frying. Cook to at least 160 internal temp.
- Heat oil to 350 F. and maintain temp of 325 F. during frying. Cook to at least 160 internal temp.
31 comments:
In addition to dunking it into the sauce, there is actually a dry rub that's applied afterwards on top of the wet sauce I believe. That's how they modulate the spice. It absorbs some of the liquid helping to keep it crispy.
Chef John - Next time you are in LA we have an excellent version called Howlin' Rays. The chef learned from the big boys in Nashville. Having had both, I think he does a great job.
This seems like a great version though. Never knew about the lard angle.
Should have gone for "Fried Chicken? Yes We Cayenne!"
I hate to be that guy, but I'm sure I won't be the only one wondering this: Can we omit the lard and just double the amount of butter for the sauce?
I know what I'll be having for Sunday Dinner
Oh man I have been wanting to try this stuff and now I can't have anything this crunchy for weeks while my mouth heals from surgery :-( Oh well, something to look forward to. This recipe looks pretty authentic from the reviews I have seen of the real Nashville stuff; although this is probably their mild-medium version. The stuff can be crazy hot with ghost peppers in play at some chicken joints. There seem to be a couple versions, this with the spice in lard and one where they just sprinkle (pour) the spice on dry after cooking. This sounds like the nicer spice delivery method but I may have to try it both ways just for research purposes. Thanks for breaking this recipe down for us, 5 stars.
Chef what pickle brine did you use? Bread and butter or dill pickle brine?
Seeing as you use cayenne so much, you must have done some quality control. Can you say what cayenne you use? Do you grind your own?
Curious about your choice of paprika(s) too.
Thanks!
Nice Butter.
I doubt I have access to lard at my supermarket, what would you suggest to use as a substitution?? Bacon fat I keep whenever I cook bacon, or should I just double the butter?
What's your hot sauce of choice?
Does everybody hug you when you walk down the street or what?
I had to look up 'T-bone Pickens'
This was a great video! Will definitely be trying out this one!
Alton Brown is live right now on Facebook. Kinda pathetic. The questions rolled by too fast for him to read it, and he basically just yelled at the person on a motorcycle in the parking lot who revved his engine. And drank some dark liquid out of a glass. And called one person who said she burned water as having passive aggressive issues. And stated he didn't eat anything made at the Iron Chef competition because he couldn't afford to get sick. Yep. That's it in a nutshell. Makes me appreciate the quality of information you put out there every week. I've learned a lot from you, and your voice and wit have a magic that removes the fear from not just the cooking situation, but it has a calming effect on daily life. You should bottle that and sell it! LOL! Thank you, Chef John!
Great recipe!! I will definitely make this. The video is excellent, your narration made me laugh till I cried. Thanks C.J. Needed that today.
Wow, this stuff is spicy. If spicy is your thing you'll love this technique. I'm pretty sure any fat will work in the glaze. Hell, I used margarine.
This is honestly the best fried chicken I have ever made. It was a tick spicy for my wife, but normal reef hot is too spicy for her. I am going to make wings using this method every Sunday this football season. Go Pats! Thanks Chef!!
@Hao
I think that's what he did phonetically...Your way would have one extra syllable..
That out of the way, I am getting this together as we speak!!! can't wait to try Chef's newest favourite fried chicken!
I absolutely love the Korean Fried Chicken on this site
Hello! Love the videos and I am attempting to recreate one of the recipes for the first time this weekend! I love the Nashville hot chicken but my only question is: would it be crazy to do this with a boneless skinless chicken breast? And if so, what would you do to maybe alter the recipe to work better with the chicken breast? Would love to hear feedback from anyone. Thanks so much!
made this today......it was amazing, thank Chef John!
+aaron meade. Strange. I don't see any comments from Chef John here. Anyhow, I bet the brining technique Chef John uses in this video http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2011/01/honey-brined-southern-fried-chicken.html would work here. Brine the breasts first, then follow through with the hot chicken directions. It would keep the breasts from drying out during frying.
The spice doesn't bother me, but how many pieces of this can I eat before it clogs my arteries?
Your missing a vital ingredient....Back home princes hot chicken the inventor of the receipe use seasoning salt (season all) as well fyi but this still looks great...
Your missing a vital ingredient, back home the inventor of the recipe princes hot chicken uses seasoning salt (season all) as well fyi but over all it still looks great...
Thanks, CJ. Made this last night and had leftovers for lunch today. Delicious!
Next time I'm increasing the Cayenne to 3tbsp. Or maybe I put in too much butter and chicken fat for the sauce. Either way it was spicy but not unbearable.
I love your videos. I would love to get your recommendations for pans. I especially am intrigued by the cast iron skillet you use. It seems a slightly larger pan with the sloped sides.
Chef John it was SOOOOO good. I used only chicken drumsticks, and I did one substitution. I changed out the Cayenne for the hot part with Curry Powder. The taste was great and it was probably one of the most delicious things we have had in the house in a long time. The reason I went with curry powder is because there is a this wing shop near my house that does a curry sauced wing that is very good as well, but with thick chicken drumsticks, it turned out so much better than the one they do at the restaurant.
Thank you so much Chef John!
I tried NHC at a Hattie B's in Las Vegas. It was very good. I'm going to try this first with skinless boneless thighs (tomorrow night), then later with brined skinless boneless breasts, pounded a little to give then a little more uniform thickness.
Is this burn your mouth.. burn your bung hot?
So good. Thank you so much. Totally killed it with my spouse. He was blown away. The in-depth description of how to cook the chicken really boosted my knowledge. This is the missing info that I didn't really understand before.
Chef John;
Just made this amazing chicken and it was delicious. Even though I consider Tabasco to be a beverage, I was indeed leery of the cayenne quantity.
The end result was spicy, sweet and crunchy even after the "delicate and healthy " sauce was slathered everywhere. I'll be sure to have white bread on hand next time.
Many thanks,
John B Boyd
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