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There’s good and then there’s great. Nothing beats Nashville hot chicken when it comes to great fried chicken. The best, light, crunchy coating that you can imagine. Tender, moist chicken. And of course, heat. Plenty of heat. I could make and eat Nashville hot chicken any day of the week.
Because I prefer chicken wings over say, split chicken breasts, I used wings for this dish. They were crazy good. No need for blue cheese or ranch dipping sauce, either. Just pick them up and get to eating.
I don’t recommend being too shy with the spicy coating that you brush on the chicken just before serving. It’s hot, trust me, but I didn’t find it to be so hot that I couldn’t stand it. But don’t get me wrong, your eyes will water. At the minimum.
If I’m cooking for a crowd, I’ll break out my big deep fryer. But, if it’s just the two of us, I’ll fire up my Fry Daddy fryer. It’s the perfect size for both of us. It fries everything perfectly. And as an added bonus, it doesn’t use a lot of oil, which saves me money.
You’ll find that the coating is so good you’ll want to use it for other things, like chicken nuggets or fingers.
Also try my Nashville hot pickles.
Nashville Hot Chicken
Ingredients
For the dry brine
- 3 pounds chicken cut into pieces. I used chicken wings, separated into flats and drumettes
- 1 tablespoon Kosher salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper
For the dip
- 1 cup milk I used buttermilk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon Louisiana hot sauce
For the dredge
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
For frying
For the spicy coating
- ½ cup hot frying oil from when you cooked the chicken
- 1-3 tablespoons cayenne pepper I used 2 and found the flavor to be perfect, and not too terribly hot
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- Kosher salt
- ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
For serving
- 6 dill pickle chips
- 6 slices White bread
Instructions
For the dry brine
- Season chicken and place into a baggie or resealable container.
- Seal and refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.
For the dip
- Whisk together the milk, eggs and hot sauce in a pie pan or shallow bowl.
For the dredge
- Whisk together the flour and salt in a pie pan or shallow bowl.
For frying
- Heat a few inches of oil (enough to cover the chicken) in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 325 F.
- Working in batches, dredge the chicken in the flour. Shake off excess.
- Dip chicken into the milk mixture. Shake off the excess.
- Return the chicken to the flour and dredge again. Shake off excess.
- Transfer chicken to the hot oil and fry until done (165 F internal temperature), flipping occasionally, 10-15 minutes.
- Place on a rack to cool and drain. (I kept my chicken in a hot warming drawer while I finished cooking the rest of the chicken.)
For the spicy coating
- When you’re done frying the chicken, ladle 1/2 cup of the hot oil into a small sauce pan and whisk in the spicy coating ingredients.
- Brush mixture over the chicken. The more you brush on, the hotter it’ll be.
For serving
- Serve garnished with Dill pickle and white bread slices, if desired.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are approximate.
