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Nashville Hot Chicken

Ingredients

Scale

For the chicken + marinade

  • 4 chicken breasts, all sliced in half width wise so each breast makes two thick chunks*
  • 2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup dill pickle juice (from the jar of pickles you will be using for topping)
  • 1 tablespoon salt

For the seasoned flour:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon paprika

For the spice paste

  • 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 6 tablespoons fry oil (taken from the pan the chicken is frying in)

For frying and assembly:

  • 3 cups canola oil
  • 8 slices white bread (I recommend brioche)
  • Dill pickles (at least three per serving)

Instructions

  1. Whisk all ingredients for the buttermilk marinade together and add the chicken. Cover and let marinate in the fridge for at least an hour
  2. Set up your breading station: mix all seasoned flour ingredients together in one dish, remove the chicken from the buttermilk marinade, and set out a sheet of parchment paper for the breaded chicken to sit on once ready to fry. One at a time, dip your chicken into the buttermilk mixture, letting any excess drip off, and add it to the seasoned flour. Turn over and over until the chicken is evenly coated in flour. Lightly shake off the excess flour and then add back into the buttermilk until coated. Add it back into the flour and turn until coated. Place finished chicken on the parchment paper and repeat process with remaining 7 pieces
  3. Add your canola oil to a large pan (I used a cast iron) and heat to 325 degrees. In batches (I did batches of 3), fry your chicken for 6 minutes a side or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove it to a cooling rack. Make sure you are monitoring the temperature of the oil throughout frying process and adjusting the stove heat accordingly
  4. As your chicken is cooking, make your spice paste. Combine all spices into a medium bowl and stir in your melted butter. Add 6 tablespoons of your fry oil and stir until combined and smooth
  5. As the batches of chicken finish cooking and you’ve placed them on the cooling rack, lightly brush the spice paste onto the top side of your finished chicken with a pastry brush. Go lightly at first, the paste is very spicy – you can always add more, but you can’t take away
  6. Finish frying the rest of your chicken and brushing it with the spice paste. When ready to assemble, place each piece of chicken onto a toasted slice of brioche and top with pickles!

Notes

*When slicing the chicken, don’t slice it in half so it’s two thin pieces of chicken, you want to slice it in half so that there are two thick chunks. It fits on the bread much better this way and is a WAY more realistic serving size.

This makes a TON of chicken, but the recipe can easily be halved. Half everything except the canola oil if you want a smaller batch.

Nutrition

Find it online: https://www.thegarlicdiaries.com/nashville-hot-chicken/