Nashville Hot Chicken Recipe

On a recent trip to Nashville, I had the greatest fried chicken experience of my life: Nashville Hot Chicken. I ended up waiting in line for 45 min at Hattie B’s, eagerly waiting for my fired chicken. I will be sharing my version of this iconic food.

Chicken parts as needed
Salt as needed

1. Dry brine the chicken: Season the chicken parts with salt and place skin side up a on a rack on a sheet pan overnight uncovered in the frig.

For the Dip:
1 cup milk or butter milk?
2 large eggs
2 T hot sauce Tabasco

For the Dredge: Seasoned Flour
840 g flour
30 g onion powder
25 g garlic powder
35 g salt
15 g smoked paprika
10 g dried thyme
5 g dried sage
2 g cayenne
8 g harbeno powder

For Spicy Coating:
½ cup lard melted and heated or half butter ?
3 T packed brown sugar
Sea salt and black pepper
½ t paprika
½ t garlic powder
½ Ghost powder
½ Harbeno powder

1. Place the lard into a sauce pan and whisk in spices and heat over medium hear till melted and combined.

2. Make the dip and dredge: In a bowl, whisk together the milk, egg and hot sauce. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and spices together.

3. Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture, then in the dip mixture, then in the flour mixture again, shaking off excess after each step.

4. Fry at 325 degrees F. Set a wire rack on top of a rimmed baking sheet and set a side. Fry chicken until crisp about 150 degrees for breasts and 165 for dark meat, into the interior of the meet, about 15 min. Remove from fryer and let drain on rack

5. Baste the chicken with spicy coating mixture and serve.

Garnish with blistered shushito peppers and pickles.