Grab the hot sauce and recreate a delicacy of Nashville, Tennessee, a near-atomic level chili-battered fried chicken, served up at hole-in-the-wall restaurants throughout Music City.
What is it?
Though the exact recipes are closely guarded secrets, hot chicken essentially consists of chicken quarters, brined, deep-fried to a shattering crisp in a cast-iron pan and then basted with a hot chili glaze. It’s served over slices of white bread to sop up the grease, and topped with a smattering of pickle chips.
Origins
Fried chicken is beloved across the American South. Its origins lie with the Scottish immigrants who settled much of the region, bringing with them their taste for fried food. Later, enslaved cooks on Southern plantations added their own spices. The “hot” twist comes from North Nashville’s beloved Prince’s Hot Chicken restaurant. Supposedly, the original owner’s girlfriend fried him up a piece of secretly pepper-doused chicken as revenge for cheating. He loved it so much he opened a restaurant specializing in the mouth-burning stuff!
Ingredients (serves 4)
2L cold water
250mL hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
150g (5oz) plus 1 tsp salt
100g (3 1⁄2 oz) plus 1⁄2 tsp sugar
1.6–1.8kg (3 1⁄2 –4lb) whole chicken, quartered
2.8L peanut oil
1 tbs cayenne pepper 1⁄2 tsp paprika
1⁄4 tsp garlic powder 250g (9oz) flour
Black pepper to taste
How to cook
1. In a large bowl, stir the cold water, hot sauce, 150g salt and 100g sugar until the salt and sugar dissolve.
2. Add the chicken to the brine and refrigerate, covered, for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 95 ̊C (200 ̊F).
4. Heat three tablespoons of peanut oil in a small saucepan over medium heat, and add cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, 1⁄2 tsp salt and remaining sugar. Cook for 30 seconds then transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
5. Remove chicken from refrigerator and pour off brine.
6. In a large bowl, combine flour, remaining salt and black pepper to taste.
7. Dredge chicken pieces in the flour mixture then shake off excess. Repeat this process, then transfer chicken to a wire rack.
8. In a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the remaining oil to 175 ̊C (350 ̊F).
9. Fry chicken, two pieces at a time, at 150 ̊C (300 ̊F) to 160 ̊C (325 ̊F) until skin is golden brown (about 30 minutes). White meat must register 70 ̊C (160 ̊F) and dark meat 80 ̊C (175 ̊F).
10. Drain chicken on wire rack and keep warm in a preheated oven while cooking the remaining chicken pieces.
11. Stir spicy oil mixture to recombine and brush over both sides of the chicken.
12. Serve chicken on sliced white bread with sliced pickles.
Tasting notes
Sampling hot chicken requires patience. The best of the dozen or so Nashville establishments specializing in the dish use cast-iron pans to fry their chicken, which takes significantly longer than using a deep fryer. Most are simple joints, tucked away in strip malls or between pawn shops in down-at-the-heels parts of town.
Order a white-meat breast quarter, or – the local preference – a dark-meat thigh quarter, and choose from mild, medium, hot or extra hot. Newbies should not be embarrassed to go for mild – believe us, it will be more humiliating to spit a bite of extra hot across the table when you discover you can’t take the nuclear heat. The crispy skin is orange with chili, dripping salty, flavorsome juice from the brined meat. If the heat level is getting to you, order extra slices of cottony white bread to cool down your tongue.
Other recipes in the series:
Polish bigos
Chennai chicken
Italian tagliatelle ragu
Have you recreated any of the dishes featured in this series so far? Share your pictures with us on Instagram by tagging @lonelyplanet. For more great recipes, check out Lonely Planet’s book The World’s Best Spicy Food.
