The Ultimate Fried Chicken Sandwich? Nashville Hot Chicken

It’s no secret that I love fried chicken and spicy food. My neighbors to the south have created perhaps the best fried chicken sandwich ever. I’m going to use my Kentucky Fried Heritage to give you my version of the famous Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich.

The Brine

First things first, we’re going to need some chicken. Dark. Meat. Only. Don’t even come at me with that white meat nonsense. Thighs are the name of the game when it comes to a delicious fried chicken sandwich.

All right, step one, we’ll dry brine these thighs. That means simply sprinkling some kosher salt on them and stick them in the refrigerator overnight. Place them on a wire rack to let air circulate around them if you can.

The next day, we need to prepare our marinade, crack two eggs in a mixing bowl and get to whisking. Add two cups of buttermilk, a few healthy splashes of your favorite hot sauce. I’m using my all time favorite crystals. Use whatever you want.

The next ingredient is pickle juice. I’m using two tablespoons. This particular pickle juice is spicy and it comes from a local producer. Shout out to Pop’s. Best. Pickles. Ever.

Whisk everything until incorporated. Now we’ve dunked our thighs in the mixture we need to cover the surface with plastic wrap so they stay submerged in the mixture. Pop them in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours. While those are marinating, we need to create a simple seasoning flour with some salt and fresh ground pepper.

The Dredge

I like to use a ratio of one cup of flour to one tablespoon of salt and one tablespoon of cracked black pepper. After a couple hours of the chicken marinating, it’s time to get that flour on the outside of our chicken. Drip a few tablespoons of the marinade into the flour. This is going to create those big, crispy bits on the outside of the chicken. Go ahead and dredge the chicken through the flour. Be sure and pack the flour down onto the thigh, make sure and get the entire piece of chicken well coated. We don’t want any bare spots.

The Fry

In a large Dutch oven heat your preferred frying oil up to 325 degrees. I’m cooking my chicken in 100% pork lard.

Here’s a link on how to render out your own lard for this recipe. If you don’t want to use lard, vegetable oil will work just fine.

You’ll want to fry your chicken in batches. You don’t want to overcrowd the Dutch oven. Fry your chicken for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the internal temp is 165 degrees. No rare chicken, please. It’s a good idea to start checking the temp when the thighs float to the top.

Spicy Oil

While the chicken is frying, we need to make our spicy oil that coats our crispy chicken sandwich. In a large mixing bowl add six tablespoons of cayenne pepper. Yes, you heard that right. It’s HOT chicken, not mild chicken. Along with the cayenne add two tablespoons of onion powder, two tablespoons of smoked paprika.  Next add two tablespoons of garlic powder, one tablespoon of kosher salt, one teaspoon of super secret cheat code a.k.a MSG, and three tablespoons of brown sugar. Finally, because my friends and I enjoy some burn, I’m going to add in two tablespoons of dried crushed Thai chilies. This last one is totally optional depending on how much burn you like on your Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich.

Put it all together

After all the chicken is done frying, we’re going to need to take one and a half cups of hot fry oil and add it to our spice mixture. It needs to be HOT. If not, the chicken that we worked so hard to make crispy will be sad and soggy. Since I cook my chicken in lard, the oil will have much more flavor than just regular canola.

As soon as the oil and spices are thoroughly mixed together, start dunking that hot chicken. Cover the whole piece completely and set it back on the rack.

To assemble our sandwich, we’re going to toast a nice brioche bun with a little bit of mayo. This step will ensure that the bun doesn’t get too soggy.  Place our beautiful thigh on the bun and top with some pickles. Remember that spicy pickle juice earlier? Those spicy bois are just the ticket to finish this sandwich off. There you have it. Nashville Hot chicken sandwich. Is it the best fried chicken sandwich of all time? I don’t know. I’ll let you be the judge. All I know is it’s tasty AF and fat kid approved.

Comment down below and tell me what you think? Do you agree?  Check out the video below to watch me make the this recipe.

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Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich

Is this the best chicken sandwich of all time? Try out this recipe and decide for yourself.

Prep Time 1 day

Cook Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 Chicken Tighs
• 3 TBS Kosher Salt
• 2 Eggs
• 2 cups Buttermilk
• 4 TBS Hot Sauce
• 2 TBS Pickle Juice
• 2 Cups Flour
• 1 TBS Ground Black Pepper
• 2.5 Quarts Frying Oil. Lard or Canola
• 6 TBS Cayenne pepper
• 2 TBS Onion Powder
• 2 TBS Smoked Paprika
• 2 TBS Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp MSG optional
• 3 TBS Brown Sugar
• 2 TBS Crushed Dried Thai Chilis optional
• 4 Buns
• 3 TBS mayo
• 12 Pickle Slices

Instructions

1. Sprinkle Kosher Salt on thighs and place on a rack in fridge overnight

2. The next day crack two eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly

3. Add two cups of buttermilk, hot sauce, and pickle juice

4. Dunk thighs in mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and place in fridge for two hours

5. Mix flour, 2 TBS salt, and 2 TBS of fresh ground black pepper in a large mixing bowl

6. Heat a large dutch oven to 325 with whatever fry oil you chose

7. Dredge chicken in flour mixture coating thighs completely. No bare spots

8. Fry chicken for 15-18 minutes until internal temp hits 165

9. Combine cayenne pepper, onion powder, smoked paprika, garlic powder, 1 TBS kosher salt, MSG, Thai chilis, and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.

10. Add in 2 cups of HOT fry oil into spice mixture and whisk together

11. Dunk cooked thighs in hot oil mixture until completely coated

12. Assemble sandwich and enjoy

Recipe Video

Andrew Armstrong