Nashville Hot Chicken

Inspired by Hattie B’s - Nashville, TN

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Music City is a fun town. I spent a few summer days there with coworkers at a conference and, during our free time, we had a blast. One afternoon we skipped out on the catered lunch and snuck down the street to Hattie B’s. Had we more time, I would have also loved to visit Prince’s but the “medium” plate I got at Hattie B’s is still one of my most memorable meals of all time.

This recipe was obviously inspired by a trip to Hattie B’s in Nashville, Tennessee. However, I also took some direction from Jennifer Justus and her cookbook Nashville Eats. I apply many of the methods I found while researching Hattie B’s for this post but I also found Jennifer’s input invaluable and applied some of her methods for what I believe to be a more well rounded version of Nashville Hot Chicken. I’ll put the distinctions in the notes and let you be the judge.

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN BRINE (Serves 5-6):

  • 1 whole chicken (about 3-4 lbs)

  • 8 cups of water

  • ½ cup of salt

  • ½ cup of brown sugar

  • 2 tsp pepper

HOT CHICKEN BATTER:

  • 1 cup whole milk

  • 2 large eggs

  • 1 TBS Frank’s Red Hot

  • 2 cups flour

  • 2 tsp salt

HOT CHICKEN SPICE:

  • ½ cup of canola oil (or lard)

  • 3 TBS cayenne pepper

  • 1 TBS brown sugar

  • 1 tsp pepper

  • 1 tsp salt

  • 1 tsp cumin

  • ½ tsp paprika

  • ½ tsp garlic powder

ADDITIONAL NEEDS:

  • Canola oil, lots of it

  • Pickles for serving (optional)

  • White bread for serving (optional)

GO FOR IT

CHICKEN BRINE:

  1. Cut chicken into 8 pieces (2 breasts, 2 wings, 2 thighs, 2 drums) or use 3-4 lbs of what you want as long as it’s not skinless

  2. In a large bowl, mix and combine water, salt, brown sugar, and pepper until well dissolved

  3. Place chicken in bowl and ensure all chicken is covered

  4. Cover bowl and place in refrigerator overnight (or up to 24 hours)

HOT CHICKEN BATTER:

  1. Remove chicken from brine, pat dry with paper towels, and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes

  2. Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together milk, eggs, and Frank’s Red Hot

  3. In another bowl, combine flour and salt

  4. Once chicken is room temperature, take pieces 1 by 1 and cover in flour mix until well coated, then dunk in milk mix until well coated, then finally cover in flour mix again until well coated (let excess milk mix drip off before 2nd flour dunk)

  5. Place chicken pieces on a cooling rack 1 by 1 as you repeat process for all chicken

HOT CHICKEN SPICE:

  1. In a saucepan, add oil (or lard) and all spices, then heat on medium until all combined (this is probably best done while your chicken is frying)

HOT CHICKEN FRY:

  1. Fill a dutch oven or large pot about halfway with oil (or just enough to cover your chicken completely during frying without spilling over)

  2. Bring oil to 325° and then carefully add your chicken in batches so as to not overcrowd your pot

  3. While adjusting heat to maintain 325°, fry chicken until internal temperature is 165° with a crisp and golden brown coating (you should get a digital thermometer - they are cheap and will greatly improve your cooking game at home - but if you don’t have one this will take about 15 minutes depending on size)

  4. As chicken finishes, move to a cooling rack as you finish all batches

FINISHING HOT CHICKEN:

  1. While chicken is still hot, use a brush to baste hot chicken spice on your chicken and enjoy immediately after

  2. Serve with pickles and slice of soft white bread (optional)

NOTES:

Taste your hot chicken spice before applying! Hot chicken is not called hot chicken as a joke. The proportions here are spicy but only about mild to medium on the Hattie B’s scale. That’s plenty good for me but maybe you have a death wish. Maybe you try a bit and want to kick it up a notch. If so, then add more cayenne pepper. If you taste it and want to tone things down, then add more brown sugar. However, if you do end up adjusting proportions, also add in an equal amount of oil or lard to keep the sauce consistent.

Hattie B’s does not use a wet brine here like I do. They take the salt, brown sugar, and pepper and rub it into the chicken before covering and leaving in the refrigerator for 24 hours in their “dry brine”. However, I find that a wet brine helps the compounds absorb into the meat more easily to break down those proteins and leave you with a more juicy piece of chicken after frying. Jennifer Justus does the same and I appreciate the science behind this method. For more info on that, check out Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat (hands down the best cookbook for learning the art of cooking on your own).

Hattie B’s also does not add cumin to their hot spice. Jennifer Justus did this in her book and I love cumin so I gave it a go. If you want to stay true to Hattie B’s, then leave it out. However, I found it added a nice roundness in flavor that helped offset some of the pure heat from the cayenne. Do as you wish but if you are trying to stay true then know that Prince’s doesn’t even add brown sugar to their hot spice. I hope to one day give their more original version of Nashville Hot Chicken a try but until then, not using anything to offset this heat seems nuts. Feel free to disagree.