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    Nashville hot chicken

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    Nashville hot chicken

    Fried chicken is ubiquitous across the southern states but Nashville is particularly proud of its fiery variety – brushed with a glowing, ember-red peppery sauce. 

    • Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus overnight dry-brining
    • Cooking time: 40 minutes
    • Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes, plus overnight dry-brining

    Serves: 6

    Ingredients

     

    1.5kg chicken
    1 tbsp sea salt
    ½ tbsp ground black pepper
    150g plain flour
    2 eggs
    284ml tub buttermilk (or whole milk)
    1 tbsp Tabasco pepper sauce
    about 1.5 litres vegetable oil, for deep-frying
    pickled cucumber, to serve

    SPICY OIL
    1½ tbsp cayenne pepper
    1 tsp dark brown soft sugar
    ¼ tsp garlic granules
    ¼ tsp ground paprika
    ¼ tsp salt
    ¼ tsp ground black pepper
    5 tbsp olive oil 

    Method

    1 Joint the chicken into 8 pieces and toss with the salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover and chill, allowing to dry-brine overnight.

    2 When you’re ready to cook, preheat a deep-fat fryer to 160˚C (or use a deep saucepan filled 1/3 full with oil). Put the flour in a shallow bowl and season. Beat the eggs, buttermilk and Tabasco in another shallow bowl. One at a time, dust the chicken pieces with flour, dip in the buttermilk, shaking off the excess, then dust with another coating of flour. Deep-fry, in batches, for 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, mix all the ingredients for the spicy oil in a separate bowl.

    3 Drain the fried chicken on a wire rack set over kitchen paper and brush with the spicy oil. Allow to cool a little before serving with pickled cucumber, slaw, sliced bread and baked beans, if liked.

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    This recipe first appeared in Waitrose Kitchen magazine. myWaitrose members can download the Waitrose Kitchen app edition for FREE. Find out more.

     

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