Hot Chicken
Into
Nashville Hot Chicken is a lot more simple then most people think it is. Simply put, it’s fried chicken that has hot chili oil pored over it when the chicken is still warm. Frying chicken is also a lot more simple then most people think. First you brine your chicken, then you bread, then you fry. In short, the steps are:
Brine your chicken (buttermilk, milk, pickle juice or water)
Bread
Fry
Coat
Ingredients
Buttermilk Brine
3 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
4 pounds chicken
Dredge
1.5 cup buttermilk
0.25 hot sauce (Frank’s or Louisiana)
2 cups all purpose flour
0.25 cups corn starch
3 tablespoons creole seasoning
Oil
0.75 cup oil
0.24 cup ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
Process:
Brine your chicken for at least 2 hours, and up to over night. Mix the buttermilk, salt, a peppers into a zip lock bag and then place the chicken in the brine. Massage the brine into the chicken, and then place in the fridge.
Once you are ready to cook you need to bread your chicken. Pull your chicken out of the brine and put then on a wire rack to dry. While drying get your “wet dredge” and your “dry dredge”. For the wet, mix the buttermilk and the hot sauce, for the dry mix the flour, starch and creole. To coat the chicken, dip it in the dry, then the wet, then back into the dry. Place your chicken on the same cooling rack and wait for the coating to look pasty, this is critical. If you do not wait, your breading will fall off when frying.
At this point in time you can go ahead and get your oil ready. You want a large dutch oven or a large pot 75% of the way full with oil. Heat the oil to 350 degrees. If you are reading ahead, I highly advise waiting until this step to heat the oil as it will force you to wait for the breading to dry.
Working in batches, start frying your chicken, I have typically been able to get 2-3 pieces in my pot without dropping the oil temp too much. Generally speaking it takes about 7-12 minutes to fry a piece of chicken depending on the cut. Once fried, you can place in a 200 degree oven to keep the chicken warm, or let them cool.
Once the chicken is fried, take a cup of the oil from frying, and mix the oil spices (cayenne, smoked paprika, brown sugar, chili powder, garlic powder and salt) in it. You can then use a pastry brush to paint the oil onto the chicken.
Let cool and enjoy.
