Whisked Kitchen · whiskedkitchen.com/r/nashville-hot-chicken-hot-chicken-project-style
comfort food · dinner
Nashville Hot Chicken
Hot chicken project style
A whole chicken broken into 10 pieces, dry-brined overnight, double-dredged and fried low and slow in lard, then painted with a cayenne-lard paste. Served on cheap white bread with pickles, the way they do it in Nashville and at Geelong's Hot Chicken Project.
Category: Main course Cuisine: American
Prep45 min
Cook45 min
Makes4
Ingredients
TapClick to tick off as you go.
Chicken & dry brine
1 whole chicken, skin on about 1.6 kg
1 tbsp fine salt
1 1/2 tsp black pepper
Wet dip
350 ml full-cream milk
1 1/2 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
2 large eggs
60 ml dill pickle brine
2 tbsp vinegar hot sauce Frank's or Crystal
Dredge
400 g plain flour
3 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
Frying
2.5 l lard or peanut/rice bran oil
Hot paste
125 ml hot frying fat ladled from the fryer
3 tbsp cayenne pepper see heat ladder
1 tbsp brown sugar optional; Prince's-style purists leave it out
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
To serve
4 slices cheap white bread
1 cup dill pickle chips
Method
Day before
1
Cut the chicken into 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 wings (tips off) and 2 breasts. Halve each breast crosswise so all pieces cook in similar time — 10 pieces total. Keep the backbone and wing tips for stock.
2
Pat dry and season all over with the salt and pepper, working some under the skin. Refrigerate uncovered on a rack overnight (up to 24 hours) — the skin dries out and fries crisper.
Cook day
3
Stir the vinegar into the milk and let it stand 10 minutes until slightly thickened and curdled at the edges.
4
Whisk the soured milk with the eggs, pickle brine and hot sauce. In a wide bowl whisk the flour, cornflour, smoked paprika, pepper, salt, oregano and garlic powder. Drizzle 2–3 tbsp of the wet mix into the flour and rub with your fingers to form shaggy clumps for a craggy crust.
5
Dredge each piece: flour, wet, flour again, pressing firmly on the last coat. Rest on a wire rack for 15 minutes so the coating sets. Meanwhile heat the lard in a heavy pot (at least 10 cm deep) to 170°C.
6
Fry thighs and drumsticks first, skin side down, holding the fat at 155–160°C. Turn every few minutes. About 14–16 minutes, until 80°C at the bone. Drain on a rack and hold in a 90°C oven.
7
Bring the fat back up, then fry breasts and wings at 155–160°C for 10–12 minutes, until the breast reads 68–70°C (carryover takes it to safe) and wings are deep golden. Drain on the rack.
8
Ladle about 125 ml of the hot frying fat into a heatproof bowl and whisk in the cayenne, brown sugar, smoked paprika, garlic powder and salt to a loose, brick-red slurry.
9
Brush the paste all over the chicken immediately, while both are hot, so it soaks into the crust instead of making it soggy. Serve on white bread with pickle chips on top.
Notes
10
HEAT LADDER (cayenne per 125 ml fat): Southern = no paste • Mild = 1 tbsp • Medium = 2 • Hot = 3 • So Damn Hot = 4–5 • Evil = 5 tbsp + ½–1 tsp ghost/reaper powder (gloves on). Paint each piece at its own level to suit everyone. Strain and keep the lard for the next fry.
Notes
-
Original ingredients would better suit two whole chickens. Coating sauce was too sweet, would probably half the brown sugar or try honey maybe?
Inspired by Built from Aaron Turner's The Hot Chicken Project (Hardie Grant, 2020), Hattie B's and Prince's methods
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