Nashville Hot Chicken

It’s been a few years now since I first posted my fried chicken recipe, which I usually cook in coconut oil, but I wanted to start fresh with an updated recipe for a spicy Nashville hot chicken recipe, cooked in either coconut oil or avocado oil.

**Don’t care about story time? Go straight to the Nashville hot chicken recipe here!**

My views on chicken and flour haven’t evolved much, still a fan of more originalist choices such as pastured or local chicken and maybe even heritage flour, but will make exceptions when necessary.

I discussed most of my food choices involved in this recipe in my earlier fried chicken post, so will not rehash that here, other than to say that I am not as sold on frying chicken in coconut oil as I once was.

I am still convinced that most modern industrial oils are pretty harmful for humans for a few reasons, namely how processed and chemically derived they are. But they are also way out of whack in terms of what most nutritionists think our omega 3 and 6 intake should be, which is why I prefer more natural alternatives when it comes time to fry.

Alternatives such as chicken fat, pork lard, coconut oil and my new favorite, avocado oil.

Anyway, back to the Nashville hot chicken! Not only have I changed up my cooking oil, I have also adopted a new preparation for the fried chicken. No more brining for hours and hours, but rather have found a procedure that allows me to shorten the entire process to under an hour!

For this recipe, I use three bowls, one for the spices that make this recipe truly Hot Chicken, another for the buttermilk coating and the last bowl for the flour and other dry ingredients for the dredging.

It’s as simple as dredging each piece of chicken in the flour, then through the wet, and finally back through the dry before frying time.

Fry the chicken as normal, about 6-7 minutes per side, or until nicely browned and delicious looking, and then flip and repeat on side two.

If you are preparing quite a few pieces of Nashville chicken, then you should probably have your oven on 200 just to keep things warm while working on subsequent batches.

Once all of your chicken has been fried, it’s time to scoop about a cup or a bit more of oil from the skillet, mix it with the spices you have already set aside, stir thoroughly and then brush over both sides of your fried chicken. This is what makes it spicy hot and Nashville hot chicken!

If you decide to double the recipe, which I often do because the leftovers are so good, my advice would be to make only one or two small changes to the recipe. I leave the spice mixture alone, there will be enough for 12 pieces of fried chicken, and I leave all of the seasoning the same as well for both the flour dredge and the buttermilk mixture.

The only two items that I change when doubling the recipe is that I will use 3 cups buttermilk instead of two, will be plenty, and I’ll add an extra cup of flour into the dredging bowl, just to make sure I don’t run out.