Nashville Hot Fried Chicken

Mimicking the heat of this Nashville Hot Fried Chicken was harder than we anticipated. We created a spicy exterior to the chicken by “blooming" the spices (cooking them in oil for a short period) to create a complex yet still lip-burning spicy flavor. We added a healthy amount of hot sauce to our brine to inject spicy flavor into the chicken, making the flavor more than skin deep. Most Nashville Hot Fried Chicken recipes called for fiery cayenne pepper, but only a fraction of a teaspoon. Our Hot recipe calls for at least 12 times that amount.