Nashville Hot Chicken: 2 Healthy & Homemade Ways

Y’all, when I say Ryan has been asking me to make Nashville Hot Chicken sandwiches for weeks; I mean it! After mentioning it probably twice a week at dinner time for upwards of a month, he put matters into his own hands on our recent aforementioned trip to Shaws. Ryan scoured the store to find what he was looking for: a huge container of Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning.

For those like me who thought of a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich to be noting more than just another spicy, fried chicken sandwich option- we were wrong. The seasoning itself is most often made up of cayenne pepper, salt, paprika, sugar, dry mustard powder, ground black pepper, and granulated garlic. While this is totally something I could have made from scratch- I didn’t, and that’s okay considering everything else in this recipe was 100% homemade.

I even went as far as making homemade pickles; which are basically the only “vegetable” to usually accompany the classic Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich. If you’re anything like me, you practically crave some sort of fruits or vegetables to be a part of every meal to make it feel complete, “healthy”, & most importantly colorful. Meals just hit different when the only color on your plate is brown; ya know what I mean? So, due to the striking lack of vegetables in this classic entree, I decided to not only make a sandwich to fulfill Ryan’s request, but also a Nashville Hot Chicken Salad option for those of us who like a little more green in our life (who doesn’t??).

Upon asking Ryan about what sort of sides he thought went with the sandwich- sweet potato wedges were offered up as a suggestion, which I love! Normally I might have planned on baking said sweet potato wedges in the air fryer (so easy, so crispy, and feels like way less work than using the oven- especially during the summer) but, I knew I wanted to use the air fryer to make the chicken nice and crispy, so to the oven I went. Believe it or not, this was my first time using the broil function on our oven, or any oven for that matter. It definitely helped crisp up the potatoes- and will certainly be something I try using more in future recipes!

Because of the nature of my obsession of making anything I can homemade, versus store bought (I’m currently on a tirade against all processed food lol) I had to start the process of making this dinner a reality a few days in advance. Homemade pickles were on my agenda, and something I was honestly excited to make, but also a little nervous for. I attempted to make pickles once before. It was late last summer, and I decided to rush the process because I was honestly too lazy to propperly make the brine. Let me tell you- we still ate some of the “pickles” but they did not turn out well at all! This time around I gave myself plenty of time to make the pickles days in advance (NOTE: pickles need time in the fridge to do their pickle thing) and I will say, the results were amazing! And, to my disbelief, the process of making the brine takes barely any time at all, and was super simple! We are already planning on experimenting with making more pickles with different add-ins to experiment with different flavors!

In addition to prepping the pickles in advance, I also chose to prep the bread for the sandwich a few days prior to our “special” dinner. If you follow me on Instagram (@livewellwith.emily) you know how often I’m baking sourdough bread. I plan on doing a separate post all about sourdough, including all of my tips and tricks to get started and make it something that doesn’t have to be extremely time consuming- stay tuned! Every 5 days or so I usually make us 2 loaves of sourdough bread to have throughout the day as either a plain side, or as a base for our favorite toast combinations. Typically our loaves are made on a sheet pan and are incredibly easy and delicious. The only downside to these loaves is how long and thin the slices end up; not ideal for sandwiches. So, for this weeks special recipe I made us a sandwich loaf using a loaf pan. I’m not sure how often I’ll make the bread this way as it definitely takes much longer to rise than our usual. But, I guess you could say it was worth it since I do have on camera Ryan exclaiming how awesome the bread is! We shall see how often this ends up in our rotation!

The day of I ended up having a lot going on in the kitchen as simultaneously I was also making a special desert recipe for the 4th of July (coming up soon!) for us to share as well. I prepped the salad, blended the special dressing, baked the sweet potatoes, and had not one, but two different versions of chicken on the stovetop and of course the air fryer. It definitely got a little hectic in the kitchen (I was also filming the entire process for an Instagram reel), but the results were better than I anticipated! As I create more recipes, I plan on having a classification system on here to distinguish between different types of recipes (i.e. breakfast, versus snack, versus lunch/dinner, etc) and also to distinguish within each category which recipes take longer than others. My hope is to have a category of lunch/dinner recipes that are quick, simple & efficient (which this recipe is not- especially if you go the all homemade route), and a separate category for recipes I consider more ideal for date night or weekends when you have more time to have some fun in the kitchen. This recipe is definitely great for when you have a little extra time, BUT- you could definitely cut some corners by buying some alternatives from the store such as buying frozen sweet potato fries, a jar of pickles, or a loaf of your favorite bread.

If you’re ready for (almost) all of the deets on this meal, read on below for the recipes (note: I’ll include the sourdough bread recipe in a separate post dedicated entirely to sourdough).

Nashville Hot Chicken 2 Ways

For the Salad:

Ingredients:

• 1 head romaine lettuce

• 1/2 red onion

• 8 dill pickle spears

Directions:

1. Wash and chop all ingredients. Add to a large bowl and mix well.

For the Pickles:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water

• 2 cups white vinegar

• 1/4 cup cane sugar

• 2 tbsp salt

• 1 package mini cucumbers

• fresh dill

Directions:

1. In a saucepan bring water, vinegar, salt and sugar to medium heat. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Wash and cut cucumber to your liking (I did spears & chips).

3. Divide the cucumbers evenly amongst 4 16oz mason jars. Add as much dill as you’d like to each jar.

4. Cover pickles with the brine. Let cool to room temperature and refrigerate.

Note: chips take about 1 day in the fridge, spears take about 2.

For the Dressing:

Ingredients

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 2 tbsp raw honey

• 1-2 tbsp sriracha

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp minced garlic

• 1 tbsp Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning

Directions

1. Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until it forms a consistent textured dressing. Add siracha based on heat preference.

For the Sweet Potato Wedges:

Ingredients:

• 2 medium size sweet potatoes

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Wash and dry sweet potatoes. Cut into wedges or your preferred shape.

3. Toss sweet potatoes in a bowl with oil & seasoning.

4. Lay flat on an unlined baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes. Flip wedges and bake an additional 10 minutes at 450. Broil for 3 minutes.

For the Chicken (stovetop)

Ingredients:

• 2 thin sliced chicken breasts

• olive oil

• Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning

Directions:

1. Bring a saucepan to medium-high heat and spray with non-stick spray.

2. Cut chicken into small cubes. Add to saucepan and cook until golden brown, stirring frequently for even cooking. Note: chicken should be cooked to at least 160 degrees.

3. Toss chicken in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and seasoning to taste.

For the Chicken (air fryer)

Ingredients:

• 2 thin sliced chicken breasts

• 1 egg

• Olive Oil

• 1/4 cup Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning

• 1/4 cup corn meal

Directions:

1. In a small bowl whisk together egg and drizzle of olive oil. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl combine seasoning and corn meal.

3. Spray air fryer basket with non stick spray and pre-heat to 360 degrees.

4. One at a time, lay chicken breast in egg mixture; covering completely. Transfer chicken to seasoning mixture; covering completely. Lay flat in air fryer basket and repeat with second breast.

5. Air fry for 20 minutes at 360. Use tongues to flip chicken halfway through cook time. Note: chicken should be cooked to at least 160 degrees.

Putting it all together

For the sandwich:

• Toast bread of choice and spread avocado oil mayo on inner side of each piece. Lay air fried chicken breast, top with pickles, and extra sriracha.

• Serve with side of sweet potato wedges, and side salad (salad + dressing)

For the salad:

• Dish out large serving of salad, add sweet potato wedges, stovetop chicken, and a drizzle of dressing.

Let me know if y’all try these recipes, and if you have any suggestions on what kind of recipes you’d like to see from me in the future!

Em