Quickly now: what is Nashville famous for?
Music? The Tennessee Titans?
Good God, no. Where have you been? Have you no sense of culinary history?
Nashville is the home to Hot Chicken. I know, I had not heard about it before either. But I’ve in my cold hands this warm, no this outrageously hot, cookbook: The Hot Chicken Cookbook.
Nobody is sure when or how hot chicken evolve. The book has the story about a girlfriend, tired of her boyfriend’s wanderings, deciding to do him in. Not with a gun or knife. No, she wanted to avoid prison so she chose spice instead. Thing is, he loved the chicken and opened a restaurant. I hope this story is true. I’m a romantic.
This book is a combo of recipes and culinary history and tour of Nashville’s hot chicken best spots. There are some celebrity contributions: Carla Hall is from Nashville and her recipe appears, a recipe available at her new Brooklyn restaurant which I am walking to on Thursday!
You can use this book to burn your mouth out: just bop around Nashville tasting at all the best spots listed here. Or, you can stay at home and do the host of recipes from chicken to sides to desert.
Besides that hot chicken, the book boasts hot sides:
Pimento Mac & Cheese
Fried Dill Pickles
Pickled Okra
Spicy Dill Pickles
You’ll need to cool off after these recipes. Yes, there is relief offered here: recipes for Buttermilk Ice Cream and naturally a Buttermilk Milk Shake.
How do you make Hot Chicken? You deep fry chicken pieces that have been cover in a mixture of flour and Hot Chicken Paste. The classic ingredients for the paste include:
- Cayenne pepper
- Salt
- Dry Mustard
- Sugar
- Paprika
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Bacon fat to serve as the binder
Now, that is merely the “standard” recipe. Go around the city, or now around the South as other places adopt the Hot Chicken idea, and you’ll find variations: different proportions and alternative spices. And there are alternative techniques, too. In Carla’s recipe, she has her own rub recipe of course, and, and you are rubbing chicken pieces that have been brined in advance. The brine is a combination of habanero hot sauce, salt, sugar, and water.
This is a lively, bright book. If you are tired of your chicken tasting, well, like chicken, then here is a zesty path for you to follow. I would suggest having available lots of soda, lemonade and beer. No, whiskey sours won’t work here. You’ll be staggering after two pieces of chicken as your try to cool down from that Hot, HOT Chicken.