Nashville Hot Sauce is a regional hot sauce made from cayenne pepper, other spices and brown sugar. Served on fried chicken!
Recently made famous by KFC Nashville Hot Chicken, Nashville Hot Sauce is the sauce used on the regional dish that has been around way longer than KFC has been selling it. The hot sauce is more of a paste than a sauce, thick and grainy, it is full of flavor.
Hot sauces vary from restaurant to restaurant with some using a small amount of their sauce in the chicken brine or breading and others dredging it when it is cooked or on the side for dipping. One thing is always the same, it is HOT!
Have you ever been to Nashville? Hubby and I love it! We stay down on music row and hop from bar to bar listening to the stellar live music all day long.
Add a few good ole southern iced teas, moonshine, BBQ and Nashville Hot Chicken and you have yourself a nice little weekend. In fact, it has been nearly a year since we have been which means we are due for a trip!
Nashville Hot Sauce can be made with a vegetable oil or butter base. Although a vegetable oil base won’t harden as easy, I personally like a butter base.
It just requires the sauce to be warmed up slightly before using. Use clarified butter, butter without fat solids, works best. You can also vary the amount of cayenne pepper used to adjust the heat.
Traditional Nashville Hot Chicken is served on white bread with pickles. However, I wanted something a little more hearty and sweet to compliment my Nashville Hot Sauce, so I opted for buttermilk biscuits.
Also served with vinegary pickles, I used my honey habanero pickles. Serve over my Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Popcorn Chicken or Nashville Hot Sauce Sliders.
Do you like spicy foods? Here are a few more you’ll enjoy! Scroll down for a few more BBQ sauces that also taste great on fried chicken!
- Buffalo Chicken Dip
- Chile Relleno Bites
- Jalapeno Popper Chicken
- Chicken Curry
- Fiery Hawaiian Calzones
- 1/2 cup unsalted clarified butter
- 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper more or less to taste
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
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Combine clarified butter with the rest of ingredients in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until combined.
Cran-Blueberry BBQ Sauce
Cola BBQ Sauce
Chipotle Honey BBQ Sauce
Jeff
So good thank you. I added a tablespoon of honey as well to get more of a glaze and it helped with stabalizing the spicesin the butter. I served home fried chicken smothered in nashville hot sauce on ciabatta rolls.
Reminds me of a American version of hot chilli oil for Chinese dumplings. My new favorite way to eat chicken. Might try it on dumplings too
Jessica at Savory Experiments
Hi Jeff! Honey is a great addition and thank YOU so much for taking time to come back and let us know.
I love chili oil for dumplings too, that is a great idea. Now I’m hungry for chicken and dumplings (Get it? My attempt at a joke 🙂 )
Dylan
While it tastes exactly like what I’ve before in Nashville (loved Hattie B’s) it never really combined. It was a glob of spices sitting below flavored butter. I’ll have to see how well it combines with a chicken recipe.
Jessica at Savory Experiments
It is certainly thick and needs to be stirred RIGHT before using. It will settle when it sits.
Also be mindful of the type of butter you use, a good clarified European butter works best.
And if you want a more traditional, you can substitute oil for butter, it will give the more traditional texture.
Hope you enjoy!
Julian Butyniec
I love your recipes. When I press the print button underneath the photo it doesn’t show a printer friendly version of your recipe. Can you help me out?
Jessica at Savory Experiments
Hi Julian,
Sure! I am about to email you. It might be because you have popups blocked, it might block the popup to approve the print format.
Jessica
Joshua
Can this be canned via the water bath method and stored?
Jessica at Savory Experiments
It sure can!
Rebecca Hubbell
Nashville Hot Sauce is one of my all-time favorites, I never thought about making it at home before but I love this recipe!
Dana DeVolk
I HAVE to try this recipe. I love any sauce with butter and a little kick!
Chris
I can’t speak to whether or not this tastes like authentic Nashville hot sauce, but I wanted to try it, and to me, the butter flavor was overwhelming. I couldn’t eat the chicken, because it literally tasted like it was covered in melted butter with cayenne pepper. The mixture separates into melted butter at the top and a glob of spices on the bottom. Maybe that’s what Nashville hot sauce is, but I’ll just use Tabasco sauce next time.
Jessica at Savory Experiments
Hi Chris, Nashville Hot Sauce is pretty globby and thick by nature. It is either made with butter or vegetable oil and the type of butter you use can make a world of difference. You do need to stir it well before using and generally not use as much or as a dipping sauce like you would with Frank’s or another hot sauce. It isn’t for everyone. Thank you for the feedback!