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 or spicy oil than a sauce, thick and grainy, it is full of flavor.
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What is Nashville Hot Sauce?
Nashville Hot Sauce is a regional hot sauce made from cayenne pepper, other spices and brown sugar. Served on fried chicken to make Nashville Hot Chicken.
Have you ever been to Nashville? Hubby and I love it! We stay down on lower Broadway 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. But since we have two little running around, I’ll have to settle on making myself a Nashville reminiscent meal.
Sauce Base
Nashville Hot Sauce can be made with vegetable oil, butter base or straight up lard.
Although a vegetable oil base won’t harden as easy and lard is much more stable, I personally like a butter base. You can use a smidge of honey or agave nectar to stabilize the sauce. It just requires the sauce to be warmed up slightly before using, because butter solidifies when chilled.
Use clarified butter, butter without milk solids, works best. If you don’t have time to whip up your own batch of clarified butter, grab a jar of ghee at the grocery store.
Ghee is pantry stable clarified butter that doesn’t require refrigeration. You can find it in the International aisle near Indian foods. This also means you won’t have to store it in the fridge and you won’t need to let it come to room temperature every time you use it.
What Type Of Butter Is Best?
All butter sold in the United States must contain a minimum of 80% milkfat, the white, frothy stuff that comes up when it is heated.
Grades, ranging from the best grade AA to grade B, are based on flavor, body, color and salt and water content. European butter will have more fat content and also more flavor with a darker yellow hue. Cultured butter has active cultures and will give it more of a tang, like buttermilk or yogurt.
How to Serve
Traditional Nashville Fried 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.
Who doesn’t love biscuits?
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken is probably the most popular, but nearly everywhere has their own version. If you have a favorite, I’d love to hear it in the comments!
Jeff says: “So good thank you. I added a tablespoon of honey as well to get more of a glaze and it helped with stabilizing the spices in 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.”
But according to Nashville historians, Nashville Hot Chicken didn’t originate there. Although it had been around for decades, it was Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack that brought it to popularity.
And, of course, KFC has now brought it to the masses. I would be hard pressed to find a true hot chicken eater to say it even comes close to comparing to the read deal though.
Also served with vinegary pickles, I used my honey habanero pickles.
Serve Over
Anything that uses hot sauce can be swapped with this spicy sauce.
Storage & Freezing
If fresh with butter, store in the fridge for up to 1 month. If using ghee or clarified butter, it is shelf stable without refrigeration.
SHAKE WELL BETWEEN EACH USE. The ingredients will settle and need to be redistributed.
You can also freeze your Nashville Hot Sauce! Simply put it in an airtight container or plastic bag with as little air as possible. Freeze it for 3-4 months. Make a double batch!
More spicy food
- Chile Relleno Bites
- Jalapeno Popper Chicken
- Homemade Buffalo Sauce
- Fiery Hawaiian Calzones
- Spicy Thai Noodles
- Spicy Chipotle Mayo
- Peri Peri Sauce
Questions you might have about how to make Nashville Hot Sauce:
What makes it Nashville Hot Chicken? The preparation of the chicken, which is generally a buttermilk brined fried chicken, and of course, the sauce.
Many other hot sauces are simply ground chiles and a vinegar base, while Nashville hot sauce uses lard, oil or butter.
The cayenne pepper stays grainy instead of blended smooth. The other spices are proprietary to each restaurant or recipe. None of them are right or wrong, but personal preference.
Can I make it creamy? It really isn’t a creamy sauce. If that is what you are looking for, try our horseradish sauce or one of our fabulous aiolis.
Do I have to use clarified butter? You don’t have to and I know that step seems unnecessary, but getting all that butter fat out for a liquid gold is totally worth it for texture and flavor.
What flavor is Nashville Hot? It is a spicy chile powder flavor. Some are a little more sweet and others spicier. It depends on the recipe and all are acceptable.
What can I substitute for butter? Many Nashville joints don’t use butter at all, they use vegetable or canola oil. You can use either.
What can I substitute for honey? You can omit the honey or substitute it with agave nectar.
Nashville Hot Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , clarified prefered
- 3 tablespoons cayenne pepper , more or less to taste
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon honey , optional
Instructions
- Combine the butter, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika and honey in a heavy bottom saucepan. Stir over low heat until combined. Mixture will not be smooth.
- Make sure to come back and let us know how you liked this recipe. We love comments and ratings!
Hi Jessica
Do you normally use this as a dipping sauce or do you apply to the chicken and cook it?
Hi! I use it for both. As a dipping sauce and also after cooking chicken and tossing in it.
Does this sauce have to be refrigerated?
Not if you use vegetable oil. If you use butter, yes.
The sauce taste really good. I use it on EVERYTHING! It is a bit thick and turns into a solid hunk of seasoning when it sets or is refrigerated. I think I’ll try oil next time instead of ghee. And I like it hot so I will quadruple the cayenne. Maybe mixing a little of some type of hot sauce or something to liquify it just a tad bit. It’s easy and I will always keep some on standby. I’m ok with the grit but I would like to be able pour it or dip it after I reheat it…
Thanks for the great recipe….
Yes, it will solidify in while chilled because of the butter. So glad you love it and it works well for you!!!
I have never been able to make fried chicken. But now I poach chicken thighs and then bread them and fry them. Today I used your Nashville hot sauce recipe! Omg, that is so good! I used ghee, since we had it in the house. Worked great! Definitely 5 star worthy recipe.
So glad you loved it and thank you for coming to leave a comment 🙂
I’ve tried other Nashville hot chicken recipes before, but this was, by far, the best. Had leftover chicken that needed a kick, and this was perfect!
I love spicy food. Up here most places it’s a joke. Popeye’s spicy chicken taste like regular fried chicken, KFCs NHC is much better decent flavor but it’s still disappointing more on par with a mild salsas’ heat. Started looking around and that lead me here. And I cant believe I never thought to do this. Havent made this yet but will this weekend, and I’ll be back to let you know how it went!
I think the clumping some reviewers mention is due to the sugar and maybe overheating. I pretty much wound up with one giant clump of spices and sugar. I didn’t use the full amount of cayenne – used about 1/3 of what recipe called for. Plenty hot for me. Recipe has potential. Good flavor. Will try again adding sugar just before use.
Thanks for the feedback, Deb! It certainly isn’t a sauce that is supposed to be perfectly smooth. It has some grit and graininess to it.
Being from Nashville Honey alone is fine with no extra sweet added such as sugar ????
Tried your NASHVILLE hot,
Pretty good hot sauce tastes
Like KfC’s.
Ifyou want real nashville
Hot chIcken next time in naShville, theres only one place to go.
the original nhc.
Princes hot chicken.
Boltons original recipe.
Ewing Ave. off dickerson rd.
I grew up on princess
Hi! Your hOt sauce looks great!
Please note that “music Row” is a business district Nearly tWo miles from the tourist area where you and your hubby bar hop in nashville, which is called lower broadway. <3
Thank you,
Nashville, Tn
Thanks for the input!
Now you’re a nashville pro! 🙂
Flavor is good but My sauce turned out LUMPY that affected the texture of the Food. Quite different compared to the Nashville kfc chicken. Your pic shows a much smoother consistency.
Hi Will, thanks for stopping back through! I’ve never had KFCs version of Nashville Hot Sauce, so I’m not quite sure what the consistency is like. Nashville Hot Sauce in Nashville is in fact, a thick, lumpy type of sauce. Not thin, very thick. You can almost feel the grains of the spices. I’ll have to stop by a KFC to try theirs and compare.
This looks wonderful!
I am such a huge fan of nashville hot sauce so this is right up my alley! THanks for an awesome recipe so I can replicate a favorite at home. yummy.
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
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 🙂 )
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.
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!
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?
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
Can this be canned via the water bath method and stored?
It sure can!
Nashville Hot Sauce is one of my all-time favorites, I never thought about making it at home before but I love this recipe!
I HAVE to try this recipe. I love any sauce with butter and a little kick!
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.
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!