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 very 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
Make sure you PIN Nashville Hot Sauce before you leave!
- 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
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!