Chicago is known for its deep dish pizza. In Southern California, you have tacos on every corner. Philadelphia loves their cheesesteaks. And you know you’re in Nashville when every third restaurant claims they have the best Hot Chicken in town.
If you’re looking for the crispy kick of hot chicken but you’re nowhere near Music City, we’ve got you covered. Our Nashville Hot Chicken recipe tastes just like the real thing, without the fried food hangover from oxidized frying oil and grain-based breading. Yes, it can be done.
This recipe is fairly involved, but it’ll be worth it in the end.
Not sure about the heat factor? You can adapt this recipe from slightly zingy to three-alarm fire. If you want to break a sweat, taste the coating mixture and the hot chicken sauce before you apply, and add more cayenne. If you want to scale back the spice level, simply reduce the cayenne pepper accordingly. If you want your chicken to have just a subtle zip, you can completely omit the cayenne. The chicken will still have a nice kick thanks to the Primal Kitchen® Buffalo Sauce.
The best way to make the prep for this dish run smoothly is to set up a station with three coatings. Move the chicken like an assembly line down each coating mix. Some of the almond flour coating will clump up as you start dredging the chicken in it. That’s okay! Press these clumps into the chicken as you bread. It will create great texture for the final product.
If you don’t have chicken thighs, you can use chicken breast. Follow the same directions, and bake at 400 degrees instead. You can also lightly spray the chicken with a spritz of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Spray prior to baking to prevent the chicken from drying out.
We used coconut sugar in the sauce since it melts with heat and helps the sauce come together. If you’d prefer to use a sugar substitute, your best bet may be a liquid sweetener, like a monk fruit extract based sweetener, but we have not tested this substitution.
Here’s how to make it.
Gluten Free Nashville Style Hot Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
- 1 cup almond flour
- 7 Tbsp tapioca starch
- ? cup coconut milk (or other full-fat milk)
- ¼ cup Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce
- 1 Tbsp coconut flour
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ?-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- Butter lettuce or iceberg lettuce
- Pickles
Sauce
Directions
Pound the chicken between two pieces of parchment paper until they are of even thickness.
Set up three containers or shallow dishes. In the first, mix together two tablespoons of tapioca starch and one tablespoon coconut flour. In the second, mix together the coconut milk, Primal Kitchen Buffalo Sauce and lemon juice. In the third container, mix together the almond flour and remaining tapioca starch.
In a small bowl, mix together the paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Pour about ¼ of this mixture into the container with the coconut flour coating, and the remaining mixture into the container with the almond flour coating.
Lightly coat the chicken in the coconut flour coating in container 1. Dredge the chicken into the sauce mixture in container 2. Really coat the chicken, turning it multiple times so it picks up a lot of the sauce. Carefully move the chicken pieces one at a time to the container with the almond flour mixture, coating it on all sides. You can also press a little of the coating into the chicken. The mixture will get a little clumpy because of the sauce coating, but that’s a good thing!
Place the coated chicken on a parchment covered sheet pan and let it rest for 15 minutes. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees during this time.
Place the chicken in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. The breading is a little delicate, but you can carefully flip the chicken over halfway through the cooking if you are able to.
When the chicken is nearly cooked, prepare the sauce. Heat the avocado oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the paprika, sweetener, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic powder and salt and whisk together. When the sauce comes together, add in the buffalo sauce and keep whisking. The sauce will begin to thicken. Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauces reaches a silky texture.
When the chicken is finished cooking, spoon the sauce all over the chicken thighs.
Serve immediately wrapped in butter lettuce and garnish with a pickle spear.
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