Skip to main content

Hot chicken done right

I know everyone's jizzin their jeans over "Nashville Hot Chicken," and there are some good spots, but more often than not, places that advertise it are just giving you chicken with heat and no flavor, and that's sad. Honestly, those places should be ashamed; there are some good chicken places in Nashville. Granted, they're no Gus's Fried Chicken, but hey, they do their thing.
Well, here's a fun way to do it. To get a nice heat kick, I started off by dredging my chicken in flour seasoned with a couple teaspoons of ground smoked ghost pepper. I don't know about you, but I fucking love ghost peppers.
I followed the ghost pepper flour up with some of my balsamic mayo, then some bread crumbs mixed with a little salt and a bit of shredded parmesan.
After that, it was just a matter of frying that shit up in some vegetable oil. Outside of the chicken, I sautéed up some veggies and steamed some couscous. It was a quick and simple meal. I had to cut the grass first. Sue me.
I did a little plating, though. Not quite fancy, but better than just eating it all out of the fucking pan, right? I scooped a bit of veggies into one corner, then drew a line across the middle of the plate with some parsley oil. Quick.
I laid the chicken onto the parsley oil line, then dropped some couscous on the other side. I had my pickled zucchini that I didn't put on my purple hasbrowns in the last post, so I dropped a few chunks onto the couscous, then devoured the shit out of everything.
The veggies were simple, and they were fine. The couscous was okay, but the pickled zucchini definitely kicked it up another notch. And the chicken? Fucking baller. Perfect amount of heat, and a hell of a lot of flavor.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Voices in my head, or: Why do I cook?

Every time I chop a vegetable, slice a steak, drop garlic into oil, or scrub a pan, I hear voices in my head: my mom, my dad, my grandmothers, friends from college like James and Liz, friends from adulthood like Rick and Claudio, internet friends like NerdyCap , and tv chefs like Gordon Ramsay, Jeff Smith, Anthony Bourdain, Jacques Pepin, and Alton Brown, all of the folks who have taught me, directly in person or indirectly through books, tv episodes, or live streams, about cooking.  Steak frying with minced onion and minced garlic Sometimes I hear them instructing me on what I'm doing, the same words I've heard repeat in my head hundreds or thousands of times. "Don't let the garlic overcook or you'll get a bitter taste," mom says every time. Claudio often hits me with "If you hear them sizzling, they're sautéing. If they're quiet, they're caramelizing." "Why the fuck are you fucking doing this, you stupid donkey?!" ...

My Mexican restaurant

Some nights (and weekends), I just don't feel like cooking, so I do go out to local restaurants from time to time. My most frequent haunt is El Idolo, a Mexican place just on the edge of Bartlett, TN. It sits a good 1/8 of a mile from the geographic center of the county, so it's reached easily enough from everywhere. They also have the best damn margaritas in town. I've come here frequently and long enough (since they opened, to be honest), that I don't order a drink - my server brings my drink when I've been seated. Incidentally, I go for the medium (used to be large, but they added a new size that's for my Sundays only) margarita on the rocks, no ice, no salt. When a new server starts at "the 'Dolo" (as we call it), it usually takes them 2-3 visits before they remember, and then it's smooth sailing again. Most places that I've ordered this just mix a normal margarita, then top it off with their mix; the 'Dolo says, "nah, hermano,...

A Spicy Tuesday Night

 In my younger years, I did not enjoy spicy foods. Luckily, I grew up... Recipe for habanero cream sauce Tonight for dinner, I made chicken and veggies with a new favorite: habanero cream sauce. I started with a couple mushrooms, a couple radishes, some shallot, a little yellow bell pepper, and a few cloves of garlic.  I generally try to group ingredients by when I want to add them (I call them "firm," "soft," "aromatic," etc.). In this case, the sliced baby bellas and diced bell pepper were "soft," the sliced radish and slivered garlic were "hard," and the minced shallot and minced garlic were "aromatic." A little knife work, and they were ready to go, which meant it was time to tackle the habanero.  I cut it up last just to help prevent getting that heat mixed in anywhere it didn't need to go. I mince that shit down so I can mix it around pretty thoroughly, and I threw that into the a...