By John Fladd
2-3 packages frozen plant-based “chick’n”patties (8 to 12 patties)
Vegetable oil for frying
Dredging flour:
4 cups (560 g) all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon paprika – I like smoked paprika
1 Tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt
1 Tablespoon fresh-ground black pepper
Coating liquid:
2 cups (475 g) buttermilk
¼ cup (65 g) hot sauce – I like to use a green jalapeño sauce; it’s not scorchingly hot, but it is delicious
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon kosher or coarse sea salt
Sauce:
½ cup (99 g) hot frying oil
¼ cup (half a stick) butter
2 Tablespoon cayenne pepper
3 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, and taco seasoning
1½ teaspoons kosher or coarse sea salt
Defrost the frozen “chicken” patties in the microwave, about three minutes at high power. Set them aside.
Set up a dredging station, with the dredging flower in a large bowl, and the coating liquid in a cake tin or a pie pan. In two separate bowls, put the half-stick of butter, and the dry ingredients for the sauce.
Pour approximately 2 inches of vegetable oil in a saucepan or an electric fry pan, and heat it to 350°F.
Preparing all the elements for a dish before actually cooking it is called “mise en place.” Restaurant cooks call it “mise.” Setting up all your frying elements ahead of time will make this process relatively simple. Not setting it up will lead to chaos and frustration and running around screaming in a hot oil environment.
When your oil has come almost up to temperature, use a pair of kitchen tongs to drop one of the “chicken” patties in the seasoned flour. Completely coat it, then shake most of the loose flour from it, then give it a quick bath in the hot sauce-buttermilk mixture, then return it to the flour. Use the tongs to completely cover it, and let it sit there, buried in flour, until the oil hits 350°F.
Shake most of the loose flour off the patty with your tongs, then gently drop it into the hot oil. Fry it until both sides are gently browned, three and a half to four minutes. Use a second pair of kitchen tongs to transfer it to brown paper from a grocery bag to drain. While it cooks, prepare the next “chicken” patty, and leave it buried in flour until it is ready to go into the oil in its turn.
Fry all the patties in this way, then remove the frying vessel from heat.
Ladle ½ cup of the used frying oil on top of the half stick of butter, and stir it until it melts. (Please don’t do this in a plastic bowl. Remember the screaming and chaos mentioned above? You will definitely experience that if your hot oil melts a hole in your bowl.) Whisk in the rest of the sauce ingredients. This sauce will want to separate, so make certain you stir it every time you spoon it onto a fried “chicken” patty.
If you’re a garnish kind of person, garnish with some cilantro.
So, is this authentic Nashville Hot Chicken? Not really, but it’s a good approximation of it. You’ll get a spicy and crispy coating on a chewy, not-un-chickenlike armature, covered with a sweet, spicy sauce. If not authentic, it is delicious, and as spicy as you choose to take it. If you were to bring a platter of these to, say, a viewing party for a major sporting event, you could probably expect a certain amount of ribbing at the start, but by the second set of commercials, someone else is guaranteed to try the sauce, then a patty with the sauce. Make sure you’ve set a couple aside for yourself, because the rest will be gone by half time.
Also — not for nothing — these go extremely well with beer.
FNashville Hot ‘Chicken’. Photo by John Fladd.
