Frying Nashville Hot Chicken in a Dutch Oven

I was debating getting air fryer because of all the hype, but after doing some additional research I found out that there are some toaster ovens that do a better job of air frying. I also read that you’re never going to get the same quality as deep fried food from an air fryer. So I felt kinda duped. Anyways - then I started looking into deep fryers.

Deep frying at home is scary, right? I did my research and found that I didn’t want to spend money on a deep fryer LOL. LMAO so one day I read an article that you can deep fry stuff in your Dutch Oven. WHAT. As you all know, I LOVE my Dutch Oven, so I decided to give it a go!

Spoiler Alert: IT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 6 Chicken thighs

• 2 cups Buttermilk

• 3 eggs

Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups Flour

• 1 tbsp Garlic Powder

• 2 tsp Salt

• 1 tsp Pepper

• 2 tsp cayenne

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Le Sauce:

• 1 tbsp Cayenne

• 1 tbsp paprika

• 2 tbsp Brown sugar

• 3 tbsp Olive Oil

Serve with:

• Pickles

• Bread (I’m a chic tendy kinda girl so I don’t do the bread)

Instructions

1. Marinate your chicken in buttermilk for a few hours.

2. Mix dry ingredients together.

3. Mix the sauce ingredients.

4. Whisk 3 eggs.

5. Coat your chicken: take your chicken out of the buttermilk, dunk it in the egg mixture, dunk it dry ingredients, dunk it in the egg mix, and back into the dry ingredients. (So you’re double coating it)

6. Pour some veggie oil in your Dutch oven (to cover most of the chicken).

7. Set stove head to low-medium.

8. Let the oil warm up.

9. Cook chicken thighs 2 at a time.

10. Cook for 3 minutes on each side. You can take the internal temp for the most accuracy. (See below for pro tips.)

11. Brush on the sauce & serve.

Pro Tips

• If your chicken is burning take it out of the oil and finish cooking in the toaster oven.

• A food thermometer really helps. An oil thermometer is even better. Standard chicken temp is 165. I take it off at 160 because it continues to cook as you take it off. But you do you.

• If you have a candy/oil thermometer, the idea temp for deep frying is 350-365.

• Use TONGS. So you don’t fry your lil fings.

• Buy a normal size Dutch oven - this prevents you from being in the “splash zone”.