Hot Chicken Sandwich

If you're like me and love a good spicy chicken sandwich, you probably also loooove the Nashville Hot style. In my city, we used to have a good spot that had them but they ended up closing down and nothing quite compares.

I wanted to make my own but I always hate the process of frying chicken. Especially when it's only for two sandwiches. I made it my mission to find the best way to make a breaded chicken sandwich with a little less lift.

I think I found the best way to do it. The key is ALDI! They have the famous "red bag chicken", which is simply breaded chicken breast fillets. Now these are not the frozen chicken pucks that never quite taste right. These are absolutely fantastic and I cannot recommend them enough. If you don't have an Aldi near you, Sam's Club and Costco both have similar packs in the frozen section.

These do take a little bit to cook in the oven (less time if you have an air fryer). What I like to do with that extra time is prepare and make all the toppings. If you want to keep it simple, you can obviously use store-bought ranch, store-bought coleslaw, and bottled sauce. However, I find that the homemade toppings really elevate this sandwich in the best way possible.

Ingredients

• 2 Frozen Breaded Chicken Breast Fillets

• 2 Brioche Burger Buns

• For Slaw:

  • Green Cabbage (you can also buy pre-shredded coleslaw mix)

    • If whole cabbage, about 1/4 to 1/2 of it

    • If pre-shredded, half of the bag usually does the trick

  • 1/2 cup Shredded carrots

  • 2 Green onion

  • 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

  • 1 tbsp mayo

• Pickles of your choice (I prefer a local brand but Grillo's is my go-to store brand

• For Nashville Hot Sauce:

  • 1/4 cup Butter

  • 1-2 tbsp Cayenne Pepper (add or lower depending on spice tolerance)

  • 3 tbsp Brown Sugar

  • 1 tbsp Honey

  • 1 tbsp Smoked Paprika

• For Ranch:

  • 1.5 Cups Cottage Cheese

  • 2 TBSP Fresh Dill

  • 1 Tsp Parsley

  • Chives

  • 1 Garlic Clove

  • Juice from 1/2 Lemon

  • Splash of pickle brine

  • Salt and Pepper to Taste

Preparation

1. PreHeat Oven: Preheat oven to prepare the chicken fillets. The ones I get are 375 for 18 minutes each side.

2. Prepare Nashville Hot Sauce: In a small saucepan, warm butter on medium low until it melts. Add remaining sauce ingredients to combine until bubbling. Once sauce thickens and can stick to the back of the spoon, turn to warm. If the sauce it too thick, thin out with a little water.

3. Make Cole Slaw: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed dolore eiusmod tempor.

4. Make Ranch: Blend cottage cheese, chop dill picking the leaves from stems discarding the stems, mince garlic clove, thinly slice chives, zest and juice lemon. In a medium bowl, combine all the ranch ingredients in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. TIP: Taste as you go, everyone likes ranch differently. You can always add more spice, garlic, salt, pepper, or any of the ingredients if you have a preference. make it your own!

5. Once the chicken is cooked, brush all over with the Nashville Hot Sauce and allow to rest slightly before assembling, about 5 minutes.

6. Assemble Sandwich: On the bottom, spread some of the ranch, top with chicken, put coleslaw on top of the chicken. On the top bun, add more ranch and top with your pickles.

7. Serve with more slaw and fries or chips of your choice.

Tips and Best Practices

• Season as you go

• Adjust the coleslaw, ranch, and hot sauce to your preference. There are many ways to edit and change this up to make it more enjoyable.

• Toast your buns to allow for more structural integrity.