Nashville Hot Chicken is real popular, but I needed a healthy version in my life. So I broke out my air fryer and a few simple ingredients and remade it!
I have been perfecting the use of cornflakes as a crunchy breading for meats in my air fryer. My catfish recipe is one of my favorites! Because my mom always used corn flakes as her breading for oven-fried chicken I was confident I could make a crunchy chicken. And I was right!
But before you get to the crunchy part you need to marinate your chicken.
The Marinade
The best way to get the “hot” all the way down into a chicken breast is to marinate it. I like to keep things simple and use the least amount of ingredients as I can.
I usually use a breast the size of my Red container. You will find you can roll a medium-sized breast into one container. 
If the chicken breast is thicker on one end than the other you might want to pound it out a little. Put it between saran wrap and whack it with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Heck, give it a few whacks with a can of carrots if that is all you can find but just thin it out a little.
So the marinade for 2 medium chicken breasts is 1 Tablespoon of Tabasco Sauce and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Simply put 2 breasts in a baggie and dump the sauce in. Seal it and massage the sauce all over them. I do this about 30 minutes before I am ready to bread them but you could leave them in there for hours, the flavor will just be more intense!
The sauce
This is not the sauce from a “real” Nashville Hot Chicken recipe. Most regular sauce recipes are brown sugar and lard filled, but I have to make it healthier!!!!
Basically I use the sauce recipe that I have already perfected for my Honey Sriracha Shrimp recipe because it has a perfect balance of sweet heat for me. I do add 2 teaspoons of melted butter to the sauce to add a rich flavor to it. I measure the sauce in my orange container and then mix the 2 teaspoons of melted butter to it before I cover the chicken with it.
Breading the Nashville Hot Chicken
The secret to getting breading to stick to meat is doing a 3 steps process. It is as simple as Dry/Wet/Dry.
I dust each breast on both sides with a tablespoon of whole wheat flour. DRY.
Then dredge them in an egg wash. A simple egg and water mix… 1 egg and 2 tablespoons of water mixed thoroughly. WET.
For every 1 medium-sized chicken breast, I used 1/2 cup of corn flakes or 1/2Yellow container, crushed. (Crushed beyond belief) Turn them back and forth until the chicken is really coated well.
I use salt-free cajun spice mixed with the cornflakes. Since I am making HOT chicken I want to make sure to add layers of heat. If I don’t have cajun spice I just add black pepper or cayenne pepper to the corn flakes. Dry.
You just have to remember … Dry/Wet/Dry
Cooking Nashville Hot Chicken
Pre-heat your oven to 350o. My air fryer only has 1 temperature so I preheat it for 5 minutes.
If you are doing it in the oven, I suggest putting a small rack in a pan. That way heat can circulate around the chicken and let the “juices” runoff or else the bottom crust of the chicken will be soggy. If you don’t have a rack you can smash up a piece of aluminum foil and lay it in the pan spray with cooking spray and lightly lay your chicken on it. The foil should allow those juices to drain a little better.
Cook time will depend on the thickness of your chicken. These breasts took about 20 minutes but thicker ones might take a few minutes more.
You are looking for the corn flakes to turn a pretty golden brown.
On to the recipe
I make my sauce 1st so that it has time to meld the flavors. Set my oven to preheat. Set up my Dry/Wet/Dry station. Prep my chicken and bread it. Then get to cooking!
Nashville Hot Chicken {21 Day Fix}
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade
- 2 medium chicken breast pounded out evenly
- 1 tablespoon Tabasco Sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon or to taste cayenne pepper
Honey Sriracha Sauce
- 2 Tablespoon Honey or maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoon Sriracha Sauce
- 2 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
- 1 teaspoon low sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 4 teaspoons butter, melted
Breaded Chicken
- 2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 1 egg beaten with 2 Tablespoons of water
- 1 cup corn flakes crushed
- ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper or cayenne pepper, to taste
Instructions
Chicken Marinade
- Add chicken and spices to a baggie. Massage to thoroughly cover the chicken. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to a few hours.
Honey Sriracha Sauce
- Add all ingredients except the butter to a jar with a lid and shake it good. Set aside.
- When you are ready to serve the chicken, add the melted butter to the sauce. Divide in 1/2 and pour evenly over hot chicken.
Breaded Chicken
- Dust chicken pieces with 1Tablespoon flour each.
- Dip chicken into the egg wash and straight into the seasoned crushed corn flakes.
- Arrange on a rack in a pan. Bake at350o till golden brown. 20-25 minutes. Or according to your air fryers directions.
- After chicken is done pour sauce over the hot chicken.
21 Day Fix Container Counts Per Serving
- 1Red, 1Orange, 2teaspoons oil, 1/2Y, 2teaspoons sweetener
I couldn’t help myself and had to have some Hot Chicken and Waffles with a test batch. I am going to make a big batch of these waffles to keep in the freezer just for this recipe!
French fries are perfect with this chicken! Because it only uses 1/2Y for the breading I can squeeze 1 1/2 Y of french fries onto my plate!!
[…] my crunchy chicken from my Nashville Hot Chicken and use this Honey Mustard Sauce instead of the Honey Sriracha […]