Let’s talk about this delicious and simple way to feed a crowd. These Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders explode with flavor, texture, and loads of melty cheese. You’ll be throwing elbows to get a few of these sandwiches filled with spicy smoked chicken, melty pepperjack cheese, and crispy pickle slices because they’re seriously that good!
Post Contributed by Chiles and Smoke.
Table of Contents
- NOSHING NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN SLIDERS
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients
- How to Make Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders
- Tip
- More Nashville Hot Recipes
- How to Store Leftovers & Reheat
- What to Serve With Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
- Recipe FAQs
- Flavor X Fire & FOOD X Fire
- Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders Recipe
NOSHING NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN SLIDERS
Pull-apart sliders are all the rage and for many good reasons. They are so simple to put together, allowing for just about any combination you can come up with. Naturally, the signature Nashville Hot Chicken Rub needs a spotlight.
Classic Nashville hot chicken involves very spicy chicken (we’ve got you covered), white bread, and pickles. The slider buns are perfect because they soak up all of the amazing juices, inside and out. In true form, the rolls are basted with a spicy Nashville hot butter sauce to crisp up the top while adding more layers of heat. Roasted briefly on the grill, it adds amazing texture and crunch, thus giving you a complete sandwich experience.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Savor the goodness of these pull-apart sliders, tailor-made for game day excitement. Bringing the zing of Nashville hot chicken, they’re the perfect choice for spicy food lovers. Whether you’re cheering for your team or just love bold flavors, these sliders offer a fiery kick in a convenient, shareable format.
Try these perfect-for-game-day slider recipes – Italian Sliders, Steak Sliders with Beer Cheese , Cheesy Buffalo Chicken Sliders and Steak and Cheese Sliders!
Ingredients
- Hawaiian Rolls or dinner rolls: These will serve as the slightly sweet vessel for your Nashville Hot Chicken sliders. Buttermilk biscuits or brioche bun rolls would also be good too.
- Whole chicken: The star of the show, providing the juicy and succulent meat for your sliders.
- Nashville Hot Chicken Rub: This flavorful blend will add the perfect balance of heat and spice to your chicken, giving it that authentic Nashville kick. This unique blend consists of sugar, chili powder, salt, paprika, garlic, onion, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and smoked paprika.
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- Unsalted butter: Melted butter will bring richness and moisture to the chicken, enhancing its overall flavor.
- Guajillo chile powder: Adding depth and a smoky, but also fruity flavor, this chile powder complements the Nashville spice blend.
- Pepper Jack cheese: The creamy and slightly spicy notes of Pepperjack will provide a delicious contrast to the heat of the chicken.
- Thick pickle chips: These tangy, crunchy pickles will cut through the richness, adding a refreshing element to each bite.
How to Make Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders
SMOKED SIMPLE CHICKEN FOR NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN SLIDERS
Smoking a whole chicken doesn’t have to be difficult, and this Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders recipe really keeps it simple.
The first step is to break down a chicken, season it, and fire up the grill. This recipe uses a whole chicken, spatchcocked, rather than individual pieces. This ensures that you have enough chicken for at least one set of sandwiches, with a little leftover, just in case.
The combination of dark meat and white meat creates a variety of flavors and textures, but most importantly, it’s just dang easy to pull off.
Spatchcock the chicken by removing the backbone first, then flattening the entire bird. Season the chicken generously with the Nashville Hot Chicken Rub, and let it rest while the smoker warms up.
The chicken will cook at about 300°F for 45 to 60 minutes until the internal temperature of the chicken registers 165°F. At this time, the chicken just needs to rest for a few minutes before it’s shredded for sandwiches.
For more with Nashville Hot Rub, check out my Hot Honey Chicken Asado, Nashville Hot Cast Iron Salmon, Nashville Hot Grilled Shrimp and Nashville Hot Steak Frites.
LAYERING HEAT AND FLAVOR
We can’t forget the spicy butter sauce. True Nashville hot chicken has multiple layers of heat, glazes, and sometimes sauces. This sauce is a simple one with nothing more than butter, Nashville hot seasoning, and some added guajillo chile powder for additional heat. However, you could choose to use cayenne pepper or your preference for chile in this recipe.
Pepper jack cheese melts incredibly well and adds an additional layer of heat. Its creamy, mild flavor doesn’t overwhelm the juicy chicken while complimenting the smokey heat. Adding crispy pickles to the sandwich brightens the dish, enhancing all of the flavors inside and out. If you’re not a pickle fan, I highly recommend at least using some pickled onions or even some raw onions.
For more spicy recipes, check out my Spicy Mexican Street Shrimp, Spiced Lamb Kebabs with Mint Chimichurri and Cajun Rubbed Steak with Bourbon Street Sauce.
PREP THE BUNS
Now, let’s put this sandwich together.
Grab a serrated knife and then slice through the whole pack of Hawaiian rolls horizontally. You’ll end up with two big pieces of bread.
Load up one half with a generous amount of the cooked chicken, add those Pepper Jack cheese slices, and don’t forget the pickles – pile them on.
Now, reunite the top buns with the bottom buns and pour the remaining spicy butter sauce all over the top. Use a pastry brush or whatever you’ve got to spread that sauce evenly.
ROAST NASHVILLE HOT CHICKEN SLIDERS WHEN READY
This entire recipe can be prepped ahead of time. Roasting the sandwiches with the butter sauce, which melts the cheese and crisps up the bread, is the main step. After we assemble the sandwiches, place them in the smoker or oven at 350°F in an even layer for about 10-15 minutes until you can see the cheese melting and the bread is golden brown.
Smoking an entire chicken provides quite a bit of meat, so you’ll potentially have some leftovers. Don’t be afraid to double down on the rolls and make 2 sets of these Nashville hot-pulled chicken sliders because everyone is going to be rushing for them anyway!
Tip
- Want to kick up the spice? Add a dash of hot sauce to your sliders.
More Nashville Hot Recipes
How to Store Leftovers & Reheat
Store leftover Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders for up to 2 days. Freeze for up to 2 months.
To reheat:
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- Place leftover chicken sliders on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
What to Serve With Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
Place them on a platter or serving board so sharing is made easy. Add a side of coleslaw or pickles for a classic pairing, and then you’re all set for a freakin’ delicious game day or casual get-together.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! Feel free to shred the meat from the chicken breasts and chicken thighs to use for this recipe.
This hot chicken recipe doesn’t involve any deep frying in vegetable oil like the fried chicken pieces you’d find on a Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich. However, even though we aren’t using breaded chicken for this recipe, you still get that spicy kick from the Nashville Hot Chicken Rub.
Originating from iconic establishments like Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville, this dish has become a Southern sensation, renowned for its bold and distinctive flavor.
The key lies in the unique cayenne-infused paste that elevates fried chicken to a whole new level of spice-infused perfection.
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Nashville Hot Chicken Sliders
Ingredients
- 1 pack Hawaiian Rolls or Dinner Rolls
- 1 whole chicken
- 4 tablespoons Nashville Hot Chicken Rub
- 1 stick unsalted butter ½ cup
- 1 tablespoon guajillo chile powder
- 6 slices Pepperjack cheese
- 12-16 slices of thick pickle chips
Instructions
- Spatchcock the chicken by first removing the backbone with kitchen shears. Flip the chicken skin-side up, and press down on the breast to snap the breastbone so it lays flat.
- Season the chicken generously on all sides with about 2 tablespoons of the Nashville Hot Chicken Seasoning.
- Preheat the smoker or grill for indirect cooking at 300°F.
- Place the chicken bone-side down in the smoker and allow it to cook undisturbed for 45 minutes.
- Check the temperature, and allow it to continue to cook until the breast meat registers 165°F internal temp.
- Remove the chicken and tent it with loose foil for a few minutes.
- Using a grill-safe sauce pan, add the butter, and 1 tablespoons of the Nashville Hot Chicken seasoning and guajillo chile powder. Place this into the smoker and let it melt, stirring the spices together into a sauce.
- Shred the chicken completely when it’s cool enough to handle, and pour in 1 tablespoon of the spicy butter to season it.
- Build the sandwich. Slice the entire loaf of Hawaiian rolls with a serrated knife and cut the loave evenly with a horizontal cut. Separate the top from the bottom, giving you two large pieces of bread.
- Add in generous amounts of the shredded chicken, followed by the slices of cheese, and pickles.
- Place the top of the bread back on, and pour the rest of the spicy butter sauce all over the top. Use a pastry brush to baste the bread evenly on top.
- Place the entire loaf of bread back into the smoker and increase the heat to 350°F.
- Roast for about 10-15 minutes until you can visibly see the cheese melting and the bread browning.
- Remove from the smoker and allow to cool for 2 minutes before serving.
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