Nashville Hot Sauce

This Nashville Hot Sauce is perfect for chicken sandwiches but it's also great for drizzling on pizza or stirring into mayo or ranch to make a spicy dip!

Course Condiment

Cuisine American

Prep Time 3

Cook Time 2

Total Time 5

Servings

Calories 82kcal

Author Karly Campbell

Ingredients

½ cup salted butter see notes
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper more to taste - see notes
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Instructions

Add the butter to a small sauce pan over medium heat and let melt.
Once melted, add the remaining ingredients and whisk well to combine. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. The mixture will not be smooth or well combined - the spices will stay separate from the oil and may clump together a bit.
Remove from the heat. Stir well before serving.

Notes

Nashville hot sauce is originally made by pouring the hot oil leftover from frying chicken over the spices. We don’t often deep fry chicken in our house, so we’re using butter in place of frying oil and we prefer this flavor. For a more traditional flavor, use canola or vegetable oil in place of the butter.

For extra heat, use up to 4 tablespoons of cayenne. As is, we think this is just spicy enough to keep it interesting without being so spicy we can only take 1-2 bites.

The sauce will never come together into a smooth, traditional style sauce. The spices and butter will separate - this is natural and expected with Nashville hot sauce. Stir well before tossing with fried chicken to incorporate the spices into the butter as much as possible.

You could easily skip the honey and double the brown sugar, but we like the texture the honey gives the sauce.

Nutrition