Southern Fried Chicken Recipe for Belles Hot Chicken Spicy Nashville Style Chicken

This Southern fried chicken recipe makes Belles Hot Chicken’s spicy Nashville style chicken which Australian chef Morgan McGlone learnt to make during the time he spent perfecting his fried chicken crafts in the USA’s South, home to some of the world’s best fried chicken. While we can happily tuck into a basket of this spicy fried chicken on its own, we also love to use it in everything from chicken burgers to spicy chicken fried rice.

This Southern fried chicken recipe by Belles Hot Chicken’s chef Morgan McGlone makes some of the best fried chicken, in the spicy Nashville-style of chicken, outside of the USA. Australian chef Morgy McGlone learnt to make it during his time in the South of the US, where he learnt how to make and perfect the South’s famous hot chicken.

As you’d expect from a chef who immersed himself in learning how to cook fried chicken in the USA, Morgy’s Southern-style fried chicken recipe is the real deal. Boneless skin-on chicken thighs are coated in seasoned flour that forms a ‘glue’ on the chicken and then the pieces are deep fried to get a crispy skin.

The fried chicken pieces are then dipped in a spicy oil mixture that the chef calls ‘Masala chicken fat’ but the real secret to why this Southern fried chicken recipe makes the best fried chicken is the final spicy seasoning that elevates this fried chicken to the next level.

This recipe makes us a big batch of succulent spicy chicken pieces that we’ll tuck into with crunchy fries or spicy potato wedges, eat in chicken burgers, and use as leftovers to make chicken fried rice.

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe for Belles Hot Chicken’s Spicy Nashville Style Chicken

The Romans first documented deep-fried chicken in the 4th century and in 1747 a British cookbook featured fried chicken in a batter, however, it’s the USA’s Southern-style fried chicken that is perhaps the best known fried chicken globally.

Cooked right around the world, Southern fried chicken is widely considered to be the product of Scottish immigrants, who arrived near the end of the 18th century, and African slaves. The Scottish had a history of deep frying, well, everything, and the African slaves had their own special way of seasoning chicken.

While the first printed southern fried chicken recipe in the United States, which was published in 1825, was written by a white woman, southern fried chicken had long been an important part of African American culinary traditions.

While Southern fried chicken is not necessarily spicy hot, Nashville style fried chicken starts hot and works its way up to so hot you really should not order this if you’re not a fan of fiery food.

It was in Nashville, Tennessee, that Belles Hot Chicken founder Morgan McGlone learnt to mix his spices and perfected the art of making Nashville hot chicken. While Morgan was there, his friend, Aaron Turner, another Australian chef who had recently closed his award-winning restaurant, Loam, turned up in Nashville.

Together the two Aussie chefs plotted to open Belles Hot Chicken in Melbourne. Turner would later sell his share of the business and go back to Nashville to immerse himself in even more Southern fried chicken education, returning to Melbourne to open The Hot Chicken Project in Geelong.

I first heard about Melbourne’s newfound love of American Southern fried chicken back in 2016. Morgan’s fast casual eatery, Belles Hot Chicken, was making locals break out in a sweat which they quelled by quaffing glasses of natural wines.

I found Belles Hot Chicken’s Southern fried chicken recipe online and was soon making Morgan’s spicy fried chicken around once a week. I became addicted to the crunch and the heat. While Belles offers heat levels from “mild” to “really f**kin hot”, the heat level of the recipe combined with our local chilli and paprika powder made the finished chicken pretty damn hot.

Fast-forward to 2017 and Lara and I were back in Australia with tickets to the hottest show in town, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards in Melbourne. During our week there, we caught up with friends, tried lots of new restaurants, and crashed a few pop-ups. It was at one of these that we spotted chef Morgan McGlone, who we’d already connected with on social media.

“I’ve been making your Belles Hot Chicken Southern fried chicken recipe,” I told him. He seemed a bit surprised and asked which recipe I was using, as there were apparently a couple floating around on the internet.

I showed him on my phone (yes, the Paprika Recipe Manager goes with me everywhere). “That’s the good recipe,” Morgy said and shared a couple of extra tips: “Re-glue the flour mix to the chicken pieces a couple of times over a minimum of four hours,” he recommended, and “Make sure to keep the oil at 178˚C as much as you can.”

Armed with this extra knowledge, I was able to perfect the chef’s Belles Hot Chicken Southern fried chicken recipe. The only tweak I’ve made is to add more seasoning to the flour. It’s time to share this Southern fried chicken recipe for the best fried chicken and we do so with the blessing of chef Morgan McGlone.

Tips for Making This Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

After I began researching Nashville-style fried chicken recipes I realised that Morgy’s Belles Hot Chicken southern fried chicken recipe was a little different to other fried chicken recipes and the recipe videos I’d been watching.

Most Nashville fried chicken recipes end with a hot spice mixture being brushed over the chicken pieces straight after frying. Morgy’s recipe calls for the fried chicken to be brushed with or dipped into his ‘Masala Chicken Fat’ before being sprinkled with the spicy seasoning.

While we debone our chicken thighs for this southern fried chicken recipe – and more on that in my next post in this series – you can use buy boneless chicken thighs, although bone-in chicken thigh pieces work fine as well. Or use a mix of chicken pieces.

We like to make a full oven tray’s worth of fried chicken, so we fry whatever chicken pieces look good at the market; if not chicken thighs, we’ll usually use drumettes (small drumsticks) and wings, reducing the frying time by a couple of minutes for the smaller pieces.

Serve the spicy fried chicken pieces with homemade fries – we have recipes for hand cut potato chips, shoestring fries and spicy wedges – and homemade pickles. Or use the spicy fried chicken in these chicken burgers. Lara loves to use any leftover chicken and leftover rice to make this spicy fried chicken fried rice.

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe

Southern Fried Chicken Recipe For Belles Hot Chicken’s Spicy Chicken

AuthorTerence Carter

This Southern fried chicken recipe makes Belles Hot Chicken’s spicy Nashville style chicken which Australian chef Morgan McGlone learnt to make during his time in the USA’s South, home to some of the world’s best fried chicken. We love skin-on boneless chicken thighs, but will sometimes use a mix of chicken pieces. We can happily eat these spicy fried chicken pieces on their own, but we also use them in everything from chicken burgers to chicken fried rice. Recipe shared with permission of chef Morgan 'Morgy' McGlone.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 9 minutes mins

'Glue' Time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 24 minutes mins

Course Main

Cuisine American

Servings made with recipeServings 1 Serving

Calories 1439 kcal

Equipment

Deep Fryer with Basket

Waterproof Digital Meat Thermometer

Baking Tray

Ingredients

 

MetricUS Customary

 

1x2x3x

• 1.2 kilos chicken thigh fillets - boneless with skin on; around 8-10 pieces at 120-140g per thigh; or a mix of chicken pieces: thighs, drumsticks or drumettes and wings.

Seasoned Flour

• 2 cups plain flour
• ½ tsp sweet paprika
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper

Masala Chicken Fat

• 100 ml of hot oil
• 50 g melted butter
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Spicy Seasoning

• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp salt and pepper

Oil for frying

Instructions

 

• Use the seasoned flour to flour the boneless skin-on chicken thighs (or mix of chicken pieces if you prefer), transfer the floured chicken pieces to a tray or container, and refrigerate them for four hours. This will allow the chicken and seasoned flour to develop a 'flour glue' without making a separate paste.
• Re-flour the chicken pieces a couple more times while they're refrigerated.
• Remove the chicken pieces from the fridge and re-flour the chicken fillets a final time.
• In a small deep fryer (or deep pan filled with oil) at 178˚C, deep-fry the floured chicken thighs in batches for 9 minutes a batch. Avoid adding more than 2–3 fillets to one batch.
• Once the chicken pieces are fried, use tongs to transfer them to a tray and use a silicone brush to brush each piece with the masala chicken fat.
• Season the chicken pieces well with the spicy seasoning mix and serve immediately. They're best when they're piping hot, spicy and juicy!
• Serve the spicy fried chicken with homemade fries or use to make a spicy fried chicken burger.

Nutrition

Calories: 1439kcalCarbohydrates: 226gProtein: 33gFat: 46gSaturated Fat: 27gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 2gCholesterol: 109mgSodium: 8606mgPotassium: 894mgFiber: 15gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 9207IUVitamin C: 8mgCalcium: 141mgIron: 16mg

A big thanks to the wonderful team from Trunkh concept store in Phnom Penh for the red and white spotted napkins featured, above. If you’re not in Cambodia, Trunkh ships, and they also have an online shop.

Do let us know how this Southern fried chicken recipe for Belles Hot Chicken’s spicy Nashville style chicken works out for you. We’d love to hear from you, either in the comments below, by email or tag us on social media.