Fried Chicken Sandwiches are one of the most popular dishes right now, especially when you're talking about Nashville Hot Chicken! So today we're going to show you what it takes to make one of the best Fried Chicken Sandwiches around!
Making the best fried chicken sandwich of course starts with the type of chicken you're going to be using for the recipe. In our household, we prefer the chicken breast! So to get this sandwich started you're going to butterfly the chicken breasts in half, and then cut them into more squared up pieces. Full sized breasts are way too big for this recipe, so cutting them this way makes them way more manageable when cooking, and eating them.
The next thing you're going to do is get those chicken breasts into a glass container that has a lid, and you're going to brine the chicken breasts in your choice of pickle juice for 3 hours. That's right I said it, PICKLE JUICE! The pickle juice brine ensures that the chicken has a nice tang to pair with the kick of the breading we're going to be making for this recipe. This also gives it that Chick-Fil-A flavoring as well. Once the chicken has brined for 3 hours it's time to take them out and get them into our wash, and then the dredge for a nice breading, and we mean CRISPY. The wash will consist of mixing two eggs, 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 tablespoon of your favorite hot sauce. For the dredge we are using flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and a good helping of our sweet heat BBQ rub. YEP! That's right! You can use our rubs on almost anything, and it will taste good! Take your chicken breasts stick them into the wash, then the dredge, back into the wash, and then back into the dredge. This will give you some of the crispiest chicken sandwiches you've ever had!
Once all your chicken breasts have been washed, and dredged it's time to get them into the oil in a CAST IRON SKILLET. For this we prefer peanut oil because of the flavor it gives, but you can use vegetable oil as well. Just no olive oil! Make sure the oil reaches a temperature of 325, and no hotter, and no colder. Any hotter and it will burn them, and any cooler and it won't get the right cook. Get those breasts into the oil and cook them for about 3-4 minutes per side, and then get them out and onto a wire rack. Do not place directly onto paper towel or they will get soggy, and that defeats the whole purpose of what we're doing!
After about a 3 minute rest, get your pickles, your favorite sauce and assemble that sandwich, and enjoy the best, most crispy, chicken sandwich you've ever had! The most important part is using a TOASTED BRIOCHE BUN!
Ingredients
- 3-4 Chicken Breasts. Each breast makes 2 sandwiches.
- 1 & 3/4 cup of flour
- 2 Eggs
- Little Lu's BBQ Sweet Heat Rub
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 3 cups or so pickle juice
- Brioche Buns
- Your favorite hot sauce