Our Go-To Hot Sauce Brand To Use For A Simplified Nashville Hot Chicken

While Nashville hot chicken is typically served in sandwich form, Mashed recipe developer Kate Shungu transforms the dish into a salad bowl to make for a less messy eating experience. Her Nashville hot chicken bowl falls into the quick and easy category, as it's made with frozen popcorn chicken, bagged salad greens, bottled ranch dressing, and canned biscuits. (This last ingredient is baked and chopped up to make unique croutons for the Southern-style salad.) The heat comes from two sources: cayenne powder and hot sauce, both of which are used to coat the chicken and are also stirred into the salad dressing.

While Shungu doesn't specify any one particular hot sauce, the recipe does call for a cayenne-based condiment. Her photos show she's using Frank's RedHot, which was the original sauce used to make Buffalo wings. (Frank's even makes RedHot chicken bites, which may work well in this recipe if you can find them.) Frank's, another comparable sauce such as Louisiana Hot, or the store-brand RedHot copycat sold at Aldi would all be excellent choices for this recipe, because they're pretty vinegary but not too spicy. You'll get a flavorful tang that's not so hot it overwhelms the other flavors going on in the dish. After all, the chicken's already plenty spicy from the cayenne powder.

While Tabasco sauce comes from Louisiana, it doesn't quite fit the same profile as other Louisiana sauces; for one thing, it's made with Tabasco peppers. The main difference, however, is that the sauce is much thinner, less vinegary-tasting, and it has a more concentrated pepper flavor. If you want to kick up the heat level in the Nashville hot chicken sauce or dressing, Tabasco isn't a great substitute for Frank's RedHot or a similar sauce. However, 1 or 2 teaspoons can be stirred in to supplement the milder sauce.

An equal amount of green jalapeño-based sauce (including the Tabasco-branded one) could be substituted for Louisiana-style sauce, as these sauces have a similar heat level and texture. A sauce made with chipotles would also work well if you want to add some smoky flavor. Sriracha would work as a 1:1 replacement if you don't mind it being sweeter, thicker, and more garlicky than Frank's. Of course, you can always ring the changes on this recipe while staying in the Frank's family, since Frank's RedHot flavors include garlic, sweet chile, chile lime, and even Nashville hot.