Recipe: Jackie’s One-Bite Nashville-Style Chicken Hors d'Oeuvres
Jackie Alpers is a Tucson, Arizona based food photographer, author, and recipe developer known for her visually stunning cookbooks, including The Unofficial Elf Cookbook, Taste of Tucson, and The Unofficial Yellowstone Cookbook. She is known for her vibrant, story-driven food imagery and unique culinary explorations of regional and pop-culture foodways.
Every party needs a super-spicy, fun-bordering-on-dangerous appetizer to kick the celebration into gear and get those beverages flowing!
What is Nashville Hot Chicken?
This recipe for chicken bites is inspired by Nashville Hot Chicken, which is usually made by dipping deep-fried chicken into a thin paste made with the leftover frying oil infused with a chile-forward spice blend.
For this lighter, appetizer-sized take on Nashville Hot Chicken, I am using pre-baked, frozen spicy chicken bites along with a warmed olive-oil-based sauce. Fried chicken chunks can easily be substituted if you’d prefer.
The Silicone Kitchen Tools Used
The Silicone Kitchen Air Fryer Liner
The Silicone Kitchen Mini Silicone Baking Cups
Ingredients
14 spicy chicken bites, preferably Just Bare Spicy Roasted Boneless Chicken Breast Bites
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon packed light brown sugar, or monk fruit sweetener
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon prepared brown mustard, preferably Gulden’s
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
14 thin pretzel sticks
14 dill pickle slices
Hot honey, preferably Mike’s Hot Honey, for serving
Instructions
Preheat the air fryer to 375°F. Arrange a single layer of frozen chicken bites inside the Silicone Air Fryer Liner, leaving a bit of space between each piece. Cook for 12-15 minutes, flipping them over halfway through, until the chunks are thoroughly heated, well browned and starting to crisp up on the outside.
While the chicken is cooling, warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the microwave for 20 seconds. Whisk in the cayenne pepper, brown sugar, smoked paprika, brown mustard, sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder to make a thick paste. If the sauce is too thick to effectively coat the chicken, add another tablespoon of oil. Heat for 20 seconds more and stir until well combined.
Spear each chicken chunk with a pretzel stick then swirl the chicken in the spicy sauce to coat.
Position each chicken bite inside individual Silicone Mini Baking Cups. Using the pretzels as skewers, top each one with a pickle slice. Drizzle generously with hot honey. Serve immediately with additional hot honey on the side.