The Art of Nashville Hot Chicken Nachos

When it comes to Nashville hot chicken, there's only one way to do it right – with a dash of spice and a whole lot of love. We're talking about the kind of flavor that'll make your taste buds do the Tennessee two-step. And if you're looking for a dish that embodies this spirit, look no further than Nashville hot chicken nachos.

So, how do we create these babies? It all starts with a wet batter, and then we add in some serious spice. We talk about dry, die, or die – it's all about the heat level. And when it comes to the chicken itself, we're looking for that perfect balance of crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. It's all about texture, folks.

Now, let's talk about the tortilla chips. We need them crunchy, we need them flavorful, and we need them to hold up to the weight of our magnificent nacho creation. That's where Cotija cheese comes in – it's the perfect finishing touch. And don't even get us started on the queso. It's creamy, it's rich, and it's the glue that holds this whole operation together.

So, we're talking hot chicken, tortilla chips, queso, and all the fixin's – what more could you ask for? And let's be real, folks, when you tell people in Nashville that they're getting Nashville hot chicken nachos, you better deliver. Legit, my friend, is key here.

Now, we know what you're thinking – where can I get my hands on some of this heavenly goodness? Look no further than Nashville itself, where the music flows and the flavors are flowin' even more. We're talkin' killer barbecue, great music, and a whole lot of soul. And if you're lucky, you might just run into someone famous.

But enough about that – let's get back to the real star of the show: grilled cheese. Not just any grilled cheese, mind you, but one that's been perfected by the pros at The Grilled Cheesery, a food truck that's been serving up some of the best grilled cheeses in town since 2010.

Now, we know what you're thinking – grilled cheese is just a simple dish, right? Wrong. These guys are talkin' monster cheddar, slow-cooked to perfection and served with a side of pimento mac and cheese that'll make your heart skip a beat. And don't even get us started on the soup – it's like a party in your mouth.

So, how do they do it? Well, for starters, we've got a special butter mix that adds an extra layer of flavor to our grilled cheese. It's a secret recipe, but we can tell you it involves a little bit of mayo and some serious love. And then there's the cheese – roasted peppers, local tomatoes, bacon bits... it's like a symphony of flavors in every bite.

Now, we know what you're thinking – this all sounds great, but how do I get my hands on some? Well, folks, The Grilled Cheesery is coming to town, and we've got the inside scoop. We'll be serving up their famous grilled cheese sandwiches, paired with a side of pimento mac and cheese that'll make your taste buds do the happy dance.

And the best part? You get to experience it all for yourself. So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to indulge in some serious comfort food that'll leave you feeling like royalty. The Grilled Cheesery is coming, and we can't wait to see you there.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI'm in, like some kind of a popcorn coma.I'm hanging out with Chef Brian at south ofBeale in Memphis.Dude, what have you done to me?I've never eaten that much popcorn in mylife.Seriously, Tom, take it away.Hopefully you're on to something nice andlight.Now we're going to do a Jack and Coke breadpudding.During commercial, he whispered and said, Doyou want a Jack and Coke?Like, right on.You didn't say anything about bread pudding.Fired up. What do we got?All right. First we're going to make ourcustard base for our bread pudding.Yes, we are. We're going to take our eggyolks and then some sugar heavy cream.And then we make a Coca Cola reduction.So you take the syrup of cola, reduce it downso it turns into this true syrup.Now it's almost like molasses, and mix thatall together to make the custard that's goingto go over the top. Yes.Of this. Okay. And what breads do we have inhere?We've got a hula bread, which is a sweetersweet Hawaiian bread.Okay. We've got a just a regular hoagieroll.We're dump our bread in, add our custardthat we just made.Oh, and now we're going to smash our breaddown so it soaks up all of the custard.Okay, We're going to cover in foil.Right? Cook it off in the oven at about 350for about an hour, hour and a half pulledout.When's the Jack Daniels get invited to thisparty?The next step.So we've got a ice cream maker with frozeninsides.And this is going to be nice.Quick and fast. Let's see.It. So for our ice cream base, it's going tobe milk.Heavy cream. Some sugar.And then our old buddy Jack here, and I'mkind of hanging out a little bit.Looking good. There you go.Nice job.Give it a little stir. Now we're going to addour base to the ice cream mixer.We can turn it on now.That's all she wrote. That's all she wrote.How long is this going to run?She'll run for about 20, 30 minutes.This will make us about about two quarts.Nice. Now we're going to put our ice creamin the freezer for about 2 to 3 hours tofinish hardening. We're going to take ourcooked bread pudding, get a little pieceready to go. I'm gonna take our ice cream.Throw you a big scoop on top.How about that? Then we're going to finishit with our cola syrup that we did.Nice.Wow. Who would have thunk?You got nothing wrong with this, buddy.You got great teeth.Brainfreeze. I don't like long breadpuddings.Gets all mushy, mushy, mushy.It's got a nice crunch on the bottom.Nice crunch on the top. Mm.So you got great flavor in it.You definitely pick up the Jack Daniels inthe in the ice cream and then the cola syrupover the top of that just brings it rightback home.This right here.This is why I can't move to Memphis.Oh, that's great. That's really tasty, man.I'm here to check out a joint where ahusband and wife team left San Franciscowhere they had this really successful, fastcasual Vietnamese concept.And they came out here to offer up the folksin Nashville some real banh mi.This is east side, banh mi.Making shrimp spring rolls.It was kind of love at first sight.Possible banh mi pickup.You don't.Find a lot of bombs in Nashville.At least not until Chad Newton and GracieWynn brought them here.Tell me about the menu. What is this truebanh mi.We just do it more like chef driven, but westill keep it to the traditional recipes thatI grew up with.Number one banh mi sandwich.Enjoy the baloney, the cilantro, thevegetables, everything just kind of tiestogether really well. I mean, that's numberone.The last bite is.Like the little crunchy, soggy, perfect tip.The number one sandwich is like a cold cut.So we're going to make the ham hock tureen.These are smoked ham hock boiled for 3 to 4hours till it's tender.Once this cools down, it's going through andpicking the meat and separating thecartilage, the bone and the fat.Correct. Good. I'm not going to do thatpart.Okay, I'm going to go.Oh, there's my car. Someone's out there.I got to go find your husband. I'll see youright back.And then we're going to hand shred it.Did you get it all?I did.It was amazing the timing of going to get thetires rotated and the oil changed.This is the broth that's been strained afterthe Hawks were done.Correct.And then I'm going to add the gelatin Once itmelts, I'm just going to pour some of thisover, press this in.Into the walk in. Once it starts to cooldown, it should really seize up.Correct. Then we'll have it ready to slice.Yes.All right. So we're going to make pate.Don't say pate.We start with a little bit of pork, fatground, pork, chicken.Liver, chicken livers can get down with.I cannot do the beef liver, no.Fence, add some.Onions and the garlic salt, black pepper,five spice powder, sugar and fish sauce.And these are all recipes your mom taughtyou.My grandmother?Really? Yeah.This is ready. Goes in the food processor.Then we're going to add the rest of the porkfat.I can.Smell that. Five spice from here.All right, so take this smooth.Let it cool. It's spreadable.Correct. We need to make the butter mayo.The mayo is not your traditional mayo.It's actually supposed to resemble like awhipped butter.No butter in.It. There's no butter.No butter.There's no butter.It's just egg yolks, shallots, sea salt.And just whip it up with a little shallotoil to make nice and thick and spreadable.And talk about baguettes.This baguette that is known in banh MI,which is not as heavy as a French baguette,how do we achieve that?It's actually a three day process.Okay. I make a Peluche just a little bit ofyeast compared to the amount of flour thatgoes overnight.Creating this fermentation, giving you theair pockets and the bubbles.Then the next day we make the dough.Water, water, the.Bullish yeast flour and.Sea salt speed one for three minutes, speedtwo for nine minutes, speed three for threeminutes and we put it back in the fridge fora 24 hours.It gets portioned out and then let thatproof for two hours, press it down a littlebit, smack it.It really gets excited with that.And then roll it up and then that goes here.It's going to go in the proofer for threehours.Correct? We put it in the oven at 475 for 20minutes.So we're going to build the bun.Me?Listen to that bread. Nice and warm.Oh, that's banana.Actually, it's bread. Oh, my goodness.The butter mayo.Down. Not shy with that.And then the patty cucumbers.The baloney. The ham hock, pickled daikonand carrots that we make in house.Cilantro, jalapenos, black pepper.And then our seasoning sauce cut in half.Different level right there. I havegoosebumps.The party is lights out So rich, velvety,silky.The bread is a crunch of fire.Getting great texture out of that localBologna.Definitely texture out of that terrine.Silkiness and creaminess and fat comingthrough from that buttered mayo.A little bit of spice from the jalapeno.Palate refresher from the pickled onions anddaikon.Actress Legendary. Probably some of the bestbanh mi I've had.Number one banh mi. Table seven.The ham hock terrine and the pate adds like anice smoky aspect.Then you balance that with the cilantro andthe cucumber.It makes it really kind of sing in themouth.Really. What brought.Me in the most was the bread.Is ridiculous. Yeah, you.Have the shallot mayonnaise.I want to put it on everything.It's so good.It's phenomenal. It's different than anysandwich I've ever had.I'm in the great state of Tennessee, one ofmy favorites.Why? Well, home of Jack Daniel's, the GrandOle Opry and some killer barbecue.Now I'm in Hendersonville, about ten milesfrom Nashville on the corner of Center Pointand Main Street, to check out a joint that'sgot a ton of character and a bunch ofstories. This is Center Point Barbecue.Risk with corn on.The cob, spicy red slaw.The best barbecue in the south pulled pork.This is authentic as you're going to get.Everybody loves their barbecue because whenit comes to smoking, meat.Owner Robert Duke doesn't mess around.You're the cleanest pitmaster I know.Well, I cleaned up for you this Sunday.Best.And the smell coming from his three smokepits is like a come and get it bell for thelocals.Generally, I think you can smell it about amile away.Just makes your taste buds want to drop byand eat it, whether it's.A full rack of ribs, smoky beef brisket orone of Robert's down home family traditionspulled pork. There's no other pulled.Pork around that even compares to it.This is the entire shoulder together, notgoing to mess around bone in.We're going to make our marinades.Gallon mouth sauce. Two gallons of vinegar.Now, what are we gonna do?We're going to mop it. And just like I saidgenerously, let's do a little rub.We'll do a little crazy pepper here.Crazy pepper. Let's love on it just a littlebit.A little bit of salt. Not much.And that's it. Ready for the.Smoke? What are we going to smoke it with?Shagbark. Hickory.Shagbark Hickory.We get a lot of smoke out of it.That's important.Give me overalls. I'm staying.Ready to go. Let's go.Look at this monster.225.225. That's it for 18 hours.Anything more than that to saying we'regoing to cook fat side up and it's just goingto keep on basting itself as it turns.I got you. Hit it.That's black is nice.We're smoking. What is the.Yield You're getting off of this thing.At 50, 55?55%. What should redunculous look at the barkon that man?That is crazy.Do you want to bust this thing open?It ain't going to take much.So what we're going to do, we're just goingto bust it down the middle.Pull it back. Just let it go.All right. We're going to let you get yourown meat out of there.So if you want over here or you want overhere or you want up here, it's your choice.Well, I'm going to take a.Little bit up here.That's the good part. I love that part.I like that up there where there's wherethere's more movement, you know, up in that.In that. There you go. Dig right up inthere.Jab right in there. Peekaboo.I see.You. Oh, yeah. That's it.There you go. That's it.We're done, man. So it comes with a wholeheap of the pickles.And what's that? A pancake.It's our cornbread patty.So I don't like putting my sauce on my meat.I like to have it there to dip.I'm telling you.I got to tell you something.The pork has been cooked down to a pointthat you don't see very often.Low heat. Low. Sweet.Right on your meat.Awesome job.That's what I think barbecue should tastelike.The pulled pork is some of the best I've hadanywhere.It just melts in your mouth.It is really good.So I'm here in Nashville on the south side ofdowntown in an area known as Pie Town.I guess it's because the neighborhood shapedlike a pie.But anyhow, here to check out a joint wherea dude had a catering company and well,pandemic hits loses 90% of his business, buthe adapts and overcomes, as we do in therestaurant business and opens up a tacojoint to keep everybody working.This is Pie Town tacos.If you can drop me to grilled fish.Towns just different has that unique flavorto it.Tofu, rice and bean bowl.You guys got a pie town taco shirt on you?You think he might like the place?Do you work here?No, I don't work here.You just have the shirt.You got to be a big fan all the time.And that fan base began with Jason Crocker'scatering company, which has been a Nashvillestaple since 2006.Y'all doing all right? But it wasn't until2020 that he took on.Tacos, Covid hit, you know, our business wentdown.And so we got all these people we love andcare about.We got to keep them working.So we opened it up, started selling sometacos.Here's your Al pastor tacos.I love this sort of food.I love nachos and tacos and bowls with riceand beans.Hot chicken, nachos up.This is like the Grand Ole Opry of Queso andNashville Hot chicken all combined.It's amazing.What's up next?We're going to make the case for the hotchicken nachos.You get a little vegetable oil, butter,onion in garlic, kosher salt, cumin.Flour, cook off that roux, green.Chilies, chicken stock, half and.Half. We'll start dropping the cheese inlittle by little.Melt it in there. The goodness going over thetop.Nachos.Was that going? That was going over the top.Yeah. That's the culinary sign languagegoing on the top.What's our next step?Chicken spice Guajillo chili.Some arbol.Well, you're not missing the hot part here.No, We use the pequin chili, cayenne onionpowder, garlic powder, kosher salt and somesugar.And we're going to bloom this in that hot.Oil brings out all that flavor out of thosespices.And how are we dredging that chicken?Chicken. Brother, Chicken, brother, chicken,brother.Don't y'all know chicken, brother?Everybody knows chicken. Brother. Come onnow.Come on. Flour, cayenne pepper, blackpepper, kosher salt, a little bit more of theguajillo chili, garlic powder, onion powder,Milk powder is a binding agent in there forthe chicken. We'll add water to it to make awet batter.So we'll go wet.Dry, die or die.As always, Dice.Like with this guy rolls. Yeah.Chicken. We just dry it up.That spice that we bloomed earlier.Cool, hot. Nashville, hot chicken styletortilla chips.Queso.Okay, so you're going to put that on.Okay, so I hear you, brother.Throw that hot chicken right over the top.Cotija, cheese, chopped, cilantro.That's all she wrote. No, I think you lookgood.No, you get a little hanger there.A little hanger?Okay. I don't think you.Can ever say a little hanger and ever have itsound good?Those good chips. Great texture.Amazing crunch.The cotija is perfect.Good cheese sauce. I can't shovel it in mymouth fast enough, by the way.When you tell people in Nashville thatthey're getting Nashville hot chicken nachos,you got to deliver it.Legit, my friend.We got some hot chicken nachos.How legit is the hot chicken?I mean, it's the best you can get rightthere.As far as the spices and everything.Best kasoa in town.It's just delicious.So I'm here in Nashville, Tennessee.Got to love it. I mean, killer barbecue,great music, and you never know who you'llrun into. So anyhow, I'm here to check out ajoint that's doing grilled cheese but grilledcheese to a different level.It's not just what they're serving.It's what they're serving it from.Get this a food truck.This was that.No. Anyhow, this is the grilled cheese.We have to max on the grill.It's not trying to be fancy.It's just good. And what's right?Short rib melts, Translation gangster grilledcheeses and standout soups.A simple menu that chef Krystal DeLuna Boganand her musician husband Joseph have stuck tosince they opened the truck in 2010.I got a pimento mac going out with the soup.We got some Tennessee cheddar.It's a.Monster. It's a.£40 block.We're going to cut this up.Shred it up for the pimento mac and cheese.So you're going to cut the cheese?I'm going to cut the cheese with this.With this knife.So no processed cheese in this crew?No, sir. Mm. Delicious.Okay. So cheese is done.We're going to make some mayo eggs.Garlic, spice mix, paprika, cayenne pepper,and then hot sauce again, the mayo.The slow stream.So stream and then the oil.So this kind of replaces the whole rouxsituation.This actually makes it a lot more gooey.And we love our mayo here in the South.All right, Now we just assemble.So we got our Mac ready, cooked it and justsome salted, boiling water, a little oil.We got our mayo. This girl think she was somepretty little bartender.This girl been cooking.And here comes the good stuff.We got our.Cheese. I'm digging it.You just want a little bit of noodle just forsome texture.But it's mostly about the cheese, right?Roasted peppers. So that's basically it.Assembly time. So we're going to butter thebread.Okay. This is our special butter mix.Which is butter.Butter and mayo.I like it.Minto, Mac and cheese, some of our beautifullocal tomatoes, bacon bits.And then we finish it off with the samecheddar that we've just sliced.And we go to the grill. Yes, get it.Then we press it down. How long does.That take to melt?About 2.5 minutes on each side.It's all melty. Cut it on halfway.The present to open face so you can see allthe goodness.Okay, we'll serve it up with some of ourhousemade pickles.You should have roasted red pepper and tomatosoup, little basil oil on top.Pimento mac and cheese melts.So I got to try this sandwich by itself.What do you think about that?You know what? I'll tell you something.If you're left with just Matt Pimento byitself is not enough texture.Yeah, texture was the one.But you put the pasta in there and thetomato, a little bit of spice coming out ofthat as well. This is where it goes on.Uh huh, yeah.That's how you do it.Looks so good. I'm gonna go in like a littleprince.I am telling you what.This just takes me back to childhood.It's a labor of love. So we better producecalled.The grilled Cheesery.Where the place where grilled cheeses aremade.\n"