A lightened-up take on your favorite chicken sandwich! Who knew comfort food could be this good? My Lightened-Up Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich is a crispy and delicious air fried chicken breast sandwich coated in hot sauce, topped with a homemade slaw and served on a soft potato bun with pickle slices. It’s everything you love for a fraction of the calories. Add this “too good to be true” sandwich to your dinner rotation ASAP.
All about these Lightened-Up Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
Nashville hot chicken sandwiches are a crowd favorite. If you’ve never heard of them, they are basically a fried chicken sandwich with an added punch of spice. Typically served on white bread with pickles added on top–my lightened-up take on these crispy hot chicken sandwiches keeps things simple by creating a hot sauce mixture using only buffalo sauce and honey. You’ll sneak more spice in with cayenne and paprika included in the flour mixture.
A traditional Nashville hot chicken sandwich can be very caloric, since part of the traditional recipe includes dumping the oil used to fry the chicken into the hot sauce. It can be tricky to lighten up recipes like this, but with this recipe you will get the same delicious, hot flavor profile without the additional calories or grease.
I’ve also helped keep things light by opting to air fry the chicken. You’ll still get that crispy chicken you crave, just without drowning the chicken in grease and oil and spiking the calorie count. It’s no secret I love an air fryer recipe. It’s a great method for everything from Healthy Air Fried Asian Glazed Chicken Burgers with Slaw, to my classic Air Fried Chicken Cutlets, Air Fried Coconut Shrimp, Air Fried Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls and beyond!
The Air Fryer: your go-to for a healthy home-cooked meal!
If you don’t already own an air fryer–what are you waiting for?! An air fryer is basically a glorified, petite, countertop-sized convection oven. It’s a game changer for making healthy meals that are still crispy and flavorful. There are tons of air fryers on the market, but I recommend investing in one with a 7 qt basket or larger. This way, you’re able to make recipes like this lightened-up Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich! I use this air fryer from GoWISE linked here. I got my first air fryer pretty early on during my wellness journey. You can generally find them pretty inexpensively at most stores. I find that the food gets the crispiest in this particular brand. In the past, I have used quite a few air fryers, and this has been my favorite for a few years now.
The air fryer is a go-to for those of us looking to live a healthier lifestyle but not willing to sacrifice the crunchy, delicious texture that comes with frying food. My air fryer also comes in handy to heat up my kids frozen chicken nuggets. It makes them crispy instead of that kind of soggy texture caused by the microwave.
What you will need to make this recipe
There’s quite a few different components to this chicken sandwich recipe–but I promise it’s not as complicated as the list of ingredients may make it seem.
- Chicken breast
- Dill pickle slices & their juice
- Potato buns
- 2% milk
- Buffalo sauce
- All-purpose flour
- Cayenne
- Paprika
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Kosher salt
- Honey
- Coleslaw mix
- Light mayo
- Apple cider vinegar
- Scallion
- Sugar
How to make these Lightened-Up Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
Start by combining the brine ingredients. Submerge the chicken breasts in the brine for a minimum of 30 minutes; you may let this sit all day until ready to cook.
Combine the dredging ingredients. Remove the chicken from the brine, and coat in the flour mixture.
Generously spray an air fryer basket with non-stick spray, and add the coated chicken. Spray more cooking spray on top of the chicken to coat. Air fry at 370 for 15-20 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken) or until an internal temperature of 165F is reached. Flip halfway.
Combine the hot sauce ingredients and coat the cooked chicken in the sauce. Next, prepare the slaw. To serve, place a coated chicken breast on a bun, top with the slaw and pickle slices.
Lightened-Up Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwiches
Equipment
- air fryer
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, approx. 1/2 lb
- dill pickle, slices for sandwich topping
- 2 potato buns, used: Martins potato buns
Brine
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 1/4 cup dill pickle juice
- 2 tbsp buffalo sauce, Recommended: Frank's brand
Dredge
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Hot Sauce
- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce
- 2 tbsp honey
Slaw
- 2 cups coleslaw mix
- 2 tbsp light mayo
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 scallion, chopped
Instructions
- Combine the brine ingredients and submerge the chicken breasts in the brine for a minimum of 30 minutes; you can let this sit all day in the fridge until ready to cook.
- Combine the dredging ingredients.
- Remove the chicken from the brine, and coat in the flour mixture.
- Generously spray an air fryer basket with non-stick spray, and add the coated chicken. Spray more cooking spray on top of the chicken to coat.
- Air fry at 370 for 15-20 minutes (depending on the thickness of the chicken) or until an internal temperature of 165F is reached. Flip halfway through cooking.
- Combine the hot sauce ingredients and coat the cooked chicken in the sauce.
- Prepare the slaw.
- To serve, place a coated chicken breast on a bun, top with the slaw and pickle slices.
Notes
Nutrition
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are you using Frank’s Red Hot hot sauce? or Frank’s Buffalo wings sauce?
franks red hot sauce 🙂
Very good! Your recipes never disappoint! Thank you!!!!
Hi Steph! So excited to try this recipe for dinner tonight! Quick question, do you submerge the cooked chicken in the hot sauce or do you brush it on? Thanks a bunch for all that you do, my family loves your recipes 😀! Nicole Hanson from Pittsburgh, PA
hi! either will work, I personally tossed it in the sauce!
I made this tonight, and it was incredible! My husband said it was the best sandwich I’ve ever made. I swapped chicken breasts for thighs and brined the chicken for around 4 hours before cooking. Highly recommend and love that it is a lighter recipe!
You NEED to make this. So easy and freaking delicious!
I made this tonight. The flavor was good but the breading did not stick! Idk what I did wrong. Was I supposed to dry off the chicken before flouring it? I didn’t. The timing for the airfryer was perfect. It was tender and juicy. Just couldn’t get the breading to stay.
definitely a hit with the family Will be making this again!’
Made this and it was amazing!!! Served it on large portobello mushrooms!!! My husband and I agree this will be in our normal rotation!
Amazing we loved I used the hot honey with buffalo sauce amazing kick
Amazing, the spice and flavor is perfect.
AMAZING and hot hot hot! The breading held up great. Will be adding to our rotation of Stephanie’s recipes.
Delicious!! So many great recipes!
Hi! Is this 13 WW per one sandwich? Asking because it says serves 2 on the WW app so just making sure I understand correctly. Can’t wait to try it!
Hi
Could this be made as a grilled chicken sandwich or baked in the oven with or without the breading?
I made this today, diced it and added it to my salad. It’s delicious. However, the breading did not stay on the chicken. Next time I make this I’m going to pat dry the chicken before dredging it in the flour mixture to see if that helps.
Very good meal. Even my picky eater husband enjoyed it.
We really enjoyed this meal! We did slice the chicken breasts in half and I did just cook them on stove top instead, as we don’t have an air fryer.. We also did not coat the chicken in the sauce but poured it over the chicken to our liking. The breading was the best we’ve had- SO much flavor. Thanks for putting this recipe together 🙂
How did you cook them stovetop? I’m thinking I’d like to do that also! Thanks!!