Inspired by Tennessee

THE MEAL

(Click on the links above to jump to that part of the post!)

When I think of Tennessee, the first things that come to mind are Davey Crockett, Dollywood, “On Top of Old Smokey,” whiskey, and, of course, barbecue!

I recently learned that Tennessee is part of the “Barbecue Belt,” which also includes Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Tennessee’s most famous barbecue is probably Memphis-style ribs, which I was very tempted to make for this meal. I love ribs. But I’m going to do lots of other barbecue for the Barbecue Belt states, and I hadn’t done any fried chicken yet, which felt like a tragedy. So I chose to go with another Tennessee classic–Nashville Hot Chicken. From there the rest of the meal fell into place: hot chicken on a homemade burger bun, with sweet potato fries, a Coke, and homemade moon pies. 

I had reasons for making this meal the way I did, which I’ll go into below, but I didn’t mean to make it look so sparse and so similar to my typical drive-thru order. Haha! It’s all classic American finger foods, made extra delicious for being homemade! This was my smallest grocery list yet, especially because I had leftover coleslaw, pickles, comeback sauce, hot sauce, and buttermilk from other recent meals. And this was probably my favorite meal so far for leftovers, because it was so similar to a typical workday lunch order while being so much better.

HOT CHICKEN

Fried chicken is a Southern classic that I could have made for any number of states. It was brought to the United States in an unbattered, unseasoned version by Scottish immigrants, but it was enslaved Africans who gave fried chicken the crunch and flavor that we know and love today! 

Everyone’s grandma seems to have her own fried chicken recipe. Typically, the chicken is divided into portions, battered in a flour or breadcrumb mixture, then deep fried in lard or oil. It’s crispy and juicy and delicious, and I’m already sad that I didn’t make more. 

The Nashville variation of fried chicken is called hot chicken because of the spicy oil, sauce, or paste that is brushed on the chicken after it’s fried. In addition to its signature spiciness, Nashville hot chicken is unique in that they serve it on white bread with pickles, similar to Texas brisket. 

Hot chicken is said to have originated with Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville, Tennessee. The owner was apparently a notorious womanizer, and one day his jealous girlfriend made him fried chicken with a ton of pepper in it to express her anger. Instead of learning his lesson, Thornton Prince III liked the flavor so much that he developed a recipe and started selling it! It became hugely popular throughout the area and has now spread around the country. I’ve been seeing Nashville hot chicken pop up everywhere in my area, riding along the crispy chicken sandwich craze. Which is why in my head I thought it was always served on a burger bun. Oops.

Anyway, this was my first time ever frying chicken! Crazy, I know! My grandma made us “cornflake chicken” on Sundays growing up, but it was always baked, with melted butter drizzled over the cornflake coating to give it extra flavor and crunch. Delicious, but not fried. I felt like I was fulfilling a “true American” rite of passage by frying my battered chicken in my cast iron pot as tradition dictates.

I really liked this version of fried chicken! As I’ve said previously, I’m not a huge fan of melt-your-face-off spiciness, but I do love a little kick, and that’s exactly what I got with this recipe! The hot sauce had cayenne pepper, chili powder, and paprika, but also brown sugar to offset all the spice. You could definitely add more hot sauce at the end if you wanted, but mine was just hot enough for my liking. Eating it on a bun with some coleslaw and pickles definitely helped tone it down.

BURGER BUNS

Speaking of buns. As I said before, I keep seeing Nashville hot chicken as part of the crispy chicken sandwich trend, so I decided I was going to make homemade burger buns as the bread component of this meal. I’m sorry that’s not really authentic to Nashville! Despite the mistake, I’m really glad that I learned how to make these.

The hamburger buns we know today were invented in 1916 by Walter Anderson, who cofounded the hamburger restaurant chain White Castle. Before that, burgers and sandwiches were usually just served on regular rolls.

These brioche burger buns were so simple to make and turned out tasting so great! Making them was pretty typical of other bread-making, with the only uniqueness coming from the shape and the sesame seeds sprinkled on top. They have a pretty neutral flavor, but it’s more buttery and wholesome than what you get from store-bought buns. The egg wash on the tops almost gave them a pretzel taste. Honestly, if I had time to make these for every barbecue, I would!

Even though I probably shouldn’t have made burger buns for an authentic Tennessee hot chicken meal, I’m really glad I did. There was something so satisfying about eating a delicious chicken sandwich not bought at a drive-thru!

BAKED SWEET POTATO FRIES

Sweet potatoes are thought to have originated in Central and South America, where they were spread to Polynesia by pre-Columbian sea-faring cultures. They’ve now been cultivated throughout the world and have culinary significance in many cultures.

Sweet potatoes grow great in the American South and are the state vegetable of Louisiana, Alabama, and North Carolina. It’s tradition in the United States to eat candied sweet potatoes with Thanksgiving dinner, and more recently, there’s been a popular demand for sweet potato fries alongside regular fries in American restaurants. 

I’m not sure why sweet potato fries are popular in Tennessee specifically, but apparently they are! They seem to be commonly served alongside hot chicken and barbecue, and there are lots of recipes online for “Memphis Sweet Potato Fries.”

What I loved about this Memphis-inspired version of sweet potato fries was the combination of salty, spicy, and sweet. It was a great flavor! I just wish they had cooked right. Full disclosure: my oven isn’t working properly at the moment (which explains some of my more recent baking problems…), so these “fries” were much softer than I would’ve liked. I kind of wish I’d just deep-fried them, but I wanted to try a baked method instead since I made regular fries for the Colorado meal. 

Oh well. You can’t win them all. I’m confident that the recipe is good, I just didn’t have the right oven conditions to make them crispy enough. If you really want your sweet potato fries to have the same texture as regular fries, though, I definitely recommend just frying them. 🙂 But they still tasted delicious either way! I liked eating them plain as well as with my leftover comeback sauce.

JACK & COKE (HOLD THE JACK)

A Jack and Coke is a highball cocktail made with Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey and any brand of cola. No one really knows how it started, but it’s been a popular drink in the South since the early 1900s. 

I could have gotten more creative with this meal’s beverage, but the top recommendation for an iconic Tennessee drink was consistently Jack and Coke. Since I don’t drink whiskey, I thought it would be funny to just have a Coke instead.

MOON PIES

The story from the official Moon Pie website is that a bakery in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sent traveling salesmen to Kentucky, where a miner requested a snack “as big as the moon.” When the bakery came back with what they named the Moon Pie, it became a hit with coal miners for being portable, filling, and rich with the classic American flavors of graham cracker, marshmallow, and chocolate. The Moon Pie became a bestseller, especially during World War II when it was a favorite treat for families to send in care packages to the troops.

Moon Pies are still produced in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they make one million Moon Pies every day in various flavors and sizes. All this to say that they are a very popular treat in the South, especially in their home state of Tennessee.

I really liked these desserts, but they were a little stressful and messy to make, especially knowing that I could easily just buy the packaged version.

You start by making graham-cracker-based cookies, which was definitely my favorite thing about them. I love graham cracker treats, and now I want to figure out a key lime sandwich cookie or something using this same cookie recipe! It was delicious.

But from there, it just gets messier. I copped out and used store-bought marshmallow cream for the filling, and it seemed at first to be a great consistency. But the structure of the cream quickly deteriorated when put between two cookies, and seemed to melt even just at room temperature. I put them in the freezer to set, but they shifted and became lopsided.

I managed to get ten cookie sandwiches out of the batch, froze them overnight, and then came the chocolate-dipping part. I think I did something wrong in the chocolate-tempering process, because I had a really pretty, smooth, glossy melted chocolate to work with, but instead of hardening into a nice shell, it melted again at the slightest touch, even after freezing. I also learned the hard way that if you don’t dip the entire cookie, then the marshmallow cream will melt and ooze out through any cracks.

In the end, after all that work, I only ended up with five out of ten moon pies that weren’t total messes. They were delicious, but I’m not sure they were worth all the effort. I’m happy that they’re a common packaged treat, though, because they are a great snack when made right without all the hassle.

CONCLUSION

This was probably my favorite leftovers so far because it was such a typical go-to meal for me except yummier and cheaper and I knew exactly what went into it! I hope I’ll get the chance to make homemade burger buns again for a future barbecue, and I’m so glad I finally tried my hand at fried chicken. This was an excellent all-American meal!

So how’d I do? Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions for improvement, and be sure to tune in next time for my take on a meal inspired by Alabama! If that’s where you’re from, what do you think I should make to represent your state? Bonus points if you have reliable recipes or pro tips before I make the attempt! Thank you for reading!