Smoked pasture-raised chicken thighs glazed in a bourbon-sorghum hot sauce, topped with crispy chicken-skin "bacon," quick-pickled red onion and sweet pickles — no breading, no deep fryer. Kentucky-inspired by Nashville hot chicken, built on the smoker and the griddle instead.

Yield: 8 sandwiches
Hands-on time: about 25 minutes
Smoker time: 35–50 minutes, depending on thigh thickness
Advance prep: 4–24 hours to dry the skins (pickled onion and sauce base can be made 1–3 days ahead)

A Note on "Kentucky Hot Chicken"

This sandwich takes its inspiration from Nashville hot chicken, a dish with deep roots in Nashville's Black culinary history. According to the Prince family's story, Thornton Prince came home late one night, and — the story goes — an unhappy girlfriend served him fried chicken loaded with hot pepper as payback. The plan backfired: Prince loved it, and it eventually became Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. We're giving that tradition full credit — this is our Kentucky-inspired take on it, not a claim to the original. Instead of breading and a deep fryer, we're smoking a Serenity Valley Farms chicken thigh, finishing it on the griddle, and building the heat with two Kentucky staples: bourbon and sorghum.

Ingredients

Chicken and seasoning

• 8 Serenity Valley Farms bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2½–3 lb total)
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt (about 8–10 grams)
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon coarse black pepper
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (mild-medium heat — see Heat Guide below)
• Neutral high-heat oil, only if needed for the griddle

Kentucky Bourbon-Sorghum Hot Base

• ½ cup Kentucky bourbon
• ⅓ cup sweet sorghum syrup
• ⅓ cup cayenne-style hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (medium-hot — see Heat Guide below)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon granulated garlic
• ½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
• Pinch of kosher salt

To turn the base into glaze

• The remaining Kentucky Hot Base, after reserving ¼ cup for the sandwich sauce
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

To turn the base into sandwich sauce

• ¼ cup cooled Kentucky Hot Base
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon sweet pickle brine, plus more if needed

Quick-pickled red onion

• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
• ½ cup apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt

Assembly

• 8 potato or brioche buns
• Sweet pickle chips
• Quick-pickled red onion
• Kentucky hot sandwich sauce
• 8 glazed chicken thighs
• 8 pieces crispy chicken-skin "bacon"

Heat Guide

• Mild-medium: ¼ teaspoon cayenne in the base; omit cayenne from the chicken seasoning
• Medium-hot (as written): 1 teaspoon cayenne in the base, ½ teaspoon in the chicken seasoning
• Uncle Bob hot: 2 tablespoons cayenne in the base; add hot sauce to the sandwich sauce to taste

Advance Prep

Remove and dry the chicken skins

1. Pull each skin away from the thigh in one piece.
2. Lay the skin inner-side up and gently scrape away only the thick knobs of fat. Don't scrape aggressively — the skin tears.
3. Stretch each skin flat on a wire rack set over a sheet pan.
4. Season very lightly with kosher salt.
5. Refrigerate uncovered at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

Debone and season the thighs

1. Remove the thigh bone, or start with boneless thighs.
2. Trim away loose fat and any small pieces that would burn on the griddle.
3. Mix the salt, paprika, pepper, garlic, onion powder and cayenne. Season both sides evenly.
4. Refrigerate covered until cook time.

Cook-Day Method

Make and divide the Kentucky Hot Base

1. With the burner off and the saucepan cold, combine the bourbon, sorghum, hot sauce, vinegar, Dijon, Worcestershire, cayenne, paprika, garlic, pepper and salt.
2. Move the saucepan to the burner and bring it to a gentle simmer. Never pour bourbon from the bottle beside an open flame.
3. Simmer 8–10 minutes, stirring frequently, until slightly reduced and glossy.
4. Cool slightly, then reserve ¼ cup in a clean bowl for the sandwich sauce.
5. Whisk mayonnaise and pickle brine into the cooled, reserved portion.
6. Whisk butter into the remaining warm base to make the glaze.

Food-safety note: divide the clean sauce base before any utensil touches raw or partially cooked chicken, and keep the glaze and sandwich-sauce bowls clearly separate.

Stage A — Smoke

1. Preheat the pellet smoker to 275°F with pecan, cherry, or apple pellets.
2. Place the thighs smooth-side up with room between them.
3. Insert a leave-in probe into the thickest thigh.
4. Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 140–145°F, about 35–50 minutes.
5. Don't glaze in the smoker — the goal here is clean smoke and a dry-enough exterior to sear later.

Stage B — Render the chicken-skin crisps

1. Start with a clean griddle at medium/medium-low heat, about 300–325°F.
2. Place the dried skins fat-side down.
3. Cover each skin with a small piece of parchment and hold it flat with a griddle press.
4. Render slowly for 8–14 minutes, checking often and pouring off excess fat if needed.
5. Flip as needed until both sides are deep golden and crisp.
6. Transfer to a wire rack and season immediately with a light pinch of salt and cayenne.

Don't rest the finished crisps on paper towels — trapped steam softens them. A wire rack keeps the crunch.

Stage C — Griddle finish and glaze

1. Heat one griddle zone to about 400°F and keep a second zone at medium-low.
2. Transfer the thighs from the smoker at 140–145°F.
3. Sear the smooth side first, then the second side, until browned and about 155–160°F internally.
4. Move the thighs to the cooler zone.
5. Brush with glaze, turn after only 20–30 seconds, brush the second side, and turn once more.
6. Pull when each thigh reaches at least 165°F. A finish around 170–175°F gives dark meat a more tender texture.
7. Rest 5 minutes.

Stage D — Toast and assemble

1. Once the skins are fully cooked and off the griddle, use a thin film of the rendered chicken fat to toast the cut sides of the buns.
2. Spread Kentucky hot sandwich sauce on the bottom bun.
3. Add one glazed thigh.
4. Add drained pickled onion and sweet pickle chips.
5. Add the crispy chicken skin last, above the wet toppings, so it stays crisp.
6. Close with a dry, toasted top bun and serve immediately.

Why Skin and Meat Are Cooked Separately

Low-and-slow smoke is great for the meat, but it leaves chicken skin rubbery — a smoker never gets hot or dry enough to crisp it. So instead of asking the skin and the meat to do two different jobs at the same temperature, we separate them: the thigh smokes and finishes on the griddle for juiciness and color, while the skin is stretched flat, dried in the fridge, and rendered separately into a crisp, snap-when-you-bite-it topper — no breading and no deep fryer required.

Watch the Video

Watch Uncle Bob make this Kentucky hot chicken sandwich on YouTube

Shop Our Boneless Chicken Thighs

Raised on the pastures of Monticello, Kentucky — Bob and Colleen's names are on every box.

Suggested sides

Southern-style coleslaw · dill pickle spears · buttermilk biscuits · mac and cheese · vinegar slaw · sweet tea