Kicking off our SuperBowl eats with these tasty Nashville Hot Chicken Bombs! Filled with crispy fried chicken bites, buttery pickles, melted cheddar cheese, and a dash of hot sauce wrapped in golden brown pizza dough. These game day eats take it to a whole other level. Serving everyone’s favourite Nashville chicken sandwich into bite sized balls and dunked in your choice of dipping sauce. 

Any SuperBowl party deserves to have some tasty snacks. These are so cute and fun to serve- a guaranteed hit! Dip or dunk them into some hot honey mustard, something creamy, or something hot. These bite sized cuties are extra filling too, I could only bring myself to eat 2. Maybe I just wasn’t super hungry when I made them..  who knows! My little guy sure liked them.

WHAT’S IN THE PREP

Start off by getting the chicken bites ready. I like to pound them down a little bit because the breasts are quite uneven in thickness and make the cooking process a little harder. This also helps to tenderize the meat. After the breasts are pounded to an even thickness, not too much because you don’t want super thin and flat pieces, they are ready to be cut into bite sized pieces. More like “2-bites” finish by covering them in some buttermilk and refrigerating overnight if you can. Dredge each through a flour and cornstarch mixture or potato starch if you have any. Be sure that the chicken pieces are fully covered all around- use your hands to press the dredge into the chicken if needed. From this point all you need to do is drop each piece into some hot vegetable oil and cook until golden and crispy. I always like to check that the internal temperature is 165 degrees F with a thermometer. 

ASSEMBLY 

Moving on to the assembly, I’m using store bought crescent pizza dough to speed up the process and save some time and prep. This is definitely a time saver if making these for a party. I start off by rolling out the dough just a bit so that its nice and even in thickness all around and pich any of the seams. Just like in a hot chicken sandwich, there’s cheese, pickles, and fried chicken. It doesn’t really matter the order in which you place things, I just find that the cheese stays put better if it goes down first. So I start with cheese, a pickle slice, piece of fried chicken, another pickle and a dash of hot sauce. Roll each square up into a round pizza dough ball you can do this by pulling each corner to the opposite end and covering as much surface as possible along the way. Seal the edges shut, brush with egg wash and bake for 20 minutes until golden. 

TO SERVE

These bites are made for dipping! My choice is always an assortment that way everyone can enjoy dipping in different sauces and experience different flavour combinations. Hot sauce, mustard, hot honey mustard, ranch or blue cheese I think they would all be super fun! You can definitely make these the morning of and reheat them in the oven in time for guests as well!

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Print Recipe

Nashville Hot Chicken Bombs

Nashville-style hot crispy chicken bites stuffed with shredded cheddar, hot sauce, and buttery pickles wrapped into pizza dough that's baked until golden and puffy .

Prep Time25 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Additional Time2 hours hrs

Total Time2 hours hrs 50 minutes mins

Course: Appetizers

Servings: 18 -20

Author: the communal feast

Ingredients

• 2 tubes store bought crescent roll pizza crust or pizza dough chilled
• 2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 TBS salt
• 1 TBS cracked pepper
• 1 TBS smoked paprika
• 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
• Buttered pickle slices
• Hot sauce
• egg wash
• Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

• Place chicken breasts in large ziplock or freezer bag, pound down to an even thickness (roughly 1 inch thick) cut into bite sized pieces and return to the ziplock bag. Pour in 2 cups of buttermilk and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight for best results.
• Heat vegetable oil to 350 degrees F.
• Remove chicken pieces from bag. in a shallow bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, salt, pepper, and paprika and mix to combine. In a separate bowl add the remaining buttermilk. Dredge chicken through flour mixture, then into the buttermilk and back into the flour ensuring to fully coat and press to adhere if needed. Place on wire rack or baking tray and repeat until all the pieces are done.
• Once the oil is hot, fry the chicken in batches ensuring not to overcrowd. Fry for 2-3 minutes per side depending on thickness. Cook until golden brown on both sides or the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F. Place fried chicken pieces on a wire rack to cool and drip off any excess oil. Repeat until all the pieces are cooked. Let cool slightly before assembling the dough.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• On a large floured surface or over parchment paper, roll out pizza dough. Use a knife to measure out and draw 9-10 squares per roll. In each square place some shredded cheese, pickles, 1 piece of fried chicken and a dash or two of hot sauce. pull the corners across the centre over to the opposite corner, pinch and seal to ensuring there are no gaps in the dough and form a ball with each. Place on parchment lined baking dish. Brush each ball with some egg wash and bake for 20 minutes until golden. Leave at least 1/2 inch in space between each ball on the baking tray as you would for cookies. You'll have to cook in batches so best to work quickly or keep the dough chilled so that it doesn't get too warm and difficult to work with in between batches.
• Serve warm with dipping sauces of choice on the side.