Hot Honey Chicken Sliders
A tangy combination of sweet and spicy, these Hot Honey Chicken Sliders are the perfect handheld appetizer. Crispy fried chicken is glazed in hot honey sauce, then piled on garlic butter-toasted brioche slider buns with pickles and ranch.
Servings: 12 sliders
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs. chicken breasts, cut into 4" pieces chicken tenderloins also work
- 12 brioche or Hawaiian slider buns
- 3 tablespoons butter melted
- sweet heat pickles about 2 per slider
- Ranch for serving
- Oil for frying enough to come up 4” on the pan
Wet Batter
- 1 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons hot sauce
- 1/3 cup dill pickle juice
- 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 3/4 cup flour
Dry Flour Mixture
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
Hot Honey
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup water + 2 teaspoons cornstarch mix together in a slurry before adding
- 2 tablespoons hot sauce like Louisiana or Texas Pete’s
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Garlic Parsley Butter Topping (optional)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced
Instructions
- In a shallow dish or pie pan, whisk together all the dry ingredients for the flour mixture and set aside. I like to do this a day ahead and cover in plastic wrap.
- In a large bowl, make wet batter by combining all ingredients except flour. Whisk well to combine then whisk in flour, be sure not to over-mix. Small clumps are ok.
- Submerge chicken in the wet batter and marinate for 4 hours or overnight.
Toast Buns
- Get the oil added to a deep pot or dutch oven, attach a thermometer and heat to 350 degrees.
- While oil is heating, spread the inside of the slider buns with 3 tablespoons melted butter. Broil until golden brown. Flip the top buns, spread with garlic parsley butter and broil for another minute. Set aside while chicken cooks.
Batter & Fry Chicken
- Remove chicken one by one from wet batter, allowing excess batter to drip off. Place directly into the dry flour mixture and coat on both sides well.
- Drop into the oil frying in batches, about 4-5 pieces at a time until they are golden brown and the internal temp reaches 165 degrees, about 4 minutes. Place on a cooling rack to drip off excess oil after they cook.
- In a small saucepan combine all the hot honey sauce ingredients and simmer until warmed through and slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust if needed to add more tang or heat to your liking.
- Add chicken tenders to a large bowl. Pour over the warm sauce and toss to coat.
Assemble Sliders
- Add pickles to the toasted bottom slider buns. Add one chicken tender per slider. Place the toasted top buns on. Serve with ranch for dipping (Litehouse brand is my favorite).
Notes
Reheating & Storage:
If you plan to have a bunch of sliders left over, it's best to leave the leftover sliders unassembled and wait to toss the chicken in the hot honey sauce until ready to serve. Keep them packaged separately in the fridge in air-tight containers. You can reheat the chicken in the air fryer to get it back to crispy.
For reheating assembled sliders, just place them in the microwave until warmed through.