The secret to James Roberts’ ecstatic hot chicken sauce is (surprise) more meat
James Roberts knows when to leave well enough alone.
At Toutant, his broadly Southern restaurant next to Maureen’s Buffalo Wholesale Flower Market on Ellicott Street, iconic dishes comprise nine-tenths of the menu. When Roberts decides to serve hush puppies, jambalaya, or collard greens, he starts with the classic recipe, then searches for tweaks to amp up its deliciousness.
Not every recipe needs improvements. Toutant’s pimento cheese spread hews to the time-honored trinity of cheddar, mayonnaise, and pimentos, a kind of roasted red pepper. Its straight-outta-church-supper luxuriousness is especially moving when arriving with a basket of still-crackling freshly fried pork rinds.
Toutant’s Nashville chicken ($22) is another matter.
The classic Nashville hot chicken approach is credited to Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville. The joint has been open for a century under family ownership, now serving at six locations. Fried chicken, with a noticeable chile payload in the crust, gets dipped in an oily chile-laden sauce, and sprinkled with a spice mixture, the final touch of pyrotechnic adornment.
Nashville hot chicken started gaining national attention in the 2000s. Since then Nashville chicken chains have spread its fame from coast to coast and overseas, with outlets in Seoul and Melbourne.
Taking hometown specialties global often requires compromises to adapt to local customer palates, especially when it comes to chile heat. As such, much of the so-called Nashville chicken available outside Nashville resembles the original as much as the Buffalo wings sold in Paris.
Toutant’s version of Nashville sauce walks up to danger, gives you a little kiss, then fades into pleasurable hum.
The chicken is boneless, skinless thighs, which always turn out moist. After being fried in seasoned starch, it gets the dip. There’s something about Toutant’s that spiked my carnivore pleasure meter in a powerful way, so I asked Roberts how he pulled it off.
Chicken fat, rendered out like schmaltz, is a key component – plus some pork fat. That makes Toutant’s Nashville off limits to swine avoiders, but the rest of the animal fanciers among us can swoon in multi-lipid luxury.
Crowned with a fried egg (+$3), whose pierced yolk adds another layer of chicken bliss to the gravy, Toutant’s Nashville is as pretty as poultry-centered plates get.
White bread underneath Nashville chicken is traditionally more of a sponge for sauce or a blotter bite after fire rages across palates than a flavor booster. At Toutant, their housemade bread is made with dill pickle brine instead of water.
That’s what you get at Toutant: dishes whose names you recognize, tasting better than you remember.
437 Ellicott St., toutantbuffalo.com, 716-342-2901
Hours: 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday-Wednesday.
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