Culinary Catastrophy: Buffalo Disaster Rolls

Buffalo Disaster Rolls

A couple of weeks ago I attended my cousin's wedding and was treated to the best food I had ever eaten as part of a nuptial celebration. One of the appetizer served was a Crispy Buffalo Chicken Spring Roll with a blue cheese sauce — it was amazing!

All week long I had been planning to recreate it.

I bought spring roll wrappers, roasted and shredded some chicken breast and had everything ready to go. I prepared them with care. Rolled up the filling in the wraps and placed them in the oven to cook away.

The excitement of pulling these delicate treats from the oven and the fantasy of devouring them came crashing to the ground as soon as I opened the oven door.

They hadn't crisped up and browned at all.

They looked like condom-wrapped cheese plugs.

Turns out there was to much moisture with the cream cheese filling I had made. The moisture never let the wrap cook and dry out properly to crisp up. They just turned to rubbery cases for the buffalo chicken filling.

All was not lost.

I peeled away the wrappers, harvested the filling and made a simple buffalo chicken dip with it. These things happen. Especially when you experiment. Usually the mess-ups aren't this bad though, that's why I had to share it — you really have to be going for it to create a monster like this.

Eat well, cook often ...

Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Easy Buffalo Chicken Wraps

I always have a bag of frozen buffalo chicken tenders in the freezer. One bag will make several lunches. They are mandatory in any single man's kitchen.

This isn't a gourmet recipe for all the foodies to marvel over. This is a simple lunch that is easy to make. And — it's really tasty!

I could make the buffalo chicken tenders myself from scratch, but that would take way more time. This is a go-to lunch when I want something tasty relatively quick and without a mess. These could be sprung on anyone for a casual lunch and I bet they would be impressed. It features crispy breaded chicken tenders with the signature buffalo flavoring and blue cheese dressing. The cheddar cheese and lettuce help with extra flavor and really fill out the wrap for a little bit more heft and to give it a sandwich feel.

Sometimes I even throw a handful of frozen french fries on the sheet when I cook the tenders for a side dish! In my world not every meal can be a gourmet culinary adventure, but I do try to get creative with flavors and products whenever possible.

Eat well, cook often ...

BUFFALO CHICKEN WRAPS
Serves 4, 30 minutes
4 Buffalo Chicken breast tenders (From freezer isle)
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 C shredded lettuce
1/4 C blue cheese dressing
4 large wraps or tortillas

Cook chicken according to package direction. Usually 20 minutes at 425°

Let chicken cool slightly then slice. Divide ingredients among 4 wraps. On tortilla layer lettuce, cheese, chicken the blue cheese dressing.

Tuck both side of tortilla then roll into a wrap. Slice diagonally through middle, then serve.

Asian-Style Chicken Wings

Printable version

I think my favorite charcoal grilled snack or appetizer would have to be chicken wings. I enjoy them fried, but I really love them cooked over the coals for two reasons. First is the grilled flavor – charcoal grilled chicken is probably my favorite meat behind a perfectly cooked ribeye steak. Second is the endless amount of sauces or spice rubs that can be applied to take their flavor to a different level. I rarely make my wings the traditional way, or buffalo style, and douse them in a hot sauce and butter mixture. I like to get creative with the sauce.

For this recipe, the wing coating features the fruity and sweet hoisin sauce, spice from sriracha and the aromatic ginger and garlic that all together provides an Asian-style flavor.       Like most chicken wing recipes, they’re messy! I ate them by myself for lunch, and I’m glad I was alone because the site of it would have given small children nightmares for years to come. I practically needed a fire hose to clean up the delicious mess.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Asian-Style Chicken Wings

It seems that boneless wings are becoming more and more popular at restaurants. They’re easy to devour with no worries of a bone getting in the way and they're just as tasty as traditional bone-in wings with the same type of white meat. For some reason though, I still lean toward the traditional bone-in style wings.

There is something much more interactive about having to pick all the meat from the bones rather than just tossing them back like popcorn. The effort to eat them seems to create a more enjoyable culinary experience for me. I could be crazy, well, in fact, I know I’m crazy – but that is just how I like my wings. Also, when cooking them it’s easy to tell when the wings are finished because the meat will recede a little from the bone making for a nice visual cue announcing the wings are ready to scarf down.

Now, I’m not gonna kick someone out of the kitchen for making boneless wings, I just have a slight preference for the traditional variety.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Asian-Style Chicken Wings

Appetizer for 4, main course for 2; 35 minutes
1 1/2 to 2 lbs Chicken wings
2 tsp Ginger minced
2 tsp Garlic minced
2 Tbs Hoisin sauce
1 Tbs Honey
1 Tbs Sriracha sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
1 tsp Rice vinegar

Grill wings
Prepare grill for cooking.
Season wings with salt and pepper to taste, then grill wings until cooked through, turning two or three times during cooking, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove wings from grill and let rest 5 to 10 minutes.

Make sauce, toss wings
While wings rest, in a sauce pan over medium heat, saute garlic and ginger in a little olive oil for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in hoisin sauce, honey, sriracha, sesame oil and rice vinegar, heat to a simmer then remove. In a bowl, toss the wings and sauce together. Pile on a plate and serve.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

Printable version

NOTE: For all my regular readers, this is the last buffalo chicken recipe for a while. Promise.

I was at holiday party back in December and someone had brought buffalo chicken dip. It seems like 90 percent of the time I have eaten the dip it has been made with to much hot sauce. I don’t mind the heat, it’s the acidity. It leaves a foul after-taste in my mouth.

Honestly, I have never cared much for buffalo chicken dip – until I tried it at the holiday party. The secret was adding more cheese and dressing, enough to balance the hot sauce. More mozzarella, combined with ranch dressing, cream cheese and blue cheese was enough to take away the unpleasant after taste. I nearly wiped out the entire crock-pot myself.

The most common recipes for buffalo chicken dip found on labels and manufactures web sites do not call for enough cheese to balance the hot sauce in my opinion. A half cup of Frank’s or Tabasco sauce goes a long way – there has got to be a good amount of milk based product to balance that out.

For this recipe, I add a cup of cream cheese (8 oz), cup of mozzarella, quarter cup of blue cheese and half cup of ranch, That’s 3/4 of a cup more combined than what you’ll find in most Buffalo Chicken Dip recipes. For me, that is the key to make this dip delicious.

BEHIND THIS BITE
Two weeks ago I made four different Buffalo Chicken recipes. I was inspired by some Buffalo Chicken Rub I had picked up at Williams-Sonoma. I wanted to mix it up and get my Buffalo on. I had intended to make the dip then, but I got burned out on Buffalo Chicken. I had to give it a break. I decided to wait until the Super Bowl got closer to make this.

Of all the Buffalo Chicken recipes I've made in the last month this was my favorite, I love how the creaminess of the dip works with the hot sauce. I use tortilla chips with this recipe but it's equally good, and a little healthier, with stalks of celery.

The irony of my Buffalo Chicken recipe frenzy is that I never made the one thing Buffalo Chicken is famous for – wings! Honestly though, if I’m going to make wings, I’m going to make my own gourmet sauce, like the Chipotle Bacon wings I made last summer. Buffalo wings are good, but to me, the secret to great wings is in a special gourmet sauce.

THE RECIPE
Party Dip; 45 minutes
2 cans Chicken (12.5 oz)
8 oz Cream cheese, room temperature
1 C Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 C Blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 C Ranch dressing
1/2 C Hot sauce (such as Frank’s)
Tortilla chips or celery for dipping

Mix together and bake
In a 2 quart baking dish mix together hot sauce, ranch dressing, mozzarella, blue cheese and chicken. Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 30 minutes or until heated through and bubbly. Stir and serve with tortilla chips.

Buffalo Chicken Nachos

Printable version

As part of the ultimate buffalo chicken experience I have been posting over the last week, I arrive at one of my favorite all-time snacks.

Nachos.

Buffalo chicken and nachos lend themselves to each other perfectly. Nachos are usually made with seasoned meat and are garnished after being cooked. This same concept is used in buffalo chicken, the garnishes being blue cheese dressing and celery. Plus, nachos and buffalo wings are party classics. I think it's only natural to combine these beer-bash Hall of Famers.

One of the keys to this recipe is tossing the chicken in the hot sauce, rather than dumping the hot sauce on the nachos, it assures the buffalo chicken taste with every bite and, if measured properly, eliminates the buffalo sauce overload - when the acid from the hot sauce accumulates on the taste buds and starts to ruin the experience.

In the end, buffalo chicken nachos worked as well as the pizza, sandwich and tenders from previous posts. They all deliver the buffalo chicken boom without the mess.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I made both the pizza and nachos at the same time when I documented the two recipes. I preferred the pizza. When I shared the leftovers with my parents. Dad liked the nachos. Both are great gourmet twists and party pleasers.

In the last week, I have made a number of buffalo chicken recipes. I have one more to make - the dip. That will be the finishing touch on my buffalo chicken extravaganza here at the Behind the Bites. I’m going to wait before I make the dip though. I’m little burned out on buffalo chicken. If I have to eat it again in the next couple of days I might go into buffalo chicken overload. I'll wait for the upcoming Championship Sunday when we find out who'll be playing in the Super Bowl.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Appetizer for 4; 25 minutes
BUFFALO CHICKEN
2 Tbs Unsalted butter melted
1 Can Chicken white meat (12.5 oz)
1/4 C Hot sauce
DIVIDE FOR TWO BATCHES OF NACHOS
1/2 bag Tortilla chips
2 C Mozzarella cheese
Buffalo chicken
1/2 C Blue cheese dressing1/4 C Celery diced

Make buffalo chicken
Melt butter in a microwave on high in 20 second intervals, stirring in between. Mix together butter, chicken and hot sauce until well incorporated.

Assemble, bake, garnish and serve
On an oven safe pan layer chips, cheese, chicken and another layer of cheese. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 5 to 7 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Garnish with blue cheese dressing and celery, then serve.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Printable version

After using the Buffalo Chicken Rub from Williams-Sonoma – and loving the results – I was inspired to create my own buffalo chicken recipe. A large part of the reason I liked the rub so much was that I got all the great buffalo chicken flavors without being covered in sauce or getting an overload of it on my taste buds.

Eliminating the mess was relatively easy, it just requires a delivery method other than bare hands. I decided that a thin pizza crust would be optimal, a sandwich has a top and bottom bun which makes the bread a major element with each bite, a thin crust pizza is more like a cracker or chip and is really just an edible utensil for delivering the toppings.

To eliminate the overload of hot sauce, I toss shredded chicken in the mixture before I put it on the pizza, rather than dump the sauce on the crust like traditional pizza sauce. Blue cheese dressing and celery are added after the pizza comes out of the oven. The end result was one of the best buffalo chicken meals I have ever eaten.

I highly recommend this if you're hosting a Super Bowl party. The guests will love it.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I did a test run of this recipe over at my cousin Jessie’s house. I stopped over to visit her and her husband earlier in the week to catch up and have them critique my new creation. I’m glad I had two pizza crusts and enough ingredients for two pies because my cousin Jessie had a ton of ideas as well, and was bound and determine to take over the pizza making responsibility for the night.

I thought it was so funny, she takes after her late mother and aunt (my mom) so much. They are busy bodies and can hardly stand to see someone doing work without pitching in. Which is great, except, if you let them do to much they end up taking over the process.

Total Divas!

Now, when your cleaning the garage, this is a good thing. Ask them for a little help and before you know it they are telling you to get the hell out because all your doing is getting in the way. But when your trying to cook a recipe for your blog — not so much.

While making the pizzas I had to draw the line, I told her I needed to make the first one the way I had planned and the second could be all hers. It worked out well because the pizza I made (this post) worked perfect - a buffalo chicken experience - without the mess. Her pizza was a gourmet chicken pizza and gave me a great idea. But you’ll have to wait for that post in the future.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Make 2 12” pizzas; 30 minutes
2 Tbs Unsalted butter melted
1 Can Chicken drained (12.5 oz)
1/4 C Hot sauce
DIVIDE OVER TWO PIZZAS
Buffalo chicken
2 C Mozzarella cheese
1/2 C Blue cheese dressing
1/4 C Celery diced

Make buffalo chicken
Melt butter in a microwave on high for 45 seconds to a minute, stirring once half way. Mix together butter, chicken and hot sauce until well incorporated.

Assemble, bake, garnish, serve
On a pre-made pizza crust layer, buffalo chicken and cheese. Bake in a preheated 425° oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Garnish with blue cheese dressing
and celery. Slice and serve.

Buffalo Chicken Burgers

Printable version

This is the second recipe I have created with Williams-Sonoma Buffalo Chicken Rub. First, I created chicken tenders – which were awesome. This time I used the same directions (from the package) to cook the chicken, only this time I made a sandwich with blue cheese dressing and lettuce.

I loved it - even more than the tenders.

The bread, lettuce and dressing that accompanied the chicken with every bite allowed the buffalo flavor to be a little more subtle than with the tenders.

Once again, the rub is a much preferred replacement to the messy buttery hot sauce that seems to drip everywhere when eating all things buffalo. I thought the sandwiches would be loaded with seasoning because each patty got half a tablespoon of the seasoning, but to my surprise it was really the perfect amount for each patty.

Before I knew it, I had inhaled two of these. I literally had to stop my self from eating half of a third patty by itself. If given the choice, I would choose the sandwiches over the tenders, but both would be a good meal any day.

BEHIND THIS BITE
As I mention before, what I love about this rub is that I get the flavor of buffalo chicken without the mess. It seems whenever I get anything that is buffalo chicken, I have buttery hot sauce dripping from my elbows and chin by the time I’m done. The dry rub really eliminates that.

I’m the kind of person that grabs a stack of napkins to eat a regular meal because I don’t like sloppy eating and is often the reason I won’t get chicken wings or ribs - I hate meals that require a shower after eating them. I think that is why this rub appeals to me so much - It provides the buffalo without the mess.

I’m taking this as a challenge - I’m going to use the traditional hot sauce and butter mixture to flavor a buffalo chicken meal or appetizer that has little or no clean up. Stay tuned.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Makes 4 sandwiches; 45 minutes
For chicken
1 lb Ground chicken, made into 4 patties
2 Tbs Williams-Sonoma Buffalo Chicken Rub

For baste
4 Tbs Unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp Williams-Sonoma, Buffalo Chicken Rub

For the sandwiches
4 Hamburger buns
1/2 C Lettuce, shredded
1/4 C Blue cheese dressing

Marinate chicken patties
Season patties with 2 tablespoons of Buffalo Chicken Rub and salt to taste. Let marinate for 30 minutes, allowing chicken to reach room temperature.

Grill and baste chicken
Melt butter over medium heat and mix in remaining seasoning. Grill chicken until cooked through 8 to 10 minutes, turning at least once. Near the end of cooking baste chicken with butter mixture. Remove and let rest at least 5 minutes.

Assemble sandwiches
On a bun place chicken, then top with blue cheese, lettuce and top bun. Then serve.