BUFFALO CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICHES

I've been trying to use my cookbooks more often.  I find recipes online, but neglect my constantly growing collection of cookbooks.  Do you ever buy one, read it cover to cover and earmark recipes to make?  Then, do you NEVER OPEN THAT COOKBOOK EVER AGAIN?  Yeah, me neither.  Except I always do that.  Oops.  Message to loved ones reading this: please keep buying me cookbooks as gifts.  Please and thank you.

I have quite a few Cooking Light cookbooks and this one contains the easiest and most hassle free recipes.

This recipe immediately caught my eye because it uses my favorite cooking shortcut: store bought rotisserie chicken!  And it includes buffalo.  You can never, ever, EVER go wrong with buffalo flavored anything. 

Now, I may perhaps be nitpicking here, but whenever I see a "buffalo" recipe that only uses hot sauce, not buffalo sauce, I feel slightly annoyed.  Hot sauce does not equal buffalo flavor.  I substituted Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce and it was perfect.  Other changes: I used the entire chicken, not just 2 cups.  I used more celery, less mayo, more buffalo.  I seasoned each sandwich and its lettuce and tomato with salt and pepper.  Oh, and I used ciabatta rolls instead of boring hamburger buns.

Ingredients

1/2 cup reduced fat mayonnaise (I don't use reduced fat, I use Duke's regular!)
3 tablespoons crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup buffalo sauce (or to taste)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chopped celery
1 rotisserie chicken, shredded and discarded of fat and skin
romaine lettuce
tomato slices
salt and pepper to taste
rolls for serving

Combine mayo, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, salt and pepper in large bowl.  Taste, then add additional buffalo sauce or salt and pepper if needed.  Add chicken and celery, gently combine with your hands.  Serve on toasted bun with lettuce, tomato and additional salt and pepper or buffalo sauce. 

SHREDDED BUFFALO CHICKEN

Is this picture fancy or what??  My friend, Andrea, is a photo editing whiz!

I fall in and out of love with my crockpot.  I go through phases where it seems like a pain to clean the big dang thing or to have to plan a meal hours ahead of time.  But the other phase is complete infatuation with my crockpot!  That is my current state.  I don't even bother putting it away now because of its constant presence on the counter. 

This meal is stupid easy to make.  That's not an insult, it's just a fact.  Chicken, buffalo sauce, powdered ranch.  That's it!  This shredded chicken is perfect atop a salad, inside a wrap, scooped up with celery or grilled as a quesadilla.  I usually do a salad with blue cheese crumbles and ranch dressing.  For the wrap, I roll it up in a large flour tortilla with lettuce, ranch dressing, shredded cheddar and extra buffalo sauce.  If the chicken is too spicy, stir in a wedge or two of laughing cow cheese.  The swiss and blue cheese flavors work best.

Ingredients

2 1/2 lbs boneless chicken breasts or tenders (fresh or frozen)
1 bottle Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce (not hot sauce!)
1-2 packets Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing dry mix

Place chicken in crockpot.  Pour about 3/4 the bottle of buffalo sauce over the chicken.  Sprinkle on ranch powder.  Cover and cook on low about 4-6 hours for fresh chicken, 8 hours for frozen.  Tenders cook quicker than chicken breasts.  Break apart chicken with tongs, mix into sauce and taste.  This is the point where I decide if I need that additional packet of ranch powder or the remaining buffalo sauce.  If it tastes vinegary/too spicy go ahead and add that extra packet of ranch.

BUFFALO CHICKEN MAC AND CHEESE

Do you love buffalo wings?  Cheese?  Pasta?  If you don't, then we probably can't be friends.  But if you do, definitely make this recipe (and fill out a friend application).  It's a bit labor intensive, but definitely worth making.  Very creamy, satisfying, rich, and just enough heat.  I found the recipe here but made a couple changes.  I used pipette shaped pasta, not elbow.  I didn't put breadcrumbs on top because I'm just not into that.  I also didn't use parsley because fresh herbs have never had a home in my kitchen.  Do you have to water them?  Do you keep them by the window?  How long do they stay alive?  I need to be schooled.  And now it's your turn to be schooled BY THIS PASTA.  Make it!

Also, make sure you get Frank's Red Hot WINGS sauce.