Buffalo Chicken

Recently, I received one of the Martha Stewart Newsletters in my inbox which linked to array of chicken wing recipes. I love chicken and I love experimenting with different marinades and cooking techniques. I couldn't decide which of the recipes to try first, so I selected seven of them and sent them to D for the ultimate decision.

He chose this Buffalo Chicken recipe. I have only read and heard about buffalo wings so I was excited to give them a go. Since they are so popular, I did a quick internet search to see what other recipes were out there and to see which one I liked the most.

I ended up using a mix of three different recipes. D loved it and said that it tasted pretty much as he remembered, except less spicy. It was a lovely flavour and I will definitely make it again.

So, I used Martha's recipe as a base. I poached the chicken quickly in boiling water seasoned with cayenne pepper, chilli flakes and a little salt. Then, once the chicken had dried a little, I dredged them in flour seasoned with paprika, salt and pepper and grilled them under a hot grill.

Once they were cooked, I coated them in the sauce - a mix of tomato sauce, melted butter, sriracha chilli sauce and garlic powder - and popped them back in the oven quickly.

We served them with some blue cheese dressing - blue cheese mashed with some Greek yoghurt. Martha says you should add lemon juice too, but my yoghurt was quite tart to start with so we didn't think this was necessary.

I used chicken tenderloins instead of wings as D doesn't like chicken on the bone. Next time, I won't poach the chicken first and just cook them the whole way through under the grill as I did overcook the tenderloins a tad. I was also slightly conservative with the sriracha. I'm not very tolerant to hot foods and I wanted to make sure I could still eat it. When I poached the chicken in the cayenne and chilli flakes, the steam was very strong and I was concerned that it may have flavoured the chicken more than it was intended to. As it turned out, it didn't and we had fairly mild flavoured chicken.

It was extremely tasty though. I'm very happy we gave this a try.

Buffalo Chicken with Blue Cheese Dip
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

600g chicken tenderloins
1 tbs cayenne pepper
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbs salt
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons paprika
1 tsp coarse salt
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 to 2 tablespoons hot sauce, such as Tabasco
1 tsp garlic powder

Dip
30g blue cheese, crumbled
2/3 cup plain low-fat yoghurt
coarse salt and ground pepper

Fill a large pot half way with water and then add the first 4 ingredients.

Bring water mixture and chicken to a boil and then boil for 5 minutes.

Combine the flour, paprika and salt in a freezer bag. Add chicken, toss to coat and shake off excess.

Ideally, I would have refrigerated the chicken at this point for an hour. Apparently this helps the flour mix adhere better to the chicken, but we were hungry so I didn't.

Preheat the grill to a medium high heat. Place the chicken on a rack above a baking tray lined with foil and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in the microwave and then add the tomato sauce, hot sauce and garlic powder. Mix well.

Remove the chicken from the grill and coat with the tomato/butter/chilli sauce mix. Return to the grill and heat for a further two minutes.

Serve with blue cheese dip

To make the dip,mash the cheese and yoghurt together in a small bowl with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.