Buffalo Chicken Spring Rolls

As I have shared in prior posts, the hubby and I play in a monthly Couples Euchre group.  Don’t know what Euchre is?  It’s a card game (pronounced u-ker) from the Midwest….and it’s a lot of fun!  I started our Couples Euchre group 7 years ago – in July to be exact.  I was 1 month away from delivering our first child.  The group has changed over the years, but we still play just about every month.  We rotate through the couples to host each time – but everyone is responsible for bringing an appetizer to share. 

This year, I have made something “buffalo style” for each Euchre we have attended and the hubby and I have only missed a couple.  Only one Euchre player has called me out on it so far - one of the guys even!  I really wanted to see if anyone would notice.  I suppose if they read this post, then they’ll definitely be on to me!

For July Euchre, I made Buffalo Chicken Spring Rolls.  They were delicious!  To the serving platter I added celery, carrots and of course some blue cheese and ranch dressing.   

The chicken can be made in advance - I actually took a couple of large chicken breasts and threw them in the crockpot with some of the Frank's Hot Buffalo Sauce and some salt & pepper.  Once they were cooked through, I shredded them. 

I think this would also be good with blue cheese crumbles inside or maybe even some of the scallions.

 

Buffalo Chicken Spring Rolls
Serves 8-12 as an appetizer

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1 package egg roll wrappers
¼ cup thinly sliced celery
¼ cup thinly sliced carrot
½ to ¾ cup Frank’s Hot Buffalo Sauce
Non-stick cooking spray
Blue Cheese and Ranch dressings (to serve)
Carrots and celery sticks (to serve)
Sliced scallions (to garnish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine chicken, sliced celery, sliced carrot, and buffalo sauce in a bowl.  Mix until well combined.  If you like your food a little bit more “saucey” – then add more sauce.  Place one of the egg roll wrappers down at a diagonal.  Add about 1 tablespoon of the chicken mixture to the middle of the wrapper.  Fold the bottom of the wrapper up, tucking it under the chicken and fold the sides in over the chicken.  Roll the rest of the way up.  Repeat until you have no chicken mixture remaining.  You will have extra egg roll wrappers – so save those in a zip top bag in the refrigerator for another use. 

Spray a baking sheet with the non-stick cooking spray and place spring rolls on top.  Bake 15 minutes or so until golden brown.

Garnish with scallions and serve with dressings and carrots/celery. 

Buffalo Chicken Sliders with a Celery Slaw

I recently published these sliders in my latest column for the Southeast Valley Ledger but wanted to share here as well!

If you have been following me for a while, you’ll know that the hubby and I play “Couples Euchre” each month with a number of our friends – we have eight couples in the group.  Each month a different couple hosts the night of cards and everyone brings an appetizer to share.  This month, I made buffalo chicken sliders with a celery ranch “slaw”.  I can’t take credit for the idea of adding the slaw; I found it on The Country Cook.

How did they turn out?  They were a hit!  I made enough to share with our neighbor – you’ll have to check out my blog post about The Perfect Gift, it’s about him.  Anyway – I told him that I wasn’t exactly providing dinner, that they were small and more like appetizers, so he’d want to add something else…perhaps a cold beer.  Perfect.  Just before heading out to Euchre I passed the small sandwiches and slaw over the fence line.  Shortly thereafter, I received a text message - his reaction was that they were “fan frickin' tastic”.   I hope you give these a try and think that they are just as tasty.   What’s even better about Euchre this month?  I took home 1^st place….

 

 

Buffalo Chicken Sliders with a Celery Ranch Slaw
Serves 12
Recipe adapted from The Country Cook

6 chicken breasts (frozen are fine)
1 ½ bottles of buffalo wing sauce (I prefer Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce)
Salt, pepper
4 ribs celery, thinly sliced
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup ranch dressing
4 tablespoons buffalo wing sauce
18-24 sliced dinner rolls, we used King's Hawaiian Honey Wheat Dinner Rolls

Place the chicken breasts in a crock pot and season with salt and pepper.  Cover with buffalo wing sauce.  If you are using frozen chicken, you’ll want to start these in the morning.   If they are thawed, you’ll need 4-5 hours.  Turn the chicken periodically throughout the day.  Once the chicken is cooked and tender, shred the meat into small pieces and return to the crock pot. 

To make the slaw, combine the celery, red onion, ranch dressing (or blue cheese dressing would work too), and buffalo wing sauce.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

To serve, pile up a bunch of shredded chicken on a dinner roll and top with the celery slaw – delish!

Buffalo Chicken Dip - Two Ways

A girlfriend of mine made this buffalo chicken dip for our New Year's Eve party - it was DELICIOUS!  We have had a similar dip that is served in a crock pot - all mixed up - but this was more of a baked option.

The original recipe called for blue cheese dressing.  I know that there are many people who would prefer ranch dressing with their buffalo chicken over blue cheese (the hubby included).  So I made 1 1/2 times the amount in the recipe my girlfriend gave me and split it into two 8x8 dishes instead of serving it in on 9x13 dish.  One had ranch, one had blue cheese.   I also used two different cheeses for the topper (mostly to be able to more easily identify one from the other).   For the ranch dip I used a four cheese Mexican blend and for the blue cheese dip, I used a mild cheddar.

The version I made in the 8x8 pan ended up being a little thicker than the 9x13 but it still worked.  I made this for our monthly Couples Euchre night and added a spoon to each dish so everyone could serve some on their plate and dip their Tostitos Multigrain Scoops and cut celery into it.  It was very hearty - I ended up using a fork at times to get it into my chip!

Overall, the ranch version was more popular.  I enjoyed both - but we definitely had more of the ranch dish consumed!

Next time I may try to use blue cheese crumbles instead of the dressing - I'll let you know how it turns out!

I hope you try both - you can always cut down the recipe to make one 9x13 dish as well.    I cooked my chicken in the crock pot all day with some chicken broth and beer then shredded it.  Canned chicken can be used as well, but you will have a different texture. 

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Blue Cheese

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Ranch

Buffalo Chicken Dip - Two Ways
Serves 12

3 (8 oz) low fat Neufchâtel cheese, softened to room temperature (regular cream cheese can be used)
1 1/4 bottle Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce
3 large chicken breasts (enough to make about 3 cups of shredded chicken)
Salt & Pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
chicken broth
bottle of beer
(use above ingredients after chicken breasts if following crock pot method to cook chicken)
3/4 jar Marie's Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing
1 cup (about) fat free ranch dressing (regular ranch can be used)
6-8 oz shredded cheddar cheese (or shredded cheese of your choice)
Scoops chips and celery sticks for serving

To make the chicken in the crock pot, the morning you are making the dip, add frozen chicken breasts to crock pot, bottle of beer, and some chicken broth to almost cover.  Cook on high for several hours.  Continue turning them throughout the day to cook them and start to break them apart.  Add salt and pepper as well as garlic powder.  Once cooked, finely shred the chicken, remove from liquid, add a little bit more salt and pepper.  Set aside.

Once you are ready to make dip and the cheese is at room temperature, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add the shredded chicken and Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Sauce to a large saute pan.  Stir to coat.

Between your two 8x8 pans, spread your softened Neufchâtel cheese (12 oz in each pan).   Next, split your shredded chicken between the two pans like this:

To one of the pans, dollop spoonfuls of the Marie's Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing and spread out to cover the chicken.  To the other pan, pour the ranch dressing and spread out to cover chicken.

Add shredded cheese to each pan, enough to cover dressing.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted.  Up your oven temperature to a broil, move up the rack, and cook until the cheese is nice and broiled.  Serve warm with chips and celery.

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Ranch

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Blue Cheese

Buffalo Chicken in a Cup? What's NOT to Love?

We are part of a monthly couples Euchre night.....aka a card game with lots of alcohol and food.  We all bring appetizers to share and rotate homes each month.  Thanks to Gimme Some Oven, this month, I borrowed an idea from her and made Buffalo Chicken Cups.  These were a HUGE hit at Euchre night this month!  The hubby is not a fan of blue cheese, so I put some fat free ranch dressing in a squeeze bottle and drizzled half of the cups with ranch dressing!  They are best served immediately, if you plan to have them sit out over the course of an evening, definitely use a chafing dish!  Delicious!!!

You can find the recipe here:  Buffalo Chicken Cups

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