buffalo wing sauce – The Pajama Chef

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub

This month for Secret Recipe Club I was assigned to The Avid Appetite, a fun blog written by Rachel. Rachel lives in Jersey City with her family and shares her love of family, fun, and food through her wonderful blog that she’s maintained for 5+ years. So many of her recipes sounded so delicious that it was hard to just pick one! After checking out my options, I narrowed it down to Pepperjack Pimento Cheese Dip, her favorite Iced Coffee recipe, Spicy Sweet Potato Wedges, and Berry Baked Oatmeal… and my final pick, Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I wish I had time to try everything!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub These buffalo chicken lettuce wraps certainly hit the spot! They were the perfect blend of spicy, creamy, cheesy, and cool. We enjoyed them during Selection Sunday last week [go Hoosiers!], but they’d be equally good during any sporting event, party, or get together. To be honest, buffalo chicken isn’t always my favorite–some versions are too spicy, and most versions are too messy–but this recipe may make me a diehard fan. 🙂 If you like buffalo chicken, you’ll love this recipe!

Fancy up your buffalo chicken by serving it in some cool, crisp lettuce wraps! This is the perfect game day appetizer or light dinner option. Mmmm! #secretrecipeclub

I changed a few things with Rachel’s original recipe–namely, using feta cheese and ranch dressing in place of bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing, but the heart of the recipe is still there. If you’re a bleu cheese fan, knock yourself out, haha. I also added celery on top for some crunch! Yum! Thanks, Rachel, for this tasty treat!

one year ago: French Toast Casserole
two years ago: Tasty Mexican Lentils
three years ago: Quick Chocolate Pudding
four years ago: Alice’s Vanilla Tea-Infused Granola
five years ago: Roasted Tomato and Black Bean Soup

Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Servings: 8 as an appetizer, 4 as a meal
Time: 45 minutes
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from The Avid Appetite

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts or 4-5 chicken thighs – I used bone in, skin on chicken thighs but boneless skinless would work too
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
extra virgin olive oil, if using boneless skinless chicken
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup Frank’s red hot sauce
1/2 cup crumbled feta or bleu cheese
1 head Boston or iceberg lettuce, washed and dried, then separated into individual leaves
1/3 cup ranch or bleu cheese dressing
2 stalks celery, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place chicken on a large baking sheet lined with foil. [If using boneless skinless chicken, brush chicken with olive oil.] Sprinkle chicken with pepper, paprika, and thyme. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. Let rest for about 10 minutes to cool, then remove skin and bones and chop into bite size pieces.

Meanwhile, place cream cheese, hot sauce, and feta in a large mixing bowl. Stir together and add chicken. Transfer mixture to an oven safe baking dish to heat through, or place in a skillet set over low heat. Cook until cheese has melted, about 10 minutes.

When ready to serve, spoon buffalo chicken into prepared lettuce leaves. Drizzle with ranch dressing and top with celery.

Enjoy!

Be sure to check out all the other recipes made by my SRC friends this week at the link below!

So, I was really sad earlier in the week because I thought the Super Bowl was this Sunday and that I wasn’t going to have time to share a couple awesome party recipes with you! Turns out I was mistaken and it is actually a week from Sunday so I am golden! You’d think with a sports fanatic for a husband I’d be up on my sports dates, but that is not always the case. Alas. Like any good food blogger, my only concern with the Super Bowl [or other sporting events like it] is the food. Sometimes that means making elaborate, over the top awesomeness… other times, it means making really simple things that are just so amazing you wonder why you’ve never thought of them before now.

These Buffalo Pretzels fall into the latter category. I mean, really… they just look like plain ‘ole boring pretzels. But take one bite and you realize they are actually little bites of spicy goodness… all the flavors of buffalo wings with a fraction of the work and no mess! These pretzels are coated in a ranch dressing-laced buffalo wing sauce [I used bottled, but if you wanna get fancy you could make your own] then baked down, Chex Mix style. After making these pretzels, I have visions of other saucy baked pretzels treats in my future. Sriracha Pretzels? Sweet and Sour Pretzels? Some sort of sweet and spicy ginger pretzels? Oh man, I’m excited now! [But don’t ask me to google it. I’m sure someone else has already stolen my ideas and I don’t want to be sad, not on a Friday. :)]

But anyway… I can’t say enough great things about these Buffalo Pretzels! They are the perfect party snack… simple, quick, addicting, flavorful. Everyone will love them, guaranteed! Plus, you can make ’em in advance, because they last at least a week when stored in a ziploc bag or sealed container… that is, if you can stope eating them! Enjoy! 🙂

Buffalo Pretzels [from A Taste of the Best]
click to print

Ingredients:

12 cups pretzels [about 1 1/2 pounds]
9 tablespoons butter, melted
1 package ranch dressing seasoning [1 ounce]
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
2 tablespoons buffalo wing sauce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease two large baking sheets well, or cover with parchment paper.

Place half of the pretzels in a large bowl and set aside. In a measuring cup, whisk together butter, ranch seasoning, celery salt, and buffalo wing sauce. Pour half of the sauce over the pretzels [use the measuring cup to gauge this], then toss to coat. Pour onto one of the prepared baking sheets and spread out evenly, in one layer if possible. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Place pans in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then stir each sheet and switch positions in the oven. Repeat until pretzels have absorbed all of the sauce. For me, this was about 30 minutes of baking total. Original recipe called to bake for 60 minutes, so just follow your instincts with your oven. Cool on baking sheets before transferring to a bowl or storage container.

Time: 35-65 minutes.

Yield: 12 cups pretzels.

Notes: These are not spicy, but they are pretty salty. I think the celery salt could be cut down or eliminated with no real damage to the flavor. I made 4 batches for an event expecting 120 people, and this was more than enough.

This recipe is linked up with: Weekend Potluck.