Buffalo Chicken Tacos with Bleu Cheese Slaw

Welcome to football Sunday! 

I have the perfect recipe for your Sunday Night Football party tonight.  

Just put some chicken in a slow cooker, so you can enjoy this beautiful afternoon and 

just add the fixings for the game tonight.  

Just start with a package of chicken tenders, this was 1.75# in the slow cooker with 

1 cup of chicken broth along with 

1 tbsp minced garlic, 

1 tsp of onion powder and 

fresh ground black pepper. 

Let this cook for 3-5 hours on high. 

And the chicken was cooked. 

From the slow cooker to the plate for shredding. 

Juicy tender meats shred so easily after a few hours in the slow cooker. 

My new go-to starting ground for dinner. 

When in doubt, throw some meat in a slow cooker and I'll figure out the rest later. 

The chicken was placed back in the slow cooker, 

be sure to drain the cooking broth first. 

About 1/2 cup of Hot Sauce and 1/2 stick of butter were added to sauce things up a bit. 

Stirred it all up a bit and kept it on low until we were ready to eat.  

The ultimate topping for these tacos is bleu cheese slaw. 

Perfect combination of familiar flavors and textures.  

All you need to do is stir up 3 simple ingredients...

3 cups of shredded cabbage, 

1 cup of bleu cheese dressing and 

1/2 cup of bleu cheese crumbles.

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

1.75# of chicken tenders

1 cup of chicken broth

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tsp of onion powder

Fresh ground black pepper

1/2 cup of Hot Sauce

1/2 stick of butter

Soft taco shells

BLEU CHEESE SLAW

3 cups of shredded cabbage, 

1 cup of bleu cheese dressing and 

1/2 cup of bleu cheese crumbles

Celery for garnish

Directions:

Cook the chicken in the slow cooker on high for 3-5 hours or low for 5-7 hours along with the broth, garlic, onion and pepper. 

Shred the chicken, pour out the cooking broth. 

Add the chicken back to the slow cooker, top with hot sauce and butter. 

Leave in slow cooker on low until ready to eat. 

For the slaw, top 3 cups of cabbage with bleu cheese dressing and crumbles. 

Assemble the tacos by placing the chicken in the taco, topping with the slaw and garnishing with celery. 

Grilled Buffalo Wings - gluten free

Not even sure where to start with these wings.  They were so good, so easy and so delicious!

Just the gluten-free wing recipe I have been waiting for!

This might be the first time I've made wings, avoiding them out fear of complexity but these are so easy and guy-approved that I anticipate them being requested frequently in my house, except they will be asking for more!

And, here are the few, simple ingredients that it took to make these fabulous, gluten free

Grilled Buffalo Wings!

To start nearly 2.5# of wings, lay them out on a well-sprayed sheet of foil on a pre-heated grill.

400 F is the ideal temp, but these turned out just fine a little lower than that.

Grill for about 20 minutes, turning once. 

While the wings were getting started, 

1/4 of Franks Red Hot Sauce and 1 tsp garlic powder were added to 1 cup of mayonnaise 

to make the perfect grilling sauce. 

Reserving about a cup of the Buffalo Sauce,

 the rest of it was brushed on the wings that were grilling away. 

See how lovely that sauce cooks down!  

I was quite pleased. 

After 5 minutes or so, the wings were flipped 

and the other side was sauced for the last 5 minutes. 

The great thing about these wings, sauced and on foil, was that they weren't likely to dry out

in the event that they were overcooked. 

The skin, the sauce, the foil all were protecting the moisture of the wings! 

While the wings were finishing up, 

about 1/2 cup of ranch dressing was added to the reserved buffalo sauce to serve with the wings.  

These wings were stacked on a plate and devoured in no time!

I know next time I'll be making a double batch. 

RECIPE:

Ingredients:

2.5# of chicken wings

1/4 of Franks Red Hot Sauce

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 cup of mayonnaise 

1/2 cup of ranch dressing

Directions:

Preheat grill to 400F. 

Line grill with aluminum foil and spray generously. 

Lay out wings, cook for 20 minutes, turning once. 

• Make sauce by combining mayo, hot sauce and garlic powder. Reserve half for serving.

After 20 minutes, brush with buffalo sauce and grill for another 5 minutes. 

Flip and slather the buffalo sauce to the other side. 

Grill for 5 more minutes, until fully cooked.

• Add ranch dressing to the reserved buffalo sauce for dipping.

Serve 'em up and assure your wing-lovers that you'll be making more!

Mmmmm, Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Happy Monday, hope you had a glorious weekend.

Ours was basketball laden, but I'd much rather have the kids active and busy than yelling at each other over Minecraft ("Get out of my house!!!" has been shouted by each of my rascals). Please tell me I'm not the only one.

So, we had some families over on Saturday night to celebrate the conclusion (survival!?!) of another basketball season.

Whenever we have friends over (which I love to do!), I like to serve something convenient, yet homemade...so, many of you know that equals soup in my world.  But, since this was mostly guys/boys, I thought I'd opt for pizza, would hate to scare them off with too many veggies.

Started with some homemade pizza bites (string cheese and pepperoni rolled up in a crescent roll, baked for 10 minutes served with marinara, which the kids usually skip anyway) are generally a quick, no-mess option for the kids to grab while running through the kitchen or taking a break from a big game of horse.

I was also excited to experiment a bit with some pizza recipes while ensuring the the stand-bys are safely within reach for anyone who isn't quite as adventurous.

So, the first pie started with pizza sauce and added minced garlic. Most tomato/pizza/pasta sauces are waaaaaay too sweet for me, so no matter the brand, I always sprinkle in some minced garlic (and maybe even some grated onion) to balance out that sweetness that makes me cringe.

Continued to top with sausage, pepperoni, onions, red peppers and LOTS of cheese. My favorite part of cheese is when it is crispy and brown...me and the Maillard reaction, we are great friends!  It was tasty.

The crowd pleaser was the Buffalo Chicken Pizza.  The sauce should have been bleu cheese dressing...I have no idea how that one got away from me, I was aghast when I realized there wasn't any in the fridge or pantry.  No fear, queen of improvisation, just used ranch instead. Just as tasty and delightful.

Next, the cooked, chopped chicken was tossed in melted butter and hot sauce before being spread on the creamy dressing.  Then, added some chopped onion before layering with cheese.

Here is my lesson-learned through this first try at this...next time, use a little less dressing.  

Ranch, blue cheese, and other dairy based dressings have a tendency to run and spread when heated, unlike tomato based sauces...so, my pizza was noticeably larger in circumference coming out of the oven than going in. 

Still tasted great, but duh...somehow those scientific principles escaped me...perhaps it was whatever was in that coke that my husband served me.

I know we thoroughly enjoyed this tasty combination of guy-friendly foods into one happy marriage of buffalo chicken and pizza, give it a try and tell me how much they loved it!