We’re getting a little trashy today! Buffalo chicken for the win. I love love love spicy things and buffalo chicken wings are the bomb. But they’re also not great for you… So I’ve tried to lighten things up a little here with a baked, not fried version of them. And they’re not wings, because I figured they weren’t going to be easy to eat in a salad bowl and this is essentially a ridiculous chicken salad.
Instead of wings we’ve got home made chicken tender type things. I love making my own bread crumbs from whatever bread I’ve got, usually sourdough as I’m obsessed with it. But you could also use panko crumbs or something similar.
The slaw with these is super refreshing and just want you need with the crazy heat from that Frank’s hot sauce. I was considering making a blue cheese sauce with this and I might do that in the future, maybe in a wrap? Maybe gorgonzola? But back to the ranch. The ranch is light enough that you can use it to dress the slaw. And it also doubles as the first layer of the coating on the chicken trips. I love anything that can work double time for me.
I am a big fan of serving this in a salad bowl, you can cut the chicken strips up to make it easier to eat with just a fork. Serving it as a salad also allows me to feel virtuous about eating buffalo chicken. Well maybe not virtuous, but still. Here’s to the trashiest salad to make it on to this blog yet. It can join the ranks of my crispy crunchy chicken salad (also fabulous).
Serves 4
Ingredients
500g chicken breast (2)
2 cups bread crumbs, you can make your own out of your favourite bread.
Ranch sauce
1.5 cups Greek yoghurt
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
120-150mls Franks hot sauce (you can use the leftover to drizzle of you’re a heat freak)
1 Tbs Greek yoghurt
Ranch slaw
1/2 small green cabbage
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onion
2/3 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
2tsp olive oil
2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 cup of the above ranch sauce
Directions
Butterfly, then cut each butterflied side into 3. Should have 7 strips for each breast 14 in total.
In a medium sized bowl mix together 1/2 cup of the yoghurt sauce and the chicken strips. Make sure they’re well coated and set aside for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place a wire rack on a baking tray.
Place bread crumbs in a wide bowl and coat 4 chicken of pieces at a time. Lightly press the bread crumbs into the chicken, you want on each piece. Once crumbed place on the wire rack and repeat with remaining chicken strips.
Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until crisp and turning golden.
Meanwhile combine cabbage parsley and onion in a bowl, add 1/3 cup of the remaining yoghurt sauce, the oil and vinegar. Toss to combine. Set aside.
In a small pot (but wide enough to fit a chicken tender). Heat the hot sauce gently until just simmering. Remove from heat, stir in yoghurt and 2 Tbs of water and set aside.
Remove chicken from the oven. Increase temperature to 200 degrees. One at a time place the chicken strips in the hot sauce, flip to coat other side the place back on the wire rack.
Once all the strips are coated return to the oven for 5 minutes to crisp up again.
Serve either as strips with the slaw and sauce on the side, or slice strips finely and place on top of ranch slaw in a bowl. Serve with extra ranch on the side.
HH. x
