Chicken with Creamy Buffalo Sauce

Golden brown chicken bites, drenched in a spicy, cheesy, Buffalo sauce. Be warned: You'll be licking the plate clean. Plus, you need just 1 skillet and about 20 minutes. A quick and easy dinner solution that pleases the entire crowd!
About the cheese: I didn't want this dreamy sauce to be a simple concoction of "creamy hot sauce", so I added just enough cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) to create a thick, rich, gooey sauce - the cheese adds flavor and consistency, and doesn't compete at all with the heat of the hot sauce. In fact, the cheese and heat partner beautifully.

About the heat: The best part about this dish is that you can make the sauce as mild or as hot as you like, which works well when you have little ones (or mild food-lovers) in the house. We like heat in my family, so I used about 2 1/2 tablespoons of hot sauce. I also served the chicken with extra hot sauce on the side (I brought the bottle to table). Turns out, none of us added more - the sauce was just right!

Benefit of using one skillet: The cream sauce is made in the same skillet used to brown the chicken pieces. This not only makes for speedy cleanup, it makes a better sauce - as you whisk the butter-flour roux and milk together, you incorporate the brown bits from the seared chicken (from the bottom of the pan) - which adds another great layer of flavor to sauce.

I served the chicken and creamy sauce over toasted French baguette slices (I brushed the slices with olive oil and toasted them - on a baking sheet - in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes). I didn't plan to eat this meal with my hands, but that's what we ended up doing! We spooned the chicken and sauce onto the bread and went to town.  You'll definitely want something to soak up the sauce - so try the bread idea, or serve the chicken/sauce with rice, pasta, quinoa, or couscous.

I was going to garnish this dish with chopped scallions right before serving - but the broccoli was so fresh and vibrant-looking, I decided to pinch a few nibbles off the florets and use those instead. Plus, I didn't have any scallions...

Chicken with Creamy Buffalo Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
Salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2-3 tablespoons hot sauce (I used Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/3 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until golden brown on all sides, stirring frequently. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Return the skillet to medium-high heat and add the butter to the pan. When the butter is melted and bubbly, whisk in the flour (and incorporate any chicken bits from the bottom of the pan). When the butter-flour mixture is smooth, whisk in the milk. Bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the hot sauce, onion powder and garlic powder. Cook for 1 minute, until the sauce thickens. Add the mozzarella and parmesan cheeses and stir until the cheese melts. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve the chicken and sauce over toasted bread, pasta, rice, couscous, or quinoa.
Serves 4

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