Recipe: Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

When you can’t find it or order it…make it yourself. That’s a concept that’s fairly new to me. I’ve always be able to order it, in London. Now that I’m in the middle of the countryside, and uberEats and Deliveroo don’t stretch this far, I’ve had to pluck up the courage to make things I’m craving all by myself. I’ve always missed buffalo wings, living in the UK. The only guys that create anything like the original are the guys from The Orange Buffalo. Knowing I was missing their food truck and restaurant (I’m a regular), they sent me some of their sauce. Rather than just throwing this on some wings bought from Tesco, I thought I had to do the sauce justice and create an American favourite – the Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad. I made it last week for the two of us to have for dinner. I’ll be honest and say that I was making it more for myself. I’m obsessed with Buffalo Chicken. Obsessed.

I did, however, have one hiccup. I needed to make my own blue cheese sauce. The stuff you buy here in supermarkets is way off! So after trying four different recipes online, I came up with a combination that is, in my opinion, perfection. It’s as close to the sauce you get with wings in dive bars in the USA as I can remember. And trust me, dive bars are always the best for wings and blue cheese sauce!

So here, we go! I hope you enjoy this! Everything is from scratch minus the buffalo sauce. And if you’re in the USA, Frank’s Red Hot Wings Sauce will be an ok substitute for the Orange Buffalo Sauce….until these guys go global! Dear Orange Buffalo….can I open your first outpost in Beaufort, South Carolina?

First things first, let’s outline what you’ll need to make the recipe:

Ingredients:

To make the buffalo chicken:

• Orange Buffalo wing sauce (if you’re in the USA, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce)
• 1 lb boneless  & skinless chicken breasts
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt & pepper
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup corn flour (corn starch in the US)
• vegetable oil

To make the blue cheese:

• 1 cup of blue cheese, crumbled
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup Hellman’s Mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp Milk (whole or semi is fine)
• pinch of salt & pepper

To make the salad:

• Your choice of salad leaves. I usually pick up a mixed leaf bag of salad.

Now, a few words on safety before we get started. And I feel like I need to share this as the first time I tried frying chicken, I nearly spilt a whole boiling pot of oil all over my feet. I get shivers just thinking about it.

So, I want to say this first and foremost. Use the back burner for frying! Keep the handle to the side where you won’t budge it, and please make sure there aren’t children around. Now, if you have a fryer, this is easy peasy for you. This message is for people like me, perhaps trying this for the first time, that need to know that hot oil is dangerous and should be worked with carefully over a stove. That’s my only health and safety disclosure. Now, let’s get cooking.

Recipe for the Buffalo Chicken:

1. Heat oil in a pan (I use one 1L vegetable oil in a medium size pot) to 350F.
2. Mix your flour and cornstarch in a large shallow bowl.
3. Mix eggs, with a pinch of salt and pepper, in a separate bowl.
4. Now it’s time for the wash: place each chicken in the egg mixture, fully submerged. Follow the egg bath by dropping the chicken in the flour mixture and make sure each piece is completely covered in coating before removing.
5. Depending on the size of your frying pot/pan, add 7-10 pieces of chicken to the hot oil. (note: I might be the only person alive to get a kick out of this…but I love that first fry up sound around the chicken hitting the oil…). Fry for five minutes.
6. Remove the chicken from the oil with a perforated serving spoon and allow to drain on a paper towel covered plate.
7. Repeat until all chicken is fried.
8. Add all of the fried chicken to a large bowl.
9. Pour your buffalo wing sauce over the chicken and toss (or stir).

Recipe for the blue cheese:

1. Combine the mayo, sour cream, milk, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Crumble 1 cup of blue cheese atop the mixture
3. Stir and you’re done. (you thought that was going to be harder didn’t you?)

Putting together the salad:

1. Cover plates with your mixed salad.
2. Top with buffalo chicken.
3. Drizzle your blue cheese atop the chicken.
4. Drool over your creation for a second then sit down and devour it! That’s an order 😉

That’s it. Easy peasy!

For clean up, remember to dispose of your fried oil properly! For plate cleanup, there’s no shame in licking every single bit of sauce away yourself!

Enjoy and let me know how you get on!

For those interested, here’s a little picture recap of the recipe in the making…